Changsha Lies In The Heart Of China's 'One Belt, One Road' Initiative

Beijing Diary by Samantha Tan Chiew Ting Bernama's correspondent in Beijing Samantha Tan Chiew Ting shares her take on China's capital city. CHANGSHA, (HUNAN) Nov 4 (Bernama) -- After more than a month in Beijing, I finally got an opportunity to travel out to Changsha, the capital of central China's Hunan Province. I was there on the invitation of the People's Government of Hunan Province to participate in the ASEAN media familiarisation tour to Hunan and learn more of the Maritime Silk Road that in fact has its roots in the ancient Silk Road. ASEAN is highly recognised in the China's 'One Belt, One Road' initiative to revive the ancient Silk Road. 'One Belt' refers to the economic belt along China's traditional Silk Road connecting China with Europe, while 'One Road' is the new Maritime Silk Road between China, Southeast Asia and Africa. The 'One Belt, One Road' initiative not only widely recognised in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen but also in second-tier cities like Chongqing, Chengdu and Xiamen. HUNAN IS EQUALLY WELL DEVELOPED As this is my first visit to Changsa, I had no idea how the city might look. In fact it is an ancient town with its origins from the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC). Though I was expecting a lots of rustic historical place, I was totally surprised with the modern marvels there. Changsha is situated along the Xiangjiang River, the longest river in Hunan and one of the largest tributaries of the Yangtze. Althought Changsa is a second-tier city, I feel its development is on par with first-tier cities namely in transportation, tourism and industrial sectors. Changsa had witnessed many of the cornerstone events in China's history, including the Taiping Rebellion and Mao Zedong's conversion to Communism. The People's Government of Hunan Province highlighted a few potential sectors for business collaboration and investments, namely in tourism, cultural exchange, environmental, agricultural, food processing and railway infrastructure. Today the province is the home for famous Tongguan Kiln Site, a porcelain production base from the Tang Dynasty that continued for another Five Dynasties, CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co Ltd, Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center as well as Zhangjiajie, a city in the northwest of Hunan that is the home to the famed Wulingyuan Scenic Area that inspired the Avatar movie. WEEKEND FIREWORKS IN HUNAN To attract more tourists, People's Government of Hunan Province introduced several tourism attractions namely fireworks performance every Saturday night from 8.30pm to 8.50pm at Orange Island, the big island in the middle of the Xiangjiang River. Every Saturday night, thousand of Changsha citizens and foreigners gather in various scenic spots along Xiangjiang River such as Dufu Pavilion to enjoy the fireworks with different themes every week. I also had the chance to visit Fenghuang, where legend has it two of the fabulous Phoenix birds flew over and found the town so beautiful that they hovered there as they were reluctant to leave. The town situated on the western boundary of Hunan Province offers a different emotion to visitors as it looks like a piece of ancient painting with calm and tranquil atmosphere as the backdrop. In my next diary, I would like to share my thoughts in Zhangjiajie, a place often deemed as mystical by tourists. -- BERNAMA