Travel Ten Thousand Miles, Read Ten Thousand Books—Changsha

A group of nine of us embarked on a CityWalk during the Spring Festival holiday,

fulfilling our 2020 trip to Changsha.

01 Transportation: Self-drive trip, cost 1000 per family

We originally planned to take the high-speed rail, but we couldn't get return tickets for the seventh day of the holiday for a long time. So we reluctantly canceled the outbound high-speed rail tickets and chose to drive from Nanjing to Changsha.

Outbound trip: Normal.

We made a stop in Nanchang, taking the chance to admire from afar the beautiful scene of "a single wild duck flies with the setting sun, and the autumn waters merge with the vast sky."

Return trip: We drove from morning to morning, a full 23 hours—a new record.

Despite mental preparation in advance, we were on the verge of collapse.

Accommodation: Focused on value for money, cost 530 per night

Orange Qingyue Hotel upgraded us to a family room for free.

The hotel is just steps from Xiangya Hospital Metro Station,

a 7-minute walk to Hunan Museum,

and Changsha Metro accepts Alipay.

Itinerary: Standard recommended attractions, each must be reserved in advance

Yuelu Academy—Yuelu Mountain, Wuyi Square (Taiping Street, Pozi Street, Huangxing Pedestrian Street), Orange Isle, Hunan Museum.

Hunan Museum opens reservations at 8 PM one week in advance—tickets are snapped up instantly.

If you really can't get a free ticket, you can enter Hunan Museum by purchasing a ticket for a paid exhibition.

Yuelu Academy tickets must be purchased in advance, 40 yuan each; children under 14 enter free with an adult.

Yuelu Mountain and Orange Isle require reservations three days in advance.

The full tour bus on Orange Isle opens for paid reservations at 8 AM on the day, costing 40 yuan per person.

It seems tickets are also available on-site for some.

Wenheyou also requires reservations during Spring Festival; we didn't prepare enough and gave up decisively.

I must say traveling requires following too many official accounts—not very user-friendly.

Not preparing in advance is really unfriendly.

02 Some people like Orange Isle, with the spirit of a young great man pointing out the nation's direction;

some like Wuyi Square, full of the hustle and bustle of everyday life;

…As for me, I like Hunan Museum and Yuelu Academy, with stories from the ages.

The Lei Vessel: It's a vessel with a story.

It was actually a Shang dynasty wine vessel.

It was unearthed by a farmer in the 8th year of the Republic of China (1919), consisting of a body and a lid.

Lid: Stayed in China and passed through various hands, returning to Hunan Museum in 1956.

Body: Sold to a merchant from Yiyang in the 13th year of the Republic (1924), then began its overseas journey. After multiple transfers and auctions across several countries, it was finally acquired through arduous negotiations from Christie's New York in 2014.

The body returned to China and was reunited with the lid, now housed together in Hunan Museum.

This journey home was difficult and long, a full 90 years.

Time brings great changes, and it tells its story in its unique way.

The Mawangdui Tombs are actually the burial site of Li Cang, the Marquis of Dai during the Western Han dynasty, along with his wife and son.

The exhibition hall displays artifacts unearthed from the wife's tomb.

It shows us the splendid life of the Western Han aristocracy over 2,000 years ago:

Powder puffs and wigs from makeup boxes, leisure game boards, exotic delicacies, fruits and vegetables… Anything you can imagine, they had—nothing is missing.

The old lady's life truly makes one envious!

Among them, the wife's plain silk garment has become the museum's treasure; the only surviving piece weighs 49 grams, a world record.

Lady Xin Zhui pursued immortality all her life—perhaps this is another form of eternal life!

When Nengdouzi and I discussed her, we each had different ideas, without arguing who was right.

He has his own thoughts and opinions, sticking to his views—I'm very pleased!

The thousand-year cultural lineage continues, from Yuelu Academy to Hunan University,

passing on Huxiang culture and the spirit of scholarship.

Several plaques in the academy opened my eyes and made the saying "travel ten thousand miles, read ten thousand books" truly vivid:

The "Yuelu Academy" plaque at the main gate was personally inscribed by Emperor Zhenzong of Song.

The couplet on either side reads "Only Chu has talent" and "Here is the most prosperous."

The second gate bears the plaque "Famous Mountain Lecture Platform,"

with the couplet "Embraced by the great mountain forest" and "Hidden in the famous mountain."

The back of the second gate has the plaque "Xiaoxiang Scholar Market," written by Cheng Songwan.

Entering the third gate is actually the lecture hall; the plaque reads "Seek Truth from Facts."

Inside the lecture hall, two gilded wooden plaques hang in the center:

At the front, "Learning Reaches Heaven's Nature," bestowed by Emperor Kangxi,

At the back, "Orthodox Lineage of the South," bestowed by Emperor Qianlong.

In the middle is engraved "Yuelu Academy Record," written by Zhang Shi of the Southern Song, the fundamental outline for cultivating talent at Yuelu Academy.

On the lecture hall walls are the steles of "Loyalty, Filial Piety, Integrity, and Thrift," written by Zhu Xi and carved by the Qing dynasty headmaster Ouyang Houjun.

Figures like Zeng Guofan, Zhu Xi, Zuo Zongtang appear in the academy…

These are names that repeatedly appear in Nengdouzi's history textbooks,

and of course his favorite Wang Shouren, who also spread the philosophy of the mind here.

Some say travel is simply going from a place you're tired of to a place others are tired of—a bit cynical, yet somewhat true.

In my eyes: Travel is about seeing the scenery you want to see, walking the path you want to walk, and enjoying the different beauty of the world!