Chengdu travel guide — Chengdu tourism and travel information

Chengdu travel guide

about Chengdu

Chengdu (成都, Hanyu Pinyin: Chéngdū, Wade-Giles: Ch'eng-tu) (30n39, 104e04 AWST) is the capital of Sichuan province and a sub-provincial city, located in southwest China, and bordering Tibet. Its exact location is between 102º54' - 104º53' east longitude and 30º5' - 31º26' north latitude.

Chengdu has a population of 9.9 million and an area of 12,300 square kilometers. The GDP per capita was ¥20111 (ca. US$2430) in 2003, ranked no. 58 among 659 Chinese cities.

Chengdu history

More than four thousand years ago, the prehistorical Bronze Age culture of Sānxīngduī (三星堆) (4800-3100 BP) established itself in this region. Zizhu city (紫竹城 : Zǐzhú Chéng) was one of the early settlements. Some believe that this culture is related to the BA culture of West Asia.

In the early 4th century BC, the king of the ancient Shu moved his capital to the city's current location. He was inspired by the ancient story of King Tai of Zhou, Grandfather of King Wu of Zhou, moving his capital. History recorded King Tai of Zhou's move as "it took a year to become a town; it took 2 years to become a capital". Following this, king of Shu named the new city as "Cheng Du", which means "become a capital"(In Chinese, word "cheng" means "become", "du" means "capital").

After the conquer of Shu by Qin Dynasty in 316 BC, a new city was founded by the Qin general Zhang Yi, which marked the beginning of contemporary Chengdu. It was renamed Yì Zhōu (益州) during Han Dynasty.

Liu Bei founded the kingdom of Shǔhàn (蜀汉) (220-263) in this city.

During Tang Dynasty, both the "Poet-God" Lǐ Bó (李白) and the "Poet-Sage" Dù Fǔ (杜甫) spent some part of their lives in Chengdu. Dù Fǔ constructed the celebrated "Cǎotáng" (草堂 or grass-hut) in the second year of his four year stay (759-762). But today's Cǎotáng, a rather sumptuous house in the traditional style, was initially constructed in 1078 in memory of Dù Fǔ.

Chengdu was the birthplace of the first widely used paper money in the world (Northern Song Dynasty, around A.D. 960).

Two more rebel leaders, one around the end of Song Dynasty, the other near the end of Ming Dynasty, set up the capitals of their short-lived kingdoms here, called Dàshǔ (大蜀) and Dàxī (大西), respectively.

Near cities to Chengdu

• Chongqing City travel guide 270 km
• Kunming travel guide 630 km
• Cao Bang travel guide 910 km
• Wuhan travel guide 980 km
• Zhengzhou travel guide 1 000 km
• Hanoi travel guide 1 100 km
• Kohima travel guide 1 100 km
• Imphal travel guide 1 200 km
• Luang travel guide 1 200 km
• Guangzhou travel guide 1 200 km

Near webcams to Chengdu

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• Victoria Harbour webcam 1 400 km
• Hong Kong webcam 1 400 km
• Hong Kong - Victoria Harbour webcam 1 400 km
• Hongkong - Victoria park webcam 1 400 km
• Shanghai - Deutsche Schule webcam 1 700 km

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Chengdu travel services

cheap flights to Chengdu

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Chengdu travel books

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Chengdu maps and atlases

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