For many travellers, their experience of Hunan (湖南, húnán) is a pastiche of the tourist image of rural China – a view of endless muddy tracts or paddy fields rolling past the train window, coloured green or gold depending on the season. But the bland countryside, or rather the peasants farming it, has greatly affected the country’s recent history. Hunan’s most famous peasant son, Mao Zedong, saw the crushing poverty inflicted on local farmers by landlords and a corrupt government, and the brutality with which any protests were suppressed. Though Mao is no longer accorded his former god-like status, monuments to him litter the landscape around the provincial capital Changsha, which is a convenient base for exploring the areas where he spent his youth. By contrast, the historical town of Yueyang in northern Hunan, where the Yangzi meanders past Dongting Hu, China’s second largest lake, offers more genteel attractions. Both Hunan and Hubei – literally “south of the lake” and “north of the lake” respectively – take their names from this vast expanse of water, which also provided the origins of dragon-boat racing. South of Changsha, Heng Shan houses a pleasant assortment of mountain temples, while Wulingyuan Scenic Reserve in the far west boasts inspiringly rugged landscapes. A few hours south of here lies the picturesque town of Fenghuang, where you’ll find remnants of the Southern Great Wall.
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Wulingyuan (Zhangjiajie)
Wulingyuan (Zhangjiajie)
Hidden away in the northwestern extremities of Hunan, Wulingyuan Scenic Reserve (武陵源风景区, wŭlíngyuán fēngjĭngqū), widely known as Zhangjiajie (张家界, zhāngjiājiè), protects a mystical landscape of sandstone shelves and fragmented limestone towers, often misted in low clouds and scored by countless streams, with practically every horizontal surface hidden under a primeval, subtropical green mantle. It’s so otherworldly that it is claimed (spuriously) these pinnacles provided inspiration for the landscapes in James Cameron’s movie Avatar. The park however, is stunning enough without the injection of science fiction: among the 550-odd tree species (twice Europe’s total) within its 370 square kilometres are rare dove trees, ginkgos and dawn redwoods – the last identified by their stringy bark and feathery leaves; now popular as an ornamental tree, until 1948 they were believed extinct. The wildlife list is impressive, too, including civets, giant salamanders, monkeys and gamebirds. The region is also home to several million ethnic Tujia, said by some to be the last descendants of western China’s mysterious prehistoric Ba kingdom. On the downside, despite the UNESCO World Heritage listing, a total fire ban (smoking included) and a generous number of erosion-resistant paths, Wulingyuan is beginning to suffer from its popularity. Depending on your point of view, the giant Heavenly Elevator constructed up the side of one of the peaks (at 326m, by some reckoning the tallest in the world) is either a wonder of modern engineering or an outrageous blot on an otherwise unspoilt landscape; as well, more accessible parts of the reserve are often almost invisible under hordes of litter-hurling tour groups, despite the exorbitant admission fee.
