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Mao faithful pay respects at 'shrine' to former leader

Hometown of founder of People's Republic attracting huge numbers of visitors as nation prepares to mark 120th anniversary of his birth

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Mao Zedong Square in Shaoshan, Hunan. The late Communist Party leader's 120th birthday will be celebrated across the nation December 26. Photo: Simon Song

When Mao Siping, a former rice farmer in Shaoshan in Hunan province, decided to try his luck at a local souvenir market touting memorabilia of the late Chairman Mao Zedong to tourists 20 years ago, he said at best he made 10,000 yuan (HK$12,600) a year.

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Mao, who operates a 20-room family hotel from his own four-storey home in Shaoshan, the birthplace of Mao, said he and his wife could now easily earn 200,000 yuan a year.

"We could've made much more if I were as hardworking as others and if I spent less time on mahjong and karaoke,'' he said.

"It's something I could never have imagined 20 years ago."

The hotelier's life shows how Shaoshan has transformed itself from a backwater rural town to a bustling centre of "red tourism", with Mao's legacy as its trump card.

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A native of Shaoshan and a distant relative of Mao Zedong, Siping said the town was no longer a place which could only be accessed by dirt roads, but it still had clean air and beautiful scenery. "I suppose that we couldn't have all if it weren't Chairman Mao,'' he said

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