Changde is adjacent to Dongting Lake to the east, the city of Yiyang to the south, Wuling and Xuefeng Mountains to the west, and Hubei province to the north.

Locals and tourists often visit the Changde Poetry Wall, covered in a variety of poems mostly from ancient China.

In the late 19th century Changde became a prosperous commercial center and the chief agricultural central market of the Yuan River basin.

Many Chinese firms, and — after 1905, when it was opened to foreign trade — foreign firms as well, maintained branches there to buy rice, cotton, tung oil, and timber, so that Changde's economic influence reached out into northern Guizhou, southwestern Hubei, and parts of southeastern Sichuan province.

[10] During the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials, proof was presented of operations to contaminate the area with plague as early as 1941 and 1942.

[11] Although the commercial dominance of Changde firms disappeared with the advent of communist rule in 1949, the city remained an important center of trade, with the majority of its population engaged either in commerce or in transportation.

[12] Located on the Yuan River upstream from its junction with the Lake Dongting system, Changde is a natural center of the northwest Hunan plain.

The Chinese phrase "三山三水" (literally "Three mountains and three rivers") is often used in reference to the general physical geography of the city.

The other major geographic feature of the area is Liuye Lake (柳叶湖), to the northeast of the city center.

[14] The Xuefeng and Wuling mountains have historically been part of the native habitat of the South China tiger.

Winter begins relatively dry but not sunny and becomes progressively damper and cloudier; spring brings frequent rain and the highest humidity levels of the year.

[17] The municipal executive, legislature and judiciary is in Wuling District, together with the city's Communist Party headquarters and Public security bureau.

[25] Changde is also an administrative centre and a storage and shipping point for tung oil, grain, cotton, medicinal herbs, and wood.

Grain, oil, cotton, and other commodities are loaded into medium-sized ships and taken to Yueyang, Changsha, or Hankou (Wuhan, Hubei province) for onward shipment.

After 1949 the city developed some light industry, mostly based on such local products as wood, leather, and bristles.

Other significant ethnic minority populations in Changde include the Hui, Uyghur, Miao and Zhuang peoples.

By far the largest group of ethnic minority residents is the Tujia with 361,200 people or approximately 6.3% of the total population.

[36] Drinking Lei cha, a beverage made from tea and other dry ingredients ground together and steeped in boiled water, is popular in Changde, especially in the urban districts of Wuling and Dingcheng and Taoyuan and Hanshou counties.

Wuling Lei cha, as the Changde variety is sometimes called, is usually made with sesame, peanut, meng bean, rice, tea and ginger.

There was a sudden epidemic in the barracks which they were only able to cure with a home remedy given to Ma Yuan by a mysterious old lady.

A unique style of theatrical folk music called Changde Sixian (常德丝弦; lit.

[39]It includes short expressive sections of lyrics spoken and sung in turns in Changde dialect by a group of singers accompanied by traditional Chinese stringed instruments such as the yangqin, pipa, sanxian, and huqin.

The style has also attracted some international attention since a visiting performance by a Changde Sixian troupe to Malaysia.

[40] In 2006, the State Council included Changde Sixian in its first national intangible cultural heritage list.

[41] Changde has an extensive bus network with most short-distance busses within the city costing either CN¥1 or ¥1.50 depending on air-conditioning.

[44][45] Changde also has a public bike service begun in October 2012 with 30 rental stations throughout the city and a thousand bicycles.

It is the second such system to be implemented in Hunan province[46] after a similar bike rental program was begun in Zhuzhou in May 2011.

Inside the city tourist areas include Liuye Lake, Taiyang Mountain, Changde Poetry Wall, and Walking street.

[51] Outside the city in Taoyuan county is the famous Taohuayuan (桃花源) or "Peach Blossom Spring" in English, named after the fable by Tao Yuanming.