Pozi Street is Changsha's main heritage commercial street, running through the old city centre with restored Qing and Republican-era facades lining a pedestrianised lane. The format — traditional architecture housing street food stalls, craft shops, and teahouses — is familiar from similar projects in other Chinese cities, but Changsha's version is denser and more genuinely food-focused than most. This is where locals come as much as tourists, particularly in the evenings.
The street's specialities include sugar-sand paintings, rice cakes, and the Changsha snacks that have acquired national fame through the city's television food culture. Vendor stalls sell chou doufu (stinky tofu) fried to order, spicy beef rice-flour noodles, and sweet osmanthus rice cakes. The back lanes off the main street are less crowded and often contain the best food: small shophouses with handwritten menus and no English, run by families who have occupied the same premises for decades. Evening is the best time; the crowds peak around 7-9 PM.