Changsha, China is the perfect example of why I needed a change from travel writing and shift my focus to travel photography.
About 5 years ago, when I started this blog, I could have written a story about how Changsha surprised me, inspired me, and even got me a little bit more excited than an average city of 7 million people should. However, these days it seems to take a lot for my mind to feel so inspired it wants to write 500-1000 words on a city I only visited for a couple days.
Thus, I’ll instead leave you with a couple photos, because Changsha really is cool, and I think more people should see it.
Most travellers simply skip through town heading to places like Zhangjiajie or Guilin. However, when I researched images on Google and found a giant statue of Mao Zedong’s head, I knew I had to schedule a couple nights in to go see it.
And rather than blab on about the city, I’m going to leave some words with you in the captions of the various photos, all of which I took on the massive Orange Isle Park, which is phenomenal in itself.
Photos of Changsha, China
This is the cultural area in Changsha on Orange Island Park. There is no entrance fee, and it has plenty of things to photography. I took this photo in HDR since the sky was a bit harsh.
I really loved the park, there were plenty of open spaces and nature was showing off a bit. I found an image of some lotus flowers out on the lily pads in Changsha. There were also some beautiful roses in Orange Park.
I wandered inside the cultural center where there is a Buddhist temple. There were definitely some photos inside the temple. But after a couple months in Southeast Asia I was kind of over temples.
One nice thing about being on the mainland of China is it feels like I can get back to photographing people and doing a bit of street photography blended with the travel. Here, a girl enjoying the view over the river and towards and old temple in Changsha.
Love the Chinese Architecture. It’s so great to photograph. The angles, the design, it’s all just so good.
Giant Statue of a Young Mao Zedong
What you’re all waiting for, right? This is the giant statue of Mao Zedong. The most interesting thing about the statue is it actually portrays a young Mao rather than the elder version we’re so used to seeing.
Visiting Changsha, China
I actually really enjoyed Changsha. I felt like it was a nice introduction to China. If I’m being honest, some of the travels ahead in the country were difficult. The issues of censorship on the cell phones, and just overall culture shock made it a bit of a battle.
But, is there a more photogenic country on the planet than China? I’m not too sure.