By plane
Huanghua International Airport is the major airport for those seeking to visit Changsha. A 45 minutes drive on the expressway will take you to the city center. Airport buses operate 6AM-10PM from downtown Changsha to the airport and cost ¥16.5. The bus leaves from the CAAC Aviation Hotel on Wuyi Dadao äºä¸å¤§é a block west of the central train station.
Traveling from the airport will allow for some window viewing of the relatively wealthy countryside surrounding the city. Although annual floods do sizable property damage, the overflowing of the rivers help irrigate the evergreen and enormous rice paddies.
By train
Changsha Railway Station is in the heart of the city. There are direct train connections from many cities in China or indirect ones using a connecting train. From Beijing it is about 14 hours.
Changsha South Station of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High Speed Rail is southeast of the downtown, about 25-30 minutes from the city core. From Guangzhou South it is about 2.5 hours on the high speed train, or a minimum of 8 hours on the much cheaper normal trains a little over one quarter of the price.