Changsha is the capital city of Hunan province of China which located on the lower reaches of Xiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River. Coordinates: 28°11′46″N 112°58′20″. It covers an area of 11,819 sq. kilometers and with population of 6,373,600.
History of Changsha
From Han times (206 BC–AD 220) it was named Linxiang county and was the seat of the Changsha commandery. The county was renamed Changsha in 589, when it became the administrative seat of Tan prefecture. It lost some importance at this period, however, because traffic from Guangdong was mostly diverted up the Gan River valley in Jiangxi.
The 1903 Treaty of Shanghai between China and Japan opened the city to foreign trade. Consequently, factories, churches and schools were built. A college was started by Yale University bachelors, and later became a medical center named Xiangya and a secondary school named the Yali School.
Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China began his political career in Changsha. He was a student at the Hunan Number 1 Teachers’ Training School from 1913 to 1918. He later returned as a teacher and principal from 1920 to 1922. The school was destroyed during the Chinese Civil War but has since been restored. The Former Office of the Hunan Communist Party Central Committee where Mao Zedong once lived is now a museum that includes Mao’s living quarters, photographs and other historical items from the 1920s.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), the strategic location of Changsha made it the focus of four campaigns by the Japanese to capture it from the hands of the Chinese Nationalists which resulted in the battles of 1st Changsha, 2nd Changsha, 3rd Changsha, and 4th Changsha. The 
city was able to repulse the first three attacks thanks to Bai Chongxi’s leadership, but ultimately fell for a short time into Japanese hands in 1944 for another year until they were defeated in a counterattack and forced to surrender. The city itself was virtually destroyed by fire in 1938–39.
The city later became the territory of the People’s Republic of China when it was formed in 1949 after the Kuomintang were driven to Taiwan.
Changsha has a monsoon climate within the sub-tropical zone, with annual average temperature being 16.8°C–17.2°C, 4.6°C in January and 28.6°C in July. Average annual precipitation is 1422 mm., and the yearly frost-free period is 275 days.
The four seasons are distinct. The summers are long and hot, with heavy rainfall, and autumn is comfortable with abundant sunlight. In winter, it is nearly rainless and not very cold, changing to rainy and wet weather with rapidly increasing temperatures in the spring.
Changsha has jurisdiction over five districts (Furong, Tianxin, Yuelu, Kaifu, Yuhua districts), three counties (Changsha, Wangcheng, Ningxiang counties) and Liuyang city.
City tree : Camphor
City flower : Azalea
