Hunan Travel Notes: Changsha China Xiang Embroidery Museum
On March 4, 2024, just after the Lantern Festival, we began our journey this year. The first stop was Changsha. Since the train tickets from Shangqiu to Changsha had inconvenient times and sleeper berths were hard to get, we bought lower berths on a train departing from Zhengzhou to Nanning, but it arrived at over 4 a.m., so we had to make do.
At 11:15 a.m. on March 4, we took train K4163, arriving at Zhengzhou Station at 2:50 p.m. Then we transferred to train K1627 departing from Zhengzhou at 4:32 p.m., arriving at Changsha Station at 4:30 a.m. on March 5. It was drizzling in Changsha. After exiting the station, we walked about 500 meters to check into the City Convenience Hotel near Changsha Railway Station. The hotel's practice made us a bit unhappy. We confirmed they had rooms. Generally, if you book a hotel and rooms are available, you can check in on the same day. However, the hotel clerk said we could only check in after 7 a.m., otherwise they would charge an extra 20 yuan per hour; for two hours that would be 40 yuan. We felt this was unreasonable, but the clerk insisted. Eventually, we compromised and paid an extra 20 yuan to be allowed to check in. This was the first time we encountered such a hotel policy.
Entering the room, because the weather was cold and damp, we turned on the central air conditioning heater, but it didn't get warm for a long time. We called the front desk again and changed to another room, which then heated up. We couldn't tell if the clerk was deliberately making things difficult. We went to bed and slept until 8 a.m., then got up, had a simple breakfast outside, and at 8:30 headed to the China Xiang Embroidery Museum for a visit. Since it wasn't our first time in Changsha and it was raining that day, we could only arrange indoor activities. Moreover, we had already visited the provincial museum and the city museum. The Xiang Embroidery Museum happened to be near our hotel, so it made sense to visit it.
We walked a short distance to the China Xiang Embroidery Museum, located in an inconspicuous small street. Although its name is quite grand, its appearance is just like a Xiang embroidery product company.
The China Xiang Embroidery Museum began preparation in 2006, taking four years. Its predecessors were the 'Wuyi Road Tianli Xiang Embroidery Art Gallery' and the 'Taiping Cultural Ancient Street Xiang Embroidery Art Gallery'. In March 2009, construction started at the Xiang Embroidery Cultural Square in Shaping Town, a 3A-level tourist attraction. The museum was relocated and rebuilt at the northwest corner of the cultural square, opening to the public on May 18, 2010. It is a professional museum showcasing the history and techniques of Xiang embroidery to the world. The exhibition hall covers 810 square meters, with a collection of over 1,200 pieces. It consists of three themed exhibition halls: 'Historical Origins of Xiang Embroidery', 'Rise of Xiang Embroidery', and 'Highlights of Contemporary Xiang Embroidery'. The exhibits vividly recreate the evolution of Xiang embroidery techniques and the exquisite works of earlier artisans, vividly introducing the development process of Xiang embroidery and contemporary masterpieces, showcasing a new look of embroidery art. On June 18, 2021, the new museum officially opened, with an exhibition area of about 2,000 square meters and over 4,000 collections. The exhibition theme is 'The Beauty of Hu-Xiang on the Needlepoint', composed of four thematic halls: Origin of the Needlepoint, Prosperity of the Needlepoint, Flourish of the Needlepoint, and Dream of the Needlepoint. As a traditional folk handicraft, Xiang embroidery has a history of over two thousand years. From a large number of embroidered pieces unearthed from the Warring States Chu tombs in Changsha and the Western Han Mawangdui tombs, we can glimpse that local Hunan embroidery techniques had already reached an astonishing level at that time. After long-term evolution, it has developed its own characteristics: based on Chinese painting, integrating Western painting techniques, using nearly a hundred stitching methods and multiple shades of embroidery threads to fully express the stitching effect on various base materials, meticulously depicting the external form and internal quality of objects. In the early 20th century, Xiang embroidery won many honors domestically and internationally for its unique style, becoming one of the four famous embroideries of China renowned worldwide. The Xiang Embroidery Museum was awarded 'Hunan Province's First Batch of Private Museums' by the Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, and is the first private museum in Hunan supporting the Xiang embroidery industry.
Among the excellent works on display, the Xiang embroidery masterpieces 'Lion' and 'Drinking Tiger', carefully developed using the unique 'Mao Zhen' (hair needle) technique, won the Gold Cup Award of the Chinese Arts and Crafts Hundred Flowers Award, and both were selected as national treasures of Chinese arts and crafts. The works 'Yang Guifei', 'Gazing at the Moon', and 'Birthday Greetings from the Immortals' etc. are collected by the state.
The museum is not large; it can be seen in about an hour. We exited the museum around 10 a.m. and took Metro Line 3 to the Xie Zilong Art Museum to continue our visit.
