Hunan province sits in south-central China, a place most travellers pass through on their way to Guilin or the Yangtze. That is a mistake. Hunan's star attraction is Wulingyuan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where over 3,100 sandstone pillars rise more than 200 metres above forested gorges — the landscape that inspired the floating mountains in Avatar. The pillars are often wrapped in mist, and the area includes ravines, waterfalls, natural bridges (one rising 360 metres above the valley floor), and some forty caves. Yellow Dragon Cave, extending over 11 kilometres, features a 50-metre underground waterfall.
The provincial capital, Changsha, is worth a stop for the Hunan Provincial Museum, which houses the remarkable Han-era tomb of Lady Dai (Xin Zhui), who died around 160 BC. Her body was so well preserved that the skin was still soft and pathologists could determine her cause of death. Changsha is also where Mao Zedong studied and began his political career — the Qingshui Tang complex preserves his former residence and the first local Communist Party offices. His birthplace at Shaoshan, 90 kilometres southwest, draws a steady stream of Chinese visitors.
Hunan's cuisine — fiery, vinegar-laced, and built on chilli peppers — is one of China's great regional styles and reason enough to linger.
Destinations
- Changsha — the provincial capital, with the unmissable Hunan Provincial Museum
- Wulingyuan — the spectacular sandstone pillar landscape that inspired Avatar
- Zhangjiajie — gateway city for the Wulingyuan scenic area
- Tianmen Mountain — famous for its glass skywalk and Heaven Gate Cave
- Shaoshan — Mao Zedong's birthplace, a pilgrimage site for Chinese visitors
- Fenghuang — a beautifully preserved ancient river town of the Miao people
- Mount Heng — one of China's Five Sacred Mountains, dotted with temples
- Yueyang — home to the celebrated Yueyang Tower on Dongting Lake
- Hengyang — a regional city with significant WWII history
- Changde — gateway to the Peach Flower Garden of Tao Yuanming's poem
- Dehang — a remote Miao gorge village known for its waterfall and rice terraces
- Furong — the film location of Hibiscus Town, with dramatic waterfalls
- Yongzhou — a quieter city known for Tang dynasty connections and the Nüshu script culture
- Jiangyong — home of Nüshu, the world's only script invented by and for women
- Zhuzhou — an industrial city with a scenic riverfront and traditional temples
- Laosicheng — a UNESCO World Heritage tusi chieftain capital hidden in the mountains
- Zhangguying — a remarkable Ming-dynasty village complex, one of China's finest
- Huaihua — a transit hub near the site of Japan's 1945 surrender in China
