Chengdu, China

Chengdu – A Natural Habitat of Giant Pandas

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province is known as the `Heavenly State’. It is located towards the west of Sichuan Basin, in the centre of Chengdu Plain and is a natural habitat of giant pandas. Chengdu is said to be a panda city and pandas are used to decorate the city where one will find a variety of them like the panda hats, panda purses, panda shoes and much more.

The panda location where one needs to visit is the Panda Research Base since at times; one may find tiny pandas there. The population is over 11 million and it covers an area of 12.3 thousand square kilometres. Due to its agricultural wealth, Chengdu is at times called the `Land of Milk and Honey’ The Funan River intersects the city and though boat traffic was common till 1960, it has now disappeared.

The city area is now separated into five urban districts, four sub-urban districts and 9 counties and is a home to over 14 million inhabitants. Chengdu is said to have a reputation as a very easy-going city which emphasizes relaxation and culture due to which together with green space, it has been ranked as one of the most liveable mega-cities in China.

Geographical Location – Excellent Hub for Travel

Chengdu has also been credited with good nightlife scene comprising of several new western style buildings in the big city centre. The geographical location of Chengdu makes it an excellent hub for further travel to several parts of the world.

The Shuangliu International airport in Chengdu is one of the busiest airport in the world and in 2012, it move around 30 million passengers. The Shuangliu International airport has followed the example of Beijing by constructing a huge new terminal with flights from Chengdu to 96 domestic and 52 international destinations.

Passport holders of around 51 countries comprising of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland USA, UK and others can avail 72 hours of free transit through Shuangliu Airport.Besides this, Chengdu also has busy bus and train stations and it is a city which provides easy pit stop while travelling further. The weather in summer tends to be hot and humid since the city is surrounded by small mountains towards the east and sits in the Red Basin. An hour to the west is the foothills of the massive Tibetan Plateau and the magnificent scenic mountains of west Sichuan.

Dujiangyan Irrigation Project

Profiting from the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project that had been erected in 256 B.C; Sichuan Province is believed as `Tian fu Zhi Guo’, a place which is richly bestowed with natural resources and as a capital it is very productive. The Min and Tuo Rivers, the two branches of the Yagtze River that is connected to forty other rivers, tend to supply an irrigation space of over 700 square kilometres with 150 to 180 million kilowatts of water.

The land is tremendously fertile due to its abundance of mineral resources. Archaeological discoveries at the Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites have recognized that the Chengdu region had been inhabited more than four thousand years ago and had been an important centre of an exceptional ancient culture during the period of Shang and Zhou dynasties.