Changsha Metro

地铁About this metro system

Changsha Metro serves the capital of Hunan province, a city of eight million on the Xiang River whose modern significance is partly as the birthplace of Mao Zedong — the nearby village of Shaoshan, accessible by train, is one of China's most visited political heritage sites. The metro opened its first line in 2014 and has grown steadily as the city's economy has expanded.

Line 2 is the main spine for visitors: it connects Changsha South Railway Station (the Beijing–Guangzhou high-speed hub) to the Wuyi Square commercial centre, the Five Pagodas area, and the Meixi Lake cultural district. Line 4 serves Yuelu Mountain and the Yuelu Academy, a Song dynasty institution considered one of the Four Great Academies of ancient China, and continues to Orange Island — the 5-kilometre-long sandbar in the Xiang River where a giant stone sculpture of a young Mao Zedong's head gazes across the water.

Changsha has also become one of China's leading street-food destinations, known for Hunan cuisine's distinctive use of fresh chillies (rather than Sichuan's dry spice) in dishes including fish-head hotpot, chairman mao red-braised pork, and stinky tofu. The Taiping Street old town eating district is accessible by Line 1.