Changes

Take the subway to 马鞍山公园 (Maanshan Gongyuan), and exit thru Exit C. Find the bus stop just a bit south east of the exit, and wait for bus 29. The bus leaves as early as 7:00, and probably late into the evening, but the times I know that are listed are: 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:30, and 14:00. However, the bus did not leave on time, and I ended up taking a taxi for 15 RMB. The bus will take you to a strange on-ramp where all cars going onto the highway have to do a U-turn before going onto the ramp, making the base of the ramp a perfect spot for hitching. Interestingly, a few cars pulled over offering rides to Shenzhen before one took me all the way to 茶陵, a few hours Southeast of Changsha. There are a few good service stations on the highway along the way though, so if you get a ride only going part of the way and are in a hurry, you could almost certainly get a ride straight to Changsha (or farther) from one of the service stations. The 炎帝 service station is particularly touristy, so there may be more long distance rides passing through there. I noted that my “湘” sign caught more fish than my "长沙“ sign, 湘 being the character representing Hunan, and thus not scaring off the traffic that was not headed exactly to Changsha.