The childhood home where Mao Zedong grew up is the centrepiece of Shaoshan and one of the most-visited historical sites in China. The farmhouse has packed-earth walls, a courtyard, and a series of rooms furnished as they would have appeared during his childhood in the late Qing period — sleeping areas, cooking spaces, agricultural tools, and the sparse objects of a rural Hunan household. English-language information panels are available throughout.
The crowds are substantial on weekends and peak seasons, but the house itself is genuinely evocative. Whatever one thinks of its most famous resident, the contrast between this modest farmhouse and the scale of power he eventually exercised is arresting. The walk from the village entrance to the house is lined with souvenir vendors selling every conceivable Mao-themed object; the level of commercial activity around a communist leader's birthplace is not without its own historical irony.