Wuyi Square is Changsha's commercial and transport hub, surrounded by the city's main shopping streets and connecting to the Xiang River promenade to the west. The square itself — a large open plaza with a theatre and department stores — is less interesting than the streets radiating from it, which concentrate restaurants, teahouses, street food vendors, and the dense commercial life of a busy Chinese city. Wuyi Road and Huangxing Road, running south from the square, have the highest concentration of Changsha's famous stinky tofu stalls and snack vendors.
The area around Wuyi Square is where Changsha eats, shops, and moves through. It is noisier and more hectic than the riverfront or the hilltop attractions, but this is also where you find the city's genuine character rather than its heritage presentation. The Changsha IFS towers — including a 452-metre skyscraper that is one of the tallest buildings in China — loom over the old commercial streets as a marker of how fast the city has grown. Wuyi Square station (metro Line 2) is the most convenient starting point for the city centre.