Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. Located in the lower reaches of the Xiang River in northeastern Hunan, it is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100.
The city forms a part of the Greater Changsha Metropolitan Region along with Zhuzhou and Xiangtan, also known as the Changzhutan City Cluster. Greater Changsha was named one of the 13 emerging mega-cities in China in 2012 by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It is also a National Comprehensive Transportation Hub,"State Council on the issuance of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" modern comprehensive transport system development plan" State Council, State Development No. 11 and one of the first National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities in China. Changshanese, a kind of Xiang Chinese, is spoken in the downtown area, while Ningxiangnese and Liuyangnese are also spoken in the counties and cities under its jurisdiction.Institute of Linguistics, CASS. Language atlas of China. The Commercial Press. Beijing. December, 2012. As of the 2020 Chinese census, the prefecture-level city of Changsha had a population of 10,047,914 inhabitants.
Changsha has a history of more than 2,400 years of urban construction,Changsha Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Archaeological Discoveries and Studies of Ancient City Sites in Changsha. Hunan Yuelu Publishing House. 1 December 2016. and the name "Changsha" first appeared in the Yi Zhou Shu written in the pre-Qin era.Yi Zhou Shu·Wang Hui :"长沙鳖，其西，鱼复鼓钟钟牛" In the Qin dynasty, the Changsha Commandery was set up, and in the Western Han dynasty, the Changsha Kingdom was established. The Tongguan Kiln in Changsha during the Tang dynasty produced the world's earliest underglaze porcelain, which was exported to Western Asia, Africa, and Europe.Wang Xiga. The History of Changsha. Social Science Literature Press. December, 2014. In the period of the Five Dynasties, Changsha was the capital of Southern Chu. In the Northern Song dynasty, the Yuelu Academy (later Hunan University) was one of the four major private academies over the last 1000 years.Fan Chengda (1126-1193). Shigushanji(石鼓山记)："天下有书院四：徂徕、金山、岳麓、石鼓。" In the late Qing dynasty, Changsha was one of the four major trade cities for rice and tea in China.Institute of Changsha Culture, Changsha University. The prosperity of commerce in ancient Changsha and its causes (below) Journal of Changsha University. 2011 No. 1. In 1904, it was opened to foreign trade, and gradually became a revolutionary city. In Changsha, Tan Sitong established the School of Current Affairs, Huang Xing founded the China Arise Society with the slogan "Expel the Tatar barbarians and revive Zhonghua" (驱除鞑虏，复兴中华), and Mao Zedong also carried out his early political movements here. During the Republican Era, Changsha became one of the major home fronts in the Second Sino-Japanese War, but the subsequent Wenxi Fire in 1938 and the three Battles of Changsha from 1939 to 1942 (1939, 1941 and 1941–42) hit Changsha's economy and urban construction hard.Lei Jing (2008). "A Study of the Modernization Process in Changsha 1800-1949". Xiangtan University, 2008.
Changsha is now one of the core cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Belt and Road Initiative,"Strategy Basics - Yangtze River Economic Belt" Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. 13 July 2019. a new Chinese first-tier city, and a pioneering area for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation."Hunan: Building an pioneering zone for in-depth China-Africa economic and trade cooperation" Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. 19 January 2021. It is also classified as a Beta- (global second-tier) city by the GaWC. Known as the "Construction machinery capital of the world", Changsha has a significant industrial sector with construction machinery and new materials as the main industries, complemented by automobiles, electronic information, household appliances, and biomedicine."Study on industrial restructuring and upgrading in Changsha" Bureau of Statistics of Changsha. 16 Oct. 2017."Changsha: "Capital of Construction Machinery" explores world coordinates" Xinhuanet. 20 May 2019. Since the 1990s, Changsha has begun to accelerate economic development, and achieved the highest growth rate among China's major cities during the 2000s.Zhang Huaizhong. "Changsha's GDP grows 460% in 10 years, leading the country in growth" People's Daily Online Finance. 22 August 2016. The Xiangjiang New Area, the first state-level new area in Central China, was established in 2015."Central China's First State-Level New Area Xiangjiang New District Officially Launched" Ifeng Finance. 24 May 2015. As of 2023, more than 180 Global 500 companies have established branches in Changsha. The city has the 21st largest number of skyscrapers in the world. The Human Development Index of Changsha reached 0.817 (very high) in 2016, which is roughly comparable to a moderately developed country.
As of 2025, Changsha hosted 62 institutions of higher education, ranking 8th among all cities in China. The city is home to four Double First-Class Universities: Hunan, National Defense Technology, Central South, and Hunan Normal. It is a major center of research and innovation in the Asia-Pacific with a high level of scientific research outputs, ranking 23rd globally in 2024. Changsha is the birthplace of super hybrid rice, the Tianhe-1 supercomputer, China's first laser 3D printer,Municipal Local Records Editorial Office. "Changsha City Profile" Official website of Changsha, China. 13 April 2021. and China's first domestic medium-low speed maglev line."Medium-Low Speed Maglev in Changsha" CRRC ZELC EUROPE. Changsha has been named the first "UNESCO City of Media Arts" in China. The city is home to the Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS), the most influential provincial TV station in China."TV ratings rankings 2009-2017 Hunan TV No. 1 for the ninth consecutive year" tvtv.hk. 14 January 2018."2020 "TV Landmark" and "Voice of the Times" List Released" Xinhuanet. 7 December 2017.
Names Chángshā is the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese name written in traditional characters or in simplified ones. The namemeaning "long sandy place"is attested as early as the 11th , when a vassal lord of the area sent King Cheng of Zhou a gift described as a "Changsha softshell turtle" (). Its precise origin is unknown but it originally referred to the region around the city rather than the settlement itself. In the 2nd century AD, the historian Ying Shao wrote that the Qin use of the name Changsha for the area was a continuance of its old name.
The Chu settlement in the Changsha area was known as Qingyang. Under the Han, the principality of Changsha called its capital Linxiang ("[Place] Overlooking the Xiang River"). During the Tang and Southern Chu, it was known as Tanzhou from its role overseeing their Tan Prefecture.
History
Early history
Development started around when Changsha developed with the proliferation of Longshan culture, although there is no firm evidence of such a link. Evidence exists that people lived and thrived in the area during the Bronze Age. Numerous examples of pottery and other objects have been discovered.
Later Chinese legends related that the Flame and Yellow Emperors visited the area. Sima Qian's history states that the Yellow Emperor granted his eldest son Shaohao the lands of Changsha and its neighbors. During the Spring and Autumn period (8th5th centuryBC), the Yue culture spread into the area around Changsha. During the succeeding Warring States period, Chu took control of Changsha. Its capital, Qingyang, became an important southern outpost of the kingdom. In 1951–57 archaeologists explored numerous large and medium-sized Chu tombs from the Warring States Era. More than 3,000 tombs have been discovered. Under the Qin dynasty , Changsha was a staging post for expeditions south into Guangdong that led to its conquest and the establishment of the Nanyue kingdom.
Under the Han Linxiang was the capital of the principality of Changsha. At first this was a client state held by Liu Bang's Baiyue ally Wu Rui that served as a means of controlling the restive Chu people and as a buffer state against Nanyue. By Linxiang had city walls to protect it against uprisings and invasions. The famous Mawangdui tombs were constructed between 186 and Lady Xin Zhui was buried in the earliest tomb and, during its excavation in the 1970s, was found to have been very well preserved. More importantly, the tombs included the earliest surviving copies of the Tao Te Ching and other important literary and historical documents.
When Wu Rui's descendant Wu Zhu ) died childless in , the kingdom was granted to a cadet branch of the imperial family as their fief. The kingdom was abolished under Wang Mang's short-lived Xin dynasty and briefly revived by the Eastern Han. In its prince was demoted and the area administered as and Changsha Commandery.
The Three Kingdoms state of Wu ruled Changsha for several decades, a period whose administration is well known because its documents have been excavated. Following the turmoil of the Three Kingdoms, the Wu Emperor of Jin granted Changsha to his sixth son Sima Yi. The local government had over 100 counties at the beginning of the dynasty. Over the course of the dynasty, the local government of Changsha lost control over a few counties, leaving them to local rule.
The 6th-century Sui dynasty renamed the district Xiangzhou to Tan Prefecture, causing the city to also be known as Tanzhou. It was named after Zhaotan in the year Kaihuang 9 (AD589), and the Tanzhou General Manager was established. During the reign of the Sui emperor Yang, Tanzhou was abolished and Changsha County, a first-level administrative unit, was established, but the area of its jurisdiction was reduced. Changsha's 3-tier administration was simplified to a 2-tier state and county system, eliminating the middle canton region. Under the Tang, Changsha prospered as a center of trade between central China and Southeast Asia but suffered during the Anshi Rebellion, when it fell to the rebels.
In early 10th century, Changsha served as the capital of the Southern Chu Kingdom established by Ma Yin () in 907, one of the era's Ten Kingdoms. Southern Chu lasted about 50 years before being overthrown by the Southern Tang in 951.
Under the Song dynasty, the Yuelu Academy was founded in 976. It was destroyed by war in 1127 and rebuilt in 1165, during which year the celebrated philosopher Zhu Xi taught there. It was again destroyed by the Mongols during the establishment of the Yuan before being restored in the late 15th century under the Ming. Early 19th-century graduates of the academy formed what one historian called a "network of messianic alumni", including Zeng Guofan, architect of the Tongzhi Restoration,William T. Rowe. China's Last Empire: The Great Qing. (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, History of Imperial China, 2009; ), p. 162-163 and Cai E, a major leader in the defense of the Republic of China.Daniel McMahon, "The Yuelu Academy and Hunan's Nineteenth-Century Turn toward Statecraft", Late Imperial China 26.1 (2005): 72–109 Project MUSE . In 1903 the academy became Hunan High School. Modern-day Hunan University is also a descendant of the Yuelu Academy. Some of its buildings were remodeled from 1981 to 1986 according to their presumed original Song design.
During the Mongol conquest of the Southern Song, Tanzhou was fiercely defended by the local Song troops. After the city finally fell, the defenders committed mass suicide. Under the Ming (14th–17th centuries), Tanzhou was again renamed Changsha and made a superior prefecture.
Modern history