Zhuzhou (株洲) straddles the Xiang south-east of Changsha at the junction of the Beijing–Guangzhou and Shanghai–Kunming rail lines, and a train has passed through its station on average every three minutes. The First Five-Year Plan of the 1950s made it one of eight key national industrial cities, and its works still make electric locomotives, aircraft engines, hard alloys and chemicals. South of the rail yards the mountains of Yanling County hold the tomb of the Yan Emperor, the Flame Emperor of legend, for which the county renamed itself in 1994. Liling, its porcelain county-level city, supplies the other half of the prefecture's fame.
Zhuzhou, Hunan's rail city, keeps the tomb of the Yan Emperor in its southern mountains. The shrine, the county that took its name from it and the herbal legend behind it are the three threads the tomb has tied together.
Liling is Zhuzhou's porcelain city, known for underglaze five-colour ware. The kiln tradition, the industrial works and what its tables produce are the three lives of a town that sells its own clay and its own history.
ReadAt Yanling in Zhuzhou's southern mountains, the tomb of the Yan Emperor anchors a county renamed for China's legendary first farmer.
The Mishui rises in Zhuzhou's Yanling hills and runs west through Chaling and Youxian to join the Xiang.
Liling is Zhuzhou's porcelain city, famous for underglaze five-colour ware and the 'Mao porcelain' made for state gifts.