Shaoshan is about a 40km ride from Xiangtan, and I arrived in town at around 11am. Hordes of tour groups were milling around the large bronze statue of Chairman Mao - I thought that they chose a rather fat version of Mao for the statue. I first visited the Chairman Mao museum. Throughout the museum, they have the music "The East is Red" being lightly piped in - largely because of the first lyrics "Dongfang hong, taiyang sheng, Zhongguo chuliaoge Mao Zedong" - "The East is red, the sun is rising, China has produced Mao Zedong". The museum was interesting - lots of stuff about how he developed sensitive feelings towards the working class and peasants of China. The museum went through his life up until about 1958 - just as the Great Leap Forward was starting, and entirely skipped the Cultural Revolution. I suppose that the museum felt that showing the 30% that Chairman Mao did wrong wasn't too appropriate (Chinese people often say that Chairman Mao was about 70% correct - he did the right thing 70% of the time - I think that it is hilarious that they assign a percentage in this way - very Chinese - but 70% is a D+/C-. Not exactly the grade you'd want a leader of a country to get).
A Fat Chairman Mao
After this, I had a quick lunch, and refused to buy a bottle of water from a vendor after they claimed it was 3 yuan (1 to 1.5yuan is normal). Then I visited Chairman Mao's childhood home. It was filled with displays with descriptions such as "This is the hearth beside which Mao Zedong encouraged his family members to struggle for the revolution" and "This is the kitchen where Mao Zedong would cheerfully help his grandmother with the chores" and "This is the bedroom where Mao Zedong would energetically read and study". Pretty hilarious.
I'm hoping that when you click to open the description that you can read the English part. It is really over-the-top, but at the same time, I couldn't help but being filled with revolutionary fervor.
The necessary photo in front of Chairman Mao's home.
The streets were lined with people selling various Chairman Mao junk - I was wanting to buy something for myself and a friend, but it all seemed like junk to me. Besides, I didn't really have any room in my luggage for any more stuff, so it wasn't all that practical at this point.
Some of the surrounding countryside near Shaoshan. So Lush.
Instead of staying the night in an overpriced hotel in Shaoshan, I kept on going on to the west. People seemed to think that I was lost. I was hoping to make it to Loudi (a larger city), but after spending so much time in Shaoshan, I was only able to make it to a small (very small) township called Panjiang, where the only place to stay was in a small room located above a shoe store. I went to register with the police, and they were extremely apprehensive of my presence - it was not the welcome I was expecting - it was very clear that they really weren't thrilled by my being there. A little strange, and it made me really want to get out of there as soon as possible.
1 comment:
In Canada a 70% was a solid B.
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