Jinggang Ancient Town Travel Guide: One-Day Itinerary

Jinggang Ancient Town in Changsha is a very famous tourist attraction, with many attractions worth visiting. If you only have one day, which attractions should you visit? Let’s take a look at how to spend a day in Jinggang Ancient Town!

1. Attractions to visit

Mao Zedong’s Handwriting Exhibition Hall

In the Mao Zedong’s Handwriting Exhibition Hall, you can not only see the calligraphy and painting works of calligraphy masters such as Mao Zedong, Guo Moruo, and Zhou Enlai, but also appreciate the precious calligraphy works of more than 30 predecessors such as He Long, Zhu De, and Peng Dehuai. Some are even the only ink traces handed down in their lives.

Cultural Revolution Period Objects Exhibition Hall

The museum exhibits nearly 5,000 Cultural Revolution relics such as cloth tickets, food tickets, stamps, and Red Guard armbands and Red Guard flags, allowing tourists to experience the time personally.

Genealogy Exhibition Hall

The Genealogy Exhibition Hall in the ancient town concentrates on displaying the origins, lineage words (generation), and migration of 139 surnames in the Jinggang area. Tourists can go there to see if they can find their own family genealogy.

Jinggang Folk Customs and Cultural Relics Museum

The Jiangnan Folk Customs and Cultural Relics Museum consists of three small museums: the Flower Sedan Museum, the Thousand Ancient God Temple, and the Collection Museum. The collection is mainly composed of folk customs and cultural relics from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which can be traced back to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of the Tang Dynasty, totaling tens of thousands of pieces.

Jinggang Ancient Town Tourist Attractions (10 pictures) Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of the Tang Dynasty, totaling tens of thousands of pieces. Folk customs and cultural relics are mostly common items used by ancient people in large-scale activities such as celebrations and sacrifices. Flower sedan chairs, masks, and Buddha statues outline vivid scenes of the lives of our ancestors.

Dinosaur Fossil Museum

In the Dinosaur Fossil Museum, tourists can not only see the Nanrufenglong fossils and Guizhou dragon fossils, but also see hundreds of trilobite fossils, coral fossils, etc., which demonstrate the ancient biological and geographical changes from a geological perspective, bringing wisdom to tourists.

Meteorite Museum

Meteorites are called: “visitors from outer space.” The exhibition hall is over 1,000 square meters. The first floor exhibits meteorites, and the second floor exhibits ancient blue and white porcelain, with high artistic appreciation value.

Yang Simiao Temple, in memory of Yang Yao

The Yang Simiao Temple in Jinggang was built in the seventh year of Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty, located on the bank of the Weishui River, at the head of Baoliang Street, next to Guanyin Temple, with interconnected buildings and corridors. After the construction of the Xiangjiang Dam, it was demolished and only the inner hall remains.

Hongtaifang Qinglou Culture Performance Art Museum

Hongtaifang is located on Jiankang Street in Jinggang Ancient Town. It was built in the tenth year of Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty and is the last Qing Dynasty brothel in Changsha. It has been preserved for over 300 years. It has now been transformed into a Qinglou history and culture museum.

Bayuantang (Ningxiang Guild Hall)

Bayuantang, also known as the Ningxiang Guild Hall [2], is located on Jiankang Street in the ancient town, and was built in the eleventh year of Xianfeng reign of the Qing Dynasty (1861).

Tao Cheng’s Former Residence

Tao Cheng, originally named Liu Taoying, was born in Jinggang in 1893. Because she devoted her life to the revolutionary cause, she was known as the “revolutionary mother.” She died in Changsha on July 11, 1986. Tao Cheng’s former residence is located on Jiankang Street in Jinggang Ancient Town and is an old brick house.

Former Site of Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China

The former site of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China is located on Jiankang Street in the ancient town. Hunan is one of the earliest areas in the world to establish a Communist Party organization. Liu Chouxi, Zhou Bingwen, He Zhangjie, Zhou Yili, Guo Liang, Li Canying, Yuan Zhonghxian, Tan Xilin, etc. in Jinggang and its surrounding areas were all late members who joined the Communist Party of China in the early 1920s.

2. Ticket prices

Adult ticket: 65 yuan at the market price, 55 yuan on the official website

Student ticket: 39 yuan

Group ticket (starting from 10 people): 65 yuan at the market price, 50 yuan on the official website

Ticket purchase entrance: Every Day Weekend

3. Opening hours

Summer: 8:00—17:30; Spring, Autumn, Winter: 9:00—17:00

4. Transportation guide

Address: Lujiang Community, Jinggang Town, Wangcheng District, Changsha City, Hunan Province

【Bus route】

Bus route 1: Take bus 918 from Changsha West Bus Station to Wangcheng Bus Station, and then take bus 104 to Jinggang Ancient Town.

Bus route 2: Take bus 903 from Qiwan Town to Wangcheng Bus Station, and then take bus 104 to Jinggang Ancient Town.

Bus route 3: Take Wangcheng minibus from Changsha West Bus Station to Wangcheng Bus Station, and then take bus 104 to Jinggang Ancient Town.

【Self-driving route】

Self-driving route 1: From Changsha, take Jixing Avenue or Leifeng Avenue to Wangcheng, take Gaoqiao Avenue to Jinggang New Town, turn into the Scenic Avenue and drive 6 kilometers to the west entrance of Jinggang Ancient Town, “Fengya Square”.

Self-driving route 2: From Changsha, take Jixing Avenue or Leifeng Avenue to Wangcheng, cross the Weishui Bridge, turn right and drive 9 kilometers north along the Xiangjiang River embankment to the east entrance of Jinggang Ancient Town, “Qixing Square”.

5. Food strategy

Fire-baked fish

The raw materials are small fish and shrimp produced in Jinggang, among which “green-skinned tender” is the best, with plenty of meat and delicious taste. After the fish and shrimp are caught, they are washed clean while fresh, drained of water, and spread evenly in a hot pan (brush the pan with oil so that they do not stick to the pan). After about half an hour, these fish and shrimp have been baked dry, one side is golden brown, exuding a fragrant aroma, then remove the intestines, stir-fry with fermented black beans and peppers or chop green peppers and garlic chives finely and stir-fry together, the taste is absolutely delicious. As the saying goes, fish eats jumps. Now nutrition experts have added a sentence: “Fish eats small.” Small fish are more nutritious than big fish. No wonder the fire-baked fish produced in Jinggang has always been so popular. The fire-baked fish is processed by baking over a low fire. It is not as stiff as dried fish or salted fish, and it is baked half-dry and half-wet, yellow outside and fresh inside. This combines the freshness of live fish, the crispness of dried fish, and the flavor of salted fish.

Ginger, salt, and sesame bean tea

Although the ginger, salt, and bean tea brewed in Jinggang (without sesame before) is similar to that in other places, it has its own characteristics. First, the tea leaves must be fresh, and they must be the “Maojian” tea of the year’s Guyu, which is the tender buds at the top of the tea tree. Although some use old tea leaves from the previous year, it is not authentic Jinggang ginger, salt, and bean tea. In the old days, residents on Jinggang Street would buy one or two pounds of famous Getang new tea every spring, and the tea growers in Getang knew their needs and would always come to Jinggang Street to sell tea at the right time. The beans must also be fresh “green-skinned beans” from that year’s harvest. Green-skinned beans have the advantages of being soft, tender, and fresh, which old yellow beans do not have. The ginger needs to be neither too tender nor too old. The tender ginger is too tender and lacks the spiciness of ginger. Old ginger is too spicy and its fibers are too coarse to chew. Only ginger that is neither too tender nor too old is slightly tender and slightly spicy, and it will not neutralize the fragrance of the new tea and the freshness of the green beans.