The western Chinese province of Sichuan is a most attractive destination for visitors from Australia offering a variety of attractions, wonderful scenery, and spicy Sichuan cuisine to tempt the palate.
Many different ethnic groups live within its borders including Tibetan and Qiang people with their colourful traditional costumes and use of dance and musical instruments in their festivals. Embroidery is a favourite pastime of women, young and old, and they produce marvellous articles.
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, is booming with a rapidly rising population drawn to the city by its new and developing industries. With over 12 million people Chengdu is becoming one of the larger cities in China reflecting a major move by the authorities to boost the development of the western part of the country (nearby Chongqing has over 33 million people) as an industrial hub.
The infrastructure of the city is being developed to meet these new demands with an impressive array of freeways and ring roads, a metro and for an Australian visitor the number of new and nearly completed tower blocks of residential apartments is staggering. To complement these are new shopping areas, convention and exhibition centres, sports stadiums and impressively vast numbers of trees and other greenery to combat the ever present problem of air pollution. Chengdu sits in a large basin surrounded by mountains and although it has a mild climate the sky is often hazy and rainy.
Despite all this modernity Chengdu has preserved and enhanced many of its older sites and the tourist can spend time exploring the historic attractions while enjoying the comforts of modern society.
Dating back to 450BC the name Chengdu means ‘metropolis established’. Treasures from the earliest times have been excavated at the Jinsha site at Supo Town to the west of the city including about 1000 cultural relics comprising pottery, jade items, building foundations and golden art pieces.
There are some wonderful temples throughout the city of which Green Ram, Wuhou and Wenshu are the most famous. The Green Ram Temple (Qingyang Gong) is the best known example of Taoism although surrounded by a number of Buddhist temples; note the lovely 20m high Eight Trigram Pavilion decorated with 81 dragons. If you are into antiques then the nearby Song Xian Qiao Market is the place to bargain for handicrafts, souvenirs, calligraphy, etc – could be real or fake.
Wuhou Temple was constructed to honour Liu Bei, the Emperor of the Shu Kingdom although interestingly Zhuge Liang, a Prime Minister and brilliant military tactician during the period is more famous and has his own display. The temple buildings house 47 rather garish sculptures of historic figures, all pot-bellied and with long wispy beards. Outside the temple grounds are many teahouses that are a feature of Chengdu where people gather during the day to drink tea, gossip and play mah-jong or cards; surprisingly I noted the number of younger people indulging in this practice when I thought they might have been at work.
entrance to Wuhou Temple complex
Adjacent to Wuhou Temple is Jinli Street, one of the oldest and commercially busiest streets during the Shu Kingdom. Today it is still a major drawcard especially at night when red lanterns adorning the buildings are lit and all sorts of activities from cultural displays like shadow play to just sampling the local food take place.
Wenshu Temple in the northern part of the city centre is an imposing building with more than 400 Buddha statues – an area of serenity in the busy environment of Chengdu.
Another famous historic site is Du Fu Thatched Cottage a lovely park, gardens and museum in honour of the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu lived there in the 8th century.
Tianfu Square is a large, recently reconstructed open space in the centre of Chengdu dominated at its northern side by a large statue of Chairman Mao. Groups of visitors mainly from outer villages congregate in front of the statue having their photo taken. I was impressed with the very ornate lamp posts and pillars depicting old musical instruments.
Chairman Mao statue and ornate lamp posts in Tianfu Square
Of course for most visitors from overseas the chance to see the famous Giant Pandas will be high on their agenda. The excellent Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is a great place to spend a few hours being entertained and charmed by these superb animals. Covering an area of 100 hectares in the northern suburbs about 10km from the centre of the city, the Giant Pandas at the breeding centre spend their day eating the special bamboo varieties that are the major part of their diet, playing or just sleeping.
The facility is home to around twenty Giant Pandas and the best time to visit is in the morning when the animals are at their most active, although they seem to drop off to sleep at any time. 8am is a good time to visit before the larger tour groups arrive. The park is quite large and it is a good idea to take the electric trolley bus although strolling along the well-prepared pathways is relaxing.
The Giant Pandas are very photogenic and you can get great shots of them either singly or in small groups, eating bamboo, perched in tree branches or just lolling about. They are especially cute when you catch them peering back at you. The enclosures for the Giant Pandas have been designed and constructed with the animals’ comfort and quality of life as the main consideration and dense trees and vegetation allow them to hide away if they desire.
young Giant Pandas at play in the tree branches
There are also red pandas and the large lake in the centre of the facility attracts up to 90 species of birds during the year including swans, black-necked storks and wild geese. The facility also has a large resident population of peacocks that add another splash of color.
Sichuan cuisine is my favourite of all Chinese cuisines with most dishes being very spicy – sometimes too spicy I found. The best known dish is Chengdu Hotpot (Huo Guo) – there are around ten types of hotpot including meat, fish, seafood and vegetable. Not to be missed.
Shopping is a major activity of the local population of Chengdu and in the new China all the leading international brands like Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Boss have shops particularly in the centre of the city and in malls in the newer residential areas. However I was more interested in exploring the local shopping streets and witnessing the life of the local population. Given that most people live in large apartment blocks life centres round these areas and local parks and I noticed that restaurants were invariably busy. Others in my travel group had massages and reported they were excellent quality and inexpensive.
There is a large choice of accommodation in Chengdu with many international chains represented at the top end of the market. I stayed at the Jinjiang Hotel, the earliest five star hotel in this part of China and still a great place to stay with great ambience. If you need to stay overnight near the airport then the Holiday Inn is a good choice.
clearing away the cardboard wrapping excess
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