Experience the Vibrant City: Changsha

When people talk about Changsha nowadays, they often say it's full of vitality and its nightlife is incredibly colorful. Actually, it shouldn't be this way—shouldn't a vibrant sleepless city belong to Shanghai? But somehow it has become such a hot destination. Driven by curiosity, a few of us Shanghai guys in our sixties took a high-speed train to experience it, hoping to catch the tail of our youth.

Orange Isle is a long, narrow island lying in the Xiangjiang River within Changsha's urban area. It stretches five kilometers from north to south and is about 100 meters wide from east to west. Lying across the river, it splits the Xiangjiang into two branches before they merge again.

Under a clear sky, people leisurely fly kites.

Orange Isle is a green oasis rich in history, the cradle where a great man was born. It is where their ideals set sail, where their poetry and distant dreams began. The magnificent poem "Changsha·Spring in a Pleasure Garden" records the lofty aspirations of the great man and a group of young classmates "rowing against the current" and "pointing to the landscape" here.

Old houses on the island

Bookstore on the island

Buildings along the Xiangjiang River

Yuelu Mountain gets its name from a record in the "Southern Mountain Record" of the Liu Song dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties: "The Southern Mountain spans 800 li, with Huiyan as its head and Yuelu as its foot." It is a base for spreading Huxiang culture and a model base for patriotic education. Within the scenic area, there are historical sites such as Yuelu Academy, Ancient Lushan Temple, and Aiwan Pavilion, footprints of great figures like Chairman Mao and Cai Hesen, tombs of famous people like Huang Xing and Cai E, and a religious culture integrating Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.

Yuelu Academy is located on the campus of Hunan University at the foot of Yuelu Mountain. In 2005, Hunan University changed the Yuelu Academy Cultural Research Institute to Yuelu Academy, admitting undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students.

As one of the oldest academies in the world, its ancient academy buildings have been completely preserved. The plaque with the characters "岳麓书院" (Yuelu Academy) is the authentic calligraphy of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song dynasty.

Yuelu Mountain covers an area of 35 square kilometers and has an elevation of 300 meters. It is a national key scenic spot and a national 5A tourist attraction.

Aiwan Pavilion was originally named Red Leaf Pavilion, also known as Love Maple Pavilion. Later, it was renamed after the artistic conception of Du Mu's Tang poem: "I stop the carriage and sit to enjoy the evening maple grove, the frosty leaves are redder than the flowers of February." It was rebuilt in 1952, and the current plaque with the characters "爱晚亭" (Aiwan Pavilion) was inscribed by Chairman Mao.

Ancient Lushan Temple is the earliest relic of Buddhism's introduction to Hunan. It was built in the Western Jin dynasty, with a history of 1,700 years. It was destroyed by Japanese fire in 1944, and the current mountain gate and Guanyin Pavilion are original remains.

Hunan Museum is one of China's eight major national museums. The complete replication of the Mawangdui tomb pits inside the museum is truly impressive and rarely seen in other museums.

The legend of Lady Xin Zhui's corpse remaining intact for over a thousand years has been deciphered, but future generations may never be able to replicate it. As a visitor, I have no intention to disturb; I can only feel reverence.

The plain gauze garment weighing only 49 grams unearthed from Lady Xin Zhui's tomb cannot be replicated.

Example diagram of the tomb structure

Besides the cultural relics from the Mawangdui Han tomb, there are many other treasures in the museum, all exhibited in the "Hunan People - Three Xiang History and Culture Exhibition."

Uniquely shaped bronze vessels

Treasure of the museum - a rare blue-and-white porcelain from the Yuan dynasty, with a story: the painting depicts the story of General Meng Tian and prisoners.

Wenheyou reflects the living scenes of the 1980s and 1990s, at the beginning of reform and opening up. For us and today's children, it is a return after separation and sorting out, a way of life we once had.

Chaozong Street is named because it faces the Chaozong City Gate, also known as Caochangmen Main Street. It is located in Kaifu District, starting from Beizheng Street (now Huangxing North Road) in the east and ending at Xiangjiang Avenue in the west. It is one of the only three remaining granite streets in Changsha. "Chao Zong" means worshiping ancestors. In the old days, many porters who sold river water gathered at the street entrance, and the street was always covered with river water, so "Chao" evolved into "Chao" (tide).

Taiping Street is located in the southern part of Changsha's old town. The block takes Taiping Street as its main axis. It is a historically and culturally significant block with historical sites such as Jia Yi's Former Residence, Changhuai Well, and the West Archway of the Ming Jifan Prince's Mansion, as well as some old residential buildings with black tiles and white walls. Here you can find traces of old Changsha. It is also a famous food street in Changsha, where both century-old shops and newly emerged specialty shops are worth trying.

Changsha Pozijie Street has a history of over 1,200 years. It is a truly ancient street and a representative of Huxiang culture. It connects Wuyi Commercial Circle, West Liberation Road Bar Street, and Huangxing South Road Pedestrian Street. It has become an iconic commercial and cultural street in Changsha that inherits Huxiang culture and leads the trend of the times, as well as a famous folk food street with influence and reputation both domestically and internationally.

Huangxing Road Pedestrian Street is one of the busiest areas in Changsha. It includes nearly 10,000 square meters of Huangxing Square and is a comprehensive place integrating shopping, leisure, entertainment, dining, culture, and tourism. It also gathers snacks and foods from all over the country.

Yangfan Night Market is distributed in a cross shape, about 300 meters long from north to south and about 270 meters long from east to west, with a total booth length of 1,050 meters and more than 370 specialty shops. Yangfan Night Market is very similar to Taiwan's Shilin Night Market. Stalls appear around 6 p.m., mainly selling snacks, along with other daily necessities. Most of the products are internet-famous items loved by young people. The bustling crowd carries a lively atmosphere of fireworks.

My three-day trip to Changsha showed me the vitality of the city, but I always believe that every city has its origin and cultural accumulation, and there is always something worth seeing, from which one can read a bit of the city's temperament. Orange Isle, Yuelu Academy, and Hunan Museum left me with a sense of historical weight, each detail seeming like a memory and witness of an era. The liveliness of streets like Taiping Street, Pozijie, and Yangfan Night Market gave me a feeling of the city's vitality. Sometimes, an encounter with a city happens only once, but its history, culture, architecture, streets, food... always leave traces in the heart.