Birthplace of China's brightest and bravest

"When the provinces of Hunan and Hubei have bumper harvests, there is enough food for the whole country," a Chinese saying goes.

Hunan, an inland province in central China, is a land of plenty. It is also the birthplace of some of China's greatest thinkers, scientists, military strategists and political leaders.

Wei Yuan (1794-1856), born in Shaoyang, Hunan, was the first Chinese scholar in modern times to open his mind to the outside world. He compiled one of the first Chinese scholarly works on Western technological advances. In his Illustrated Treatise on Sea Powers, Wei began to look at what could be learned from Western seafaring nations.