The birthplace of Mao Zedong, China’s leader from 1949 until his death in 1976, Shao Shan is really two towns. The newer one is near the railway station, while the village of Shao Shan Dong, where the “Great Helmsman” spent his early years is 6 km away. At the height of the Mao phenomenon during the Cultural Revolution, special pilgrimage trains, crowded with Red Guards, brought almost 8,000 worshipers a day. Shao Shan is still popular and any buildings connected with Mao are now preserved as museums. Mao’s Family House, where he was born in 1893, is typically rural, except for its displays of memorabilia. Next to it lies the Mao Zedong Exhibition Hall and nearby to that sits the Mao Ancestral Temple. Overlooking the village is Shao Peak, accessed by cable car. About 3 km from the village is Dripping Water Cave, where, legend has it, Mao pondered over the Cultural Revolution in 1966.