Changsha

Changsha, city and capital of Hunan sheng (province), China. It is on the Xiang River 30 miles (50 km) south of Dongting Lake and has excellent water communications to southern and southwestern Hunan. The area has long been inhabited, and Neolithic sites have been discovered in the district since 1955. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 1,562,204; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 2,604,000.

History

During the 1st millennium bce the area was the centre of the southern part of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley state of Chu. In 1935–36 some Chu graves excavated nearby produced important evidence of Chu culture. The city’s most ancient name was Qingyang. Under the Qin dynasty (221–207 bce) it became a staging post for Qin expeditions into Guangdong province. From Han times (206 bce–220 ce) it was named Linxiang county and was the seat of the Changsha commandery. The county was renamed Changsha in 589, when it became the administrative seat of Tan prefecture. It lost some importance at that time, however, because traffic from Guangdong was mostly diverted up the Gan River valley in Jiangxi. After the fall of the Tang dynasty (618–907), it became the capital of the independent Chu state (927–951) that subsequently fell to other regional powers until being incorporated into the Song dynasty (960–1279). Between 750 and 1100, as Changsha became an important commercial city, the population of the area increased tenfold.

Under the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911/12) dynasties it was made a superior prefecture, and from 1664 onward it was the capital of Hunan and prospered as one of China’s chief rice markets. During the Taiping Rebellion the city was besieged by the rebels (1854) but never fell; it then became the principal base for the suppression of the rebellion. Changsha was opened to foreign trade in 1904. It also became the seat of some Western schools, including a missionary medical college. Further development followed the opening of the railway to Hankou in Hubei province in 1918, which was extended to Guangzhou (Canton) in Guangdong province in 1936. Although Changsha’s population grew, the city remained primarily commercial in character and before 1937 had little industry, apart from some small cotton-textile, glass, and nonferrous-metal plants and handicraft enterprises.

During the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) Changsha was the site of three major battles. The city itself was virtually destroyed by fire in 1938–39, and it was captured by the Japanese in 1944.

The contemporary city

Changsha was rebuilt after 1949, and its population nearly tripled between the late 1940s and the early 1980s and essentially doubled again in the succeeding two decades. The city is now a major port, handling rice, cotton, timber, and livestock, and is also a collection and distribution point on the railway from Hankou to Guangzhou. It is a centre of rice milling and has oil-extraction, tea- and tobacco-curing, and meat-processing plants. Its textile industry produces cotton yarn and fabrics and engages in dyeing and printing. Agricultural chemicals and fertilizers, farm implements, and pumping machinery are also produced.

Changsha has a large thermal generating station linked by a power grid with the nearby industrial centres of Zhuzhou and Xiangtan; the three cities were designated in the 1970s as the nucleus of a major industrial complex. In the 1960s there was some development of heavy industry. The manufacture of machinery, especially machine tools and precision tools, became important, and Changsha emerged as a centre of China’s aluminum industry. The city also has cement, rubber, ceramic, and papermaking plants and is known for many types of traditional handicrafts, producing xiang embroidery, leather goods, umbrellas, and buttons. Coal is mined in the vicinity.

Changsha was the seat of many ancient schools and academies. It is the site of Hunan Medical University (1914) and has several colleges and institutes of higher learning. The Hunan Provincial Museum houses artifacts from the many ancient tombs in the vicinity, including the well-known Changsha Mawangdui Tomb of the Hsi (Western) Han period (206 bce–25 ce), discovered in the 1970s. Among the many renowned scenic spots in the vicinity are Orange Isle (Juzi Zhou) in the Xiang River and the Yuele Hills on the river’s western bank.