China Travel

Shaoshan, 100 km southwest of Changsha, is a mountain village with some fairly beautiful and birth place of the oft-lamented Mao Zedong. The village is adorned with propaganda, loudspeakers blare revolutionary songs and speeches to welcome approaching tourists. But aside from the novelty of being Mao's hometown, Shaoshan is not much more than a rural Hunan village.
 

Tourist attractions in town include the Former Residence of Mao Zedong (Mao Zedong Guju), the Ancestral Temple of the Mao Family, now Comrade Mao's Museum (Mao Zedong Tongzhi Jinianguan), Stone Steles covered with Mao's poems, and a Revolutionary Martyr's Cemetery. Mao's house is probably the most interesting. Entering through a courtyard, the house is a sunny yellow, mud brick walls, with a nicely thatched roof, and is found on a wooded hillside, above some lush paddy fields. You can visit all of the 13 rooms inside, that include a kitchen, a dining room, three family bedrooms, a guest room and an ancestral hall. Within the rooms are various personal effects of Mao and his parents, as well as photos from Mao's life.

If the propaganda gets too much, the area around the village is beautifully simple Hunan countryside, with small peasant houses scattered about the stepped paddyfields and bamboo groves. Dripping Water Cave (Dishui Dong), about 3 km northwest of the village, is a very popular destination, possibly because of the fact that Mao allegedly spent 11 days here in the early days of the Cultural Revolution Years (1966-76), contemplating the unknown. Even nicer however, is the ascent to Shaoshan Peak (Shaoshan Feng), the conical hill just to the northwest of the village. From the summit (1-2 hours on foot or more quickly by cable car RMB 20), you will have some good views over the village and Hunanese countryside.