Where the world’s oldest written multiplication table was found — a Qin dynasty bamboo slip (221–207 BC) now cited in Chinese math textbooks. Also: Magusi, the Tujia straw-clad dance-drama (fountainhead of Chinese dance); 37,400 Qin slips from Liye; the Tujia language still spoken; Bamian Mountain alpine grassland; and the borderlands of Hunan-Hubei-Chongqing.

Where Qu Yuan wrote “Jusong” (Ode to the Orange) 2,300 years ago — now China Ponkan Township (173,000 tons/yr). Bauxite, phosphorus, and stone coal all #1 in Hunan. Tahuzahuohua paper-cut (national intangible heritage). Shen Congwen’s Xiangzi Rock. The 1995 county seat relocation when the Wudongxi dam flooded the old town.

North Gate of Hunan — 38.5 km of Yangtze shoreline; 80% of China’s fishing floats (from Qu Yuan’s reed to a 30-billion-yuan industry); Huanggai Lake and the Battle of Red Cliffs; Longjiao Mountain, the ancestral homeland of 3 million Yao people; the 6501 underground military complex; and the only ancient pagoda on Hunan’s stretch of the Yangtze.

Ancient county, modern lithium — 10,000 Wu Kingdom bamboo slips from 1,800-year-old wells; the 2025 Jijiaoshan lithium discovery (China’s largest hard-rock deposit); the Xianghua Stone national treasure; Linwu duck, one of China’s eight great duck breeds; and the Nanling watershed dividing the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers.

Bordering the Li River — homeland of Lin Boqu, Ding Ling, and Lin Xiumei; site of 8,000-year-old rice at Shanlonggang; gypsum ranked 4th in China; selenium-rich soil that sends pomelos to Central Asia and citrus to Russia.

Hill of Sweet Wine — world capital of underglaze five-color porcelain, home of 30% of the global electrical porcelain market, birthplace of the firework industry, the Lujiang Academy where Zhu Xi and Zuo Zongtang taught, and the hometown of 295 Republican-era generals.

Cradle of the Xiang Army — the market town where Luo Zenan drilled the farmers who would go on to crush the Taiping Rebellion, with 148 general residences still standing. Also: the Meijiang karst wonderland, a Tang-dynasty medicine temple with iron-tile roof, and southern China’s first unmanned radish farm.

World Antimony Capital — 30% of global supply comes from a 438 km2 city with a misleading name. Tin Mine Mountain holds the richest antimony deposit on earth, alongside an ancient Nuo opera, a 1,000-year-old drum dance, and a beef feast born from a Mongol massacre.

The birthplace of paper. Cai Lun was born here in 50 CE, and the bamboo that fed his invention still covers 16,000 hectares southeast of the city. A 2,200-year-old name, a Ming-dynasty tower with a helmet roof, and a cuisine born from the wharves.

The Xiang River begins here, in the 7,047-hectare forest park at the top of the Nanling range. Blue Mountain county has a Tang-dynasty pagoda, the world’s largest mottled bamboo grove, a bridge named by the Qianlong Emperor, and a wine aged in cow manure.

Capital of Xiangxi, home to the 300-year-old Steel Fire Dragon Dance and the Aizhai Bridge suspended 355 meters above the Dehang Canyon. A Miao frontier city where tradition and engineering cross the same gorge.

China’s only joint Miao-Dong autonomous county, home to the ancient polyphonic Song Thunder singing, the Southern Silk Road’s “Kingdom of Women,” and the county that supplies 70 percent of China’s Poria fungus.

Home to Nüshu — the world’s only gender-exclusive writing system — plus the Yao ancestral homeland of Qianjiadong and a village that hasn’t changed its family name in 1,200 years. Jiangyong’s “Three Thousand Cultures” are unmatched anywhere in Hunan.

Jianghua is home to 375,000 Yao people – the largest Yao population of any county in China. A land of ancient legends, UNESCO-recognized oil tea, and the world’s largest bronze Yao long drum.