History

Sichuan is one of the largest provinces in China, and the most heavily populated. Chengdu is Sichuan’s capital, and its administrative, educational and cultural center, as well as a major industrial base.

Chengdu boasts a 2500-year history, linked closely with the arts & crafts trades. Like other Chinese cities, the place has had its share of turmoil. First it was devastated by the Mongols in retaliation for fierce fighting put by the Sichuanese. Centuries later the city was set up as one of the last strongholds of the Koumintang. Ironically, the name ‘Chengdu’ means perfect Metropolis – and today around three million people inhabit the perfect city proper, or three times that if you count the surrounding metropolitan area.

The original city was walled with a moat, gates at the compass points and the Viceroy’s Palace (14^th century) at the heart. The latter was the imperial quarter. The remains of the city walls were demolished in the early 1960s, and the Viceroy’s Palace blown to smithereens at the height of the Cultural Revolution. In its place was erected the Russian-style Exhibition Hall. Outside, a massive Mao statue waves merrily down Renmin Lu road.

Orientation

Chengdu has echoes of boulevard-sweeping Beijing in its grand scale, except that here flowering shrubs and foliage line many of the expenses. As in Beijing there are ring roads right around the outer city, though Chengdu has only two th Beijing’s four. The main boulevard that sweeps through the center of everything is Renmin Lu.

The area where Renmin Nanlu crosses the Jin River, near the Jinjiang and Traffic Hotels, has become the city’s tourist ghetto. This is where you’ll find most of the restaurants and arts & crafts shops catering for foreigners, and even now adays couple of pubs.

Street names Seem to change every 100 meters or so. Bear this in mind when you are looking for somewhere in particular, and rely more in near by landmarks and relative location on maps than on street numbers and names.

110 million

Highlights

• Despite modernization efforts, Chengdu still has some charming back streets and great places to eat.
• Jiuzhaigou, a national park with gorgeous alpine scenery that authorities are keeping pristine.
• Western Sichuan, with its soaring snow-capped peaks, grasslands, glaciers and a heavy Tibetan influence.
• Grand Buddha – the world’s largest Buddha sits in splendor across from the city of Leshan.
• Emeishan, one of China’s four famous Buddhist holly mountains, is great for hiking and monastery-hopping.
• Relax aboard ship for a few days on a Yangzi River cruise and see the famous Three Gorges before they’re submerged for evermore by the mammoth dam project.