Changsha

Capital of the province, on the right bank of the Hsiang river, was opened to trade under the China-Japan Commercial Treaty of 1903. A consulate was opened in 1905. The first consul lived at first in a houseboat and then in a rotten house. A two acre consular site on the narrow island in the middle of the river was leased in perpetuity in 1909, and an additional adjacent 1½ acres in 1911. A two-storey consul’s house and offices were completed in 1912. The buildings were practically demolished during the Second World War and British title to the property was renounced in a 1952 communication to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.