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The Former Residence of Chairman Mao at Shaoshanchong Village is located at the hometown of Mao Zedong — Shangwuchang at Shaoshanchong Village in the northwest of Xiangtan County in Hunan Province. It is 90 kilometers away from Changsha. Mao Zedong was born here on December 26, 1893 and he spent his childhood here. Afterwards, he left his hometown for Changsha to study. In 1925, he returned to the hometown to develop the Peasants’ Movements. He built up the Shaoshan Branch of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1927, when he was observing the peasants’ movement in Hunan Province, he convoked the cadres and peasants to have a symposium in his residence. In 1929, the residence was confiscated and burnt down by Kuomintang. In 1950, the people’s government restored the residence according to the original appearance.

In the fourth year (1878) during the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the great-grandfather of Mao Zedong bought the residence, which was a thatching at that time. It had been enlarged and maintained several times. The present residence takes the common form of residential houses in the countryside in the south, and has a wood-and-earth structure with brick walls and blue tiles. There are the wing-rooms on the left and the right sides. The wing-rooms are two bays from the south to the north. There is also a patio and some rooms for the sundries. Near the residence there were the primary school where Mao Zedong studied when he was young and the pond where he swam. In 1964, an exhibition hall was built to display the relics, photos and other data. In 1983, Deng Xiaoping wrote the epigraph for the residence.

(Source: chinaculture.org)