Shaoshan (韶山) is a county-level city administered by Xiangtan, named for the music of the legendary emperor Shun. Mao Zedong was born in a farmhouse here on 26 December 1893 and spent his childhood in it; since 1949 the place has been honoured as a sacred site of the revolution. The memorial ensemble — the restored farmhouse, a memorial hall, the Mao clan temple, the Dripping Water Cave residence and a bronze-statue square — forms a national scenic area of the highest 5A grade. At 247 square kilometres it is the smallest county-level unit in Hunan.
Shaoshan is the small hill county where Mao Zedong was born in 1893, a memorial landscape for over seventy years. The old village, the memorial complex and the living town around it are the three faces of a place turned shrine.