Shaoshan, Where the Search for Young Mao Zedong Begins......

Statute of Mao in Village Square. Being an avid history buff I would not let an opportunity to visit Shaoshan the birth place of Mao Zedong slip pass even though it meant getting up from my comfortable bed at 5.00am to catch the 6.30am Changsha-Shaoshan once-a-day train. I too did not mind sacrificing Hunan Civil Aviation Hotel's scrumptious Hunanese breadfast with, among others, congee taken with fiery fried anchovies and long beans and Hunanese dry noodles with generous dollops of hot chillied spices.
I walked out of my hotel at 5.50am and walked briskly along Wu Yi Dadao which was much shrouded in ghostly mists with only my footsteps breaching the silence of the breaking dawn. It took me only six minutes to reach the gate leading to the train platform but many of the seats were already taken up by locals with their huge polystyrene bags containing all kinds of personal effects and tourists who were all travelling light for the day-trip to the shrine dedicated to Mao Zedong.
While waiting for the train to arrive I put my time to good use by munching the "pau" or Chinese pies (bought from the railway station's side-stalls) which are ubiquitious throughout China and most places where there are any sizable Chinese communities throughout the world. The "pau" stuffed with different kinds of meat or lotus seed or red bean paste or plain veggie inputs are standard breadfast fare.
At the centre of old Shaoshan is a gigantic statue of Mao Zedong. Hordes of Chinese would pay their almost mandatory obeisance to the Great Helmsman by bowing three times in front of the statue in the presence of a phalanx of young soldiers from the Peoples' Liberation Army.
The Ancestral Hall of the Maos. Shaoshan is about 100 kilometres south-west of Changsha. The journey took some three hours with two stops in between. The first stop was at the major rail cross-road town of Zhuzhou which took us 40 minutes to arrive. A number of locals hurriedly disgorged and the train quickly moved but it did not pull out much from the railway station as it seemed to be moving backwards and forwards but not pulling away. Only when it started really moving did I realise that the locomotive had been furiously shunting the train. I discovered that I was no longer facing the head of the train but the back. I naturally changed my seat.
The next stop was an obscure non-descript almost nameless hamlet where again the remaining locals disembarked. By 9.30am our train pulled into Shaoshan railway station. The rail came to a dead-end as the last sector of the railroad was specially constructed in the 1980s to enable the Chinese to gain easier access to the Great Helmsman's birth place. Another six kilometres separates the new railway side of Shaoshan from the old village of Shaoshan.
Just across the main village street from the statue of Mao is the ancestral hall of those bearing the surname of Mao. The building is now the Museum of Chairman Mao and there were many photos and exhibits which charted the career and the times and life of Mao.
The Childhood House of Mao Zedong. Next stop the ancestral house of Mao Zedong and his birth place. The house is made of mud-bricks with a thatched roof and a stable connected to the main house. It has many rooms including separate bed-rooms for Mao's parents and rooms for Mao and his brother. There is a barn and a pen. Inside the house are exhibits such as kitchen utensils, beds, odd pieces of furniture, furnishings and photos depicting his parents and young Mao. So Mao'Zedong came from a relatively well-to-do farming roots based on living standards of China in those days.
In front of his house is a pond and as was common then and even nowadays ducks and fish were be reared by the Mao family. The Stelea Park. A visit to Shaoshan would not be complete if one did not visit the forest of stele which contains many tablets some in old Chinese calligraphy depicting many poems written by Mao. The Stelea Park comprise three elevated levels and it leads visitors along a winding path up to the summit of Shao Hill Peak or Shaoshan Feng. But if you want to choose the easy way up the Peak you just need to walk up the concrete stairway to the base station of the Cable Car. For a small sum you can spare your leg muscles as well as your lungs from working on an over-drive mode. On arriving at the cable car destination you would be ushered to a Taoist temple with fierce-looking warrior-deities standing guard. A few structures away is a shrine with the images of Mao Zedong and a few of his unlabeled Mao ancestors. Most people chose to gather around a bed of boulders and rocks behind the temple to relax and enjoy a breath-taking view of the surrounding Shaoshan country-side.
The Pavilion at Peak of Shao Feng (Summit). After strolling along the winding stone pavements and entering in and moving out of the single-storey buildings the most dumb-wit thing to do is to walk up or run up a hundred or so steps up the summit of Shaoshan Hill Peak. After much huffing and puffing aren't you glad that you have arrived at the gates of a Pavilion which sits on top the the peak? An old Chinese bell welcomes you. There is nothing exceptional about the peak-top Pavilion other than that it affords you a majestic view of the hills and valleys and dotted villages. But you have already done that thing at less lofty heights without any sweat and deep breath. So the brainiest thing to do is to beat a hasty retreat by making your way to the cable car station and head for the Shaoshan Railway station unless you want to be a one-day prisoner in Shaoshan village. But can you do for the night? Changsha is therefore a much safer bet!