Changsha (Simplified Chinese: é•¿æ²™; Traditional Chinese: é•·æ²™; Hanyu Pinyin: ChángshÄ?; Wade-Giles: Chang-sha) is the capital of Hunan, a province of Southcentral China, located on the lower reaches of Xiangjiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River. It covers an area of 11,819 sq. kilometers and has a population of 6,017,600 (2003 population census).
The earliest settlement was probably founded in the first millennium BC. By 202 BC it was already a fortified city. During the Han Dynasty it was also the capital of Changsha kingdom.
The celebrated Ma-Wang-Dui (é¦¬çŽ‹å †) Tombs of the Han Dynasty were constructed between 186 and 165 BC. The earliest tomb (no. 2), when excavated in the 1970s, had preserved the corpse of Lady Xin-Zhui in a surprisingly good condition. Also found in the tomb were the earliest versions of Dao-De-Jing written by Lao Zi, and many other historical documents.
During the Sui Dynasty, Changsha was a county.
Yuelu Academy (岳麓书院) was founded in AD 976 (Song Dynasty), destroyed by war in 1127, and rebuilt in 1165 (Southern Song Dynasty). The celebrated philosopher Zhu Xi (朱熹) taught in this school in 1165. The school was destroyed by the Mongols but restored again in the late 15th century (Ming Dynasty). In 1903 it became Hunan High School. The modern day Hunan University is a descendant of the academy. The architecture of some of the buildings was restored from 1981–1986, presumably according to the Song design.
The 1903 Treaty of Shanghai between China and Japan opened the city to foreign trade. Consequently, factories, churches and schools were built. A college built by Yale University later became a medical center named Xiangya, a secondary school named Yali.
Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China began his political career in Changsha. He was a student at the Hunan Number 1 Teachers' Training School from 1913 to 1918. He later returned as a teacher and principal from 1920 to 1922. The school was destroyed during the civil war but has since been restored. The Former Office of the Hunan Communist Party Central Committee where Mao Zedong once lived is now a museum that includes Mao's living quarters, photographs and other historical items from the 1920s.
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