The Hunanese have long been known for temperaments that, similar to their cuisine, are salty and fiery.

Changsha, as the province's largest city and now its capital, has long held such characters within its "walls", making it an area that has never been known for stability. The city of Changsha is most famous for the inhabitants who have spent time here, many of them political separatists or dissidents in their time, and for the educational institutions that the area has housed. The history of Changsha is therefore very much marked by the suppression and violent retribution of its often well educated inhabitants.

Changsha city first came into being as a small town, over 3000 years ago, when it was known as Qinyang, and was initially established for its excellent location.
Lying on the banks of the Xiang River (Xiang jiang), a tributary of China's "snaking dragon", the Yangtse (Chang jiang), and surrounded by the most fertile of the Hunan plains, the town was to flourish through river trade and the production of bountiful crops. By the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), the city had grown enough to become the southern, and main, capital of the Chu Kingdom, when the city was renamed Chu. Infractions and rebellions were rife in this period (the fiery Hunanese again) and it was not until the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), swept through here, that the Changsha returned to any form of stability. The Qin were to name the city Changsha, literally Long Sands, after the Island of Oranges (Juzi zhou), a long sandy spit that dominates the river in this section.
For much of the rest of its ancient history Changsha was to remain fairly unstable, although prosperous. It became known as an educational center, most notably after the famous Song Dynasty (960-1279) Yuelu Academy was established. This academy, that produced such famous figures as the great Chinese thinker Zhu Xi, who was a founding father of the then modern Imperial examinations, was to become the leading school for Imperial scholars. This site can still be visited. In 1664, Changsha was named provincial capital.
The modern era has seen vast changes. The Treaty of Shanghai (1903) opened the city to foreign trade and both Europeans and Americans were to swarm in, erecting educational institutions, houses, churches and factories. This was nearing the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and the crumbling signs of all ending Chinese dynasties was soon to follow. The fiery Hunanese were again to raise their heads, in a peasant uprising that was to destroy much of the Changsha city. By the time things settled down again it was the turn of the Civil and Anti-Japanese War instability to test the Changsha, and Nationalist (Guomindang) troops were happy to oblige by destruction of most of what was left.
Nowadays, the most famous of the fiery Hunanese, is the both beloved and reviled leader of the revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong. The chairman spent time in the Changsha city during a period between 1911, at the fall of the Qing empire, and 1923, when he was driven from the city for his political associations. The Chairman still dominates the sights of this capital, a city (population around 6 million), that is now somewhat tidier and radically changed from its past. Bisected unevenly by the slow-flowing Xiang River, with the center of the Changsha city, the railway station, bus station and most of the sights to the east, modern day Changsha is still worth spending a day or so in, if you are at all interested in the new communist era. The fiery Hunanese are surprisingly friendly when you get to know them, and the chance to wander in Chairman Mao's footsteps has to be somewhat tempting.