Yuelu Mountain & Orange Isle Scenic Area

This dual scenic area in the heart of Hunan's capital city Changsha combines natural beauty with profound cultural significance. Yuelu Mountain (Mount Yuelu) has been a cultural and educational center for over 1,000 years, home to the prestigious Yuelu Academy — one of China's four most famous academies, founded in 976 AD during the Song Dynasty and still operational today as part of Hunan University.

Orange Isle (Juzizhou) is a slender island in the Xiang River, famous for its beautiful riverside scenery and as the site where young Mao Zedong wrote his famous poem "Changsha" in 1925. The isle features a massive 32-meter-high granite statue of Mao overlooking the river. Together, Yuelu Mountain and Orange Isle form a cultural corridor that beautifully blends natural landscape with Chinese intellectual history. The area is especially beautiful in autumn when the maple leaves turn brilliant red.