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The Former Residence of Mao Zedong

Shaoshan, about 80 km away from Changsha City, is the birthplace of Chairman Mao. The quaint farmhouse you see now is locally known as the Upper Cottage. It was here on December 26, 1893, that comrade Mao Zedong, the great leader of the Chinese people, was born.
As early as March, 1963, the State Council pronounced this place to be one of the early Chinese Revolutionary History’s National Heritage site. For its cultural and natural sights, Shaoshan has since been a major tourist destination. It is estimated that nearly 40 million tourists, Chinese and foreign, have visited comrade Mao Zedong’s former residence since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Among the distinguished guests are over 100 Chinese party leaders or state leaders, 14 foreign heads of state, 30 foreign governmental leaders, and visitors from over 150 countries.
The farmhouse stands in front of two water ponds: Lotus Pond and Southern Bank Pond. In his lifetime, comrade Mao Zedong was mad about swimming. He used to swim a lot in Southern Bank Pond in his boyhood. In November of 1963, Guo Moruo, on his visit to Shaoshan, pointed to the pond, and emotionally declared, “Mao Zedong swam in a water pond in his boyhood and did so in the Yangtze River in his old age.”
With a northern exposure, Comrade Mao Zedong’s boyhood home is typical Southern Chinese mud brick farmhouse. Down in a hollow, it is situated at the foot of a green hill and beside a clear stream. To borrow a locally used term, it is shaped like “a load of firewood”. In the old days, the farmhouse was shared by two families.The Maos lived on the eastern end of 13 blue-tile rooms and their neighbor on the western end of 4 thatched rooms.The entrance hall was shared by two families.
The present building is modeled after its prototype of 1918, showing the Maos in the prime of economic life, in possession of 1 3 tiled rooms, a half of the entrance hall and about 1.47 hectares of farmland.Mao Zedong didn’t commit himself to inheriting his family property.He left Shaoshan and walked onto the stage of Chinese politics instead. Mao Zedong, a son of a peasant’s family, became a great revolutionary, strategist and theorist of the proletariat.
A horizontal board of rosewood with comrade Deng Xiaoping’s inscription in golden characters“Comrade Mao Zedong’s Former Residence，”which personally written by him on April 2, 1983, hangs from the front entrance’s lintel.

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