The bulk of Changsha is spread east of the
Xiang
River , and the city's name - literally
"Long Sand" - derives from a
narrow midstream bar, now called
Jiezi
Dao , Tangerine Island. The river itself
is spanned by the lengthy Xiangjiang Bridge,
which links the city to the west bank
suburbs,
Yuelu Academy and parkland.
Wuyi
Lu is Changsha's main drag and forms a
very unfocused downtown district, divided
into eastern (Dong Lu), middle (Zhong Lu)
and western (Xi Lu) sections as it runs
broad and straight for 4km across the city.
The airport is 15km east of town,
connected to the airline offices on Wuyi Lu
by a shuttle bus (¥20). Changsha's train
station is conveniently central at the
eastern end of Wuyi Dong Lu, but the three long-distance
bus stations are all several kilometres
out of town in the suburbs, any one of which
you could wind up at: to reach the train
station, catch city bus #126 from the
east bus station (4km); bus #312 from the
west bus station (8km); or bus #107 from the
south bus station (10km).
