Changsha长沙

Changsha was once called Tanzhou and carries over 2,400 years of urban history, one of the cradles of Chu culture. Yuelu Academy was founded in 976 during the Northern Song, one of China's Four Great Academies alongside Yingtian, Bailudong and Songyang academies, and it remains part of Hunan University today, its lecture halls in near-continuous use for over a thousand years. Modern Changsha wears an entirely different face: Chayan Yuese grew from a single local shop into a nationwide chain, Super Wenheyou rebuilt old Changsha's streetscape inside a five-story mall, Jiefangxi Road's bar strip is often called one of the country's liveliest nightlife stretches, and Hunan Satellite TV has made the city the de facto capital of Chinese TV entertainment. Old and new, spicy and sweet, scholarly and street-smart — in Changsha none of it cancels the other out.

Culture

A thousand-year academy and a Han-tomb archaeological wonder, in the same city

• Founded in 976, Yuelu Academy is one of China's largest and best-preserved ancient academies
• Excavated in 1972, the Mawangdui tombs yielded the astonishingly preserved body of Lady Xin Zhui and a Western Han silk painting that still holds its original color — a wonder of world archaeology
• The Tongguan kilns on the city's edge were among the earliest in China to fire underglaze polychrome porcelain, exported as far as the Middle East in the Tang dynasty
• Hunan Satellite TV has made Changsha the de facto capital of Chinese TV entertainment — locals half-jokingly call it "the Mango TV city"

Food & Flavor

Hunan cuisine's fire, and a whole city's late-night snack habit

• Steamed fish head with chopped chili and crayfish stir-fry are Hunan cuisine's flagship dishes — spicy and savory
• Stinky tofu smells terrible and tastes great — Huogongdian is the classic old-name shop
• Chayan Yuese milk tea and Super Wenheyou both originated in Changsha and are now nationwide phenomena
• Changsha has ranked for years among China's "happiest cities" surveys — food and nightlife are a big part of why

Everyday Life

Scholarly by day, wide awake by night

• The Yuelu university district (Hunan University, Central South University, Hunan Normal University) has an academic, quieter feel
• Jiefangxi Road's bar strip stays loud until 2 or 3am — the center of local nightlife
• Wuyi Square and Huangxing Road pedestrian street form the old-town commercial core, and where most out-of-town visitors cluster