Yuelu Academy and Mount Yuelu

National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit; Founded 976 As One Of The Four Great Academies Of The Song And Now The College Of Chinese Classics Of Hunan University · Changsha, Hunan

A school founded in 976 that has been teaching, with interruptions, ever since - which makes it a serious candidate for the oldest continuously operating institution of higher learning anywhere, and it is still in use, because Hunan University grew up around it and the academy is now that university's college of Chinese classics. One of the Four Great Academies of the Song, it is where Zhu Xi came to debate Zhang Shi in 1167 in front of an audience said to have drunk the pond dry watering their horses, and where a particular Hunanese tradition of practical statecraft took root that runs forward through Zeng Guofan to Mao Zedong, who read here as a young man. The buildings are timber courtyards climbing the hill under old trees, with a lecture hall, a library, shrine halls and a great deal of carved calligraphy, including the two characters for loyalty and filial piety cut a metre high on the wall. Behind it Mount Yuelu rises through maple woods to Aiwan Pavilion, which is where Changsha goes to look at autumn leaves.

Hunan University, Lushan Road, Yuelu District, Changsha, Hunan, China

Generally open daily, roughly 8:00-17:30 in summer and 8:00-17:00 in winter, with last entry about half an hour before closing. Real-name booking with ID is expected and DAILY NUMBERS ARE CAPPED, which bites in the late-November maple season. Tickets are often sold as an academy-plus-Mount-Yuelu combination. THE ACADEMY IS INSIDE HUNAN UNIVERSITY'S WORKING CAMPUS - campus access rules have tightened at Chinese universities, so confirm before planning to walk the wider grounds.

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