Tianxin District 天心区

Setting and landscape

The district is long from north to south, more than 20 kilometres, and narrow from east to west, with 32 kilometres of Xiang River shore. Its northern edge is Wuyi Road (五一路), and the midline of the river's main channel forms its western boundary with Yuelu District (岳麓区). The ground rises gently in the centre and flattens towards the river in the west, with red-earth ridges. Two sandbars in the Xiang, Ezhou (鹅洲) and Xingmazhou (兴马洲), belong to the district. The Tianxin eco-city (天心生态新城) fills the south, and part of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan ecological green heart lies in the district.

History

Under the Qin the area belonged to Linxiang county (临湘县) in Changsha commandery, and the Han king Wu Rui (吴芮) made Linxiang the capital of his Changsha kingdom. In 1098 a separate county of Shanhua (善化县) was created with its seat at what is now Xianzheng Street (县正街). The South District was renamed Tianxin on 10 July 1996.

What to see

The former Hunan First Normal School (湖南第一师范) on Shuyuan Road (书院路) grew out of the Chengnan Academy (城南书院), founded in 1161 by the Song scholar Zhang Shi (张栻). Its buildings mix Chinese and Western styles; destroyed in the Wenxi fire (文夕大火) of 1938, they were rebuilt on the old plan in 1968, and the school became a national key protected site in 2006. Mao Zedong studied and worked here for eight years.

The Former Residence of Jia Yi (贾谊故居) at 19 Taiping Street (太平街) honours the Western Han writer who composed his lament for Qu Yuan while in Changsha; it has been a provincial protected site since 1983 and keeps an old well, the Changhuai Well (长怀井). The Baisha Well (白沙古井), also provincially protected, is a spring already known in the Ming dynasty, and people still come to draw its water. The Changsha Bamboo Slips Museum (长沙简牍博物馆) holds more than 140,000 dated slips of the Three Kingdoms state of Wu, found at Zoumalou (走马楼) in 1996, and over 20,000 early Western Han slips found in 2003.

Food and local products

Pozi Street (坡子街) has more than 1,200 years of history but was destroyed in the 1938 fire; rebuilt, it reopened on 1 October 2005 as a 640-metre street between Huangxing South Road (黄兴南路) and Xiangjiang Avenue (湘江大道). It is described as a folk food street and links the Wuyi (五一) shopping district with the Jiefang West Road (解放西路) bar street.

Highlights

• Hunan First Normal School 湖南第一师范: Successor of the 1161 Chengnan Academy; national key protected site since 2006.
• Former Residence of Jia Yi 贾谊故居: At 19 Taiping Street; provincial protected site since 1983.
• Baisha Well 白沙古井: Spring known since the Ming dynasty; provincial protected site.
• Changsha Bamboo Slips Museum 长沙简牍博物馆: More than 140,000 Wu-kingdom slips from Zoumalou and over 20,000 early Western Han slips.
• Pozi Street 坡子街: Old street rebuilt and reopened in 2005 as a 640-metre folk food street.