Shaoshan

I live in Hunan, the home province of Mao Ze Dong!  He said the spicy Hunan food gave rise to some of the reddest Chinese people in history.  And it is pretty true for China.  Many famous Chinese communists came out of Hunan, including Mao.  Anyways, his home town is only a hop, skip, and a jump from Changsha.  A mere 81km and an hour and a half bus ride, although it can be 2 if there is traffic or if the bus driver has a friend and drives out of the way to drop him or her off.  TIC

Maureen, Courtney, Kirsten, Dan and I decided to go to Shaoshan.  We met Dan at the South Bus station.  Kirsten's train from Huaihua was a little be late, a mere 2 hours, so we cut it a bit close.  But the invigorating taxi ride made up for it.  The swerving, the beeping, the near misses.  Seeing a cute little yellow car with a sticker in the back window that said "S.W.A.T.  Even cops need to dial 911."  The morning was crisp, and inside the bus station was freezing.  We got our tickets, and headed out to the bus, we were the last people on the bus, so there weren't many seats together.  Courtney got a seat next to a Chinese man, her seat would not sit up, but nor would it lock in place to remain lying back.  A nice Chinese man in the back row scooted over so Maureen and I could sit next to each other.  So we arrived in Shaoshan and were shuffled onto another bus to go to Mao's Guju.  Former residence.  It turns out it was a tour, we said we just wanted a ride and they charged us 2.5 yuan.  They took everyone to a restaurant.  We said, "We don't want a restaurant, we will walk back to the former residence."  But the bus driver insisted on driving us back to the former residence.  Somewhere in this exchange we realized that one of the people in the bus was a foreigner.  His name was Myron, we adopted him into our group.

We commenced the Mao journey, starting at his house.  A small mud house with a thatched roof.  There were tons of school groups, who were more excited about seeing us foreigners than Mao's former residence.  Choruses of children's voices saying "hello" followed us as we tried to figure out where to go.  The big line couldn't be avoided, so we got in line.  We were shuffled from room to room, the first thing we noticed was either Mao had money, or the spruced up his house a little.  There were actual bedrooms, and bedrooms for each member of his family.  There was some particularly nice Chinglish, a sign warning us not to touch or nibble anything in the house and a blurb about Mao's father "He was a hardworking crackerjack man."  Then we followed some signs towards the museum, which were actually signs towards the gift shops.  Some bargaining commenced.  I got a present for my father, the man wanted 38 originally and I managed to get it down to 18.  The trick was when he wouldn't change the price, I walked away.  He had to get my friends to come and get me back!

Mao's school was next, we were informed what a good student Mao was.  And how he shared his meager lunch with other students, his mother supported this and gave him more so he could share.  The school was honestly more interesting, it had a lot about Mao's education.  Then we walked back towards the museum, we were followed by choruses of "hello" from both school children and middle-aged men chewing betel nut.  We watched some exciting flower placing ceremony in front of the Mao statute.  But it looked like you could buy the flowers and the ceremony at a little kiosk nearby.  Which made it a bit less impressive!  Then to the free Mao museum, all in Chinese.  But really cool mementos, like the ancient style guns they were using.  Weird Wax freezes of Mao, following him from when he was young and thin to when he became the man we are used to seeing.  After that museum we went to the next one, which was newer and had English.  This was a museum of Mao's stuff.  Highlights:  Nixon's place tag and wine glass, Mao's giant swim trunks, and the tags.
"These are the accounts showing that Mao always paid for everything himself." "Mao did not like to drink except before swimming" "Mao never believed anything he read without looking into further."  "Mao's cuban friend gave him these cigars"  "Mao enjoyed watching the plums blossom."

After all that we left, trying to find the bus back.  The same bus driver pulled over for us, we asked if he was going to the bus station.  He said yes, we hopped on and he flipped a bitch and headed back towards the bus stop.  I don't know if that is really where he was headed or if he was just being nice.  But the bus was full, so I hope it was the first one.  We went and found a place to eat and ordered some Hunan food, including Mao's favorite.  Hong something chao rou.  All you need to say is Hong and they know what you are trying order!  It is literally chunks of fat and peppers, the sauce is amazing.  But the dish it's self.. I can see why Mao was so huge!

So throughout the day, we talked to Myron a little more, who is Chinese-American from Richmond.  He and his family were just in Guangzhou for 3 weeks, he speaks Cantonese but no Mandarin.  Through out the day people would address him assuming he was our guide, and he would refer them to Dan who speaks very good Chinese.  It often took a few tries to convince the person that yes, the white man speaks Chinese, and the man who looks like you does not speak Putonghua.  So Myron ended up coming back to Changsha with us.  He was staying at the hostel near the Provincial Museum.

So we took him out for Jiaozi at our favorite place, beers at Mix bar (a foos ball place).  And then back to home, before Courtney and Maureen get in trouble.  They have a curfew of 11 at their South Campus apartments.  Later that night I was adding him on facebook, only to discover we have a mutual friend!  SMALL WORLD!

Delicious Fried Jiaozi!

Courtney, Myron and Kirsten are visible!