Chengdu overview 成都

About Chengdu

UNESCO recognised it as a City of Gastronomy in 2010, but a visit works best when meals are woven into the day rather than treated as a separate checklist. Start around Tianfu Square for city history, then contrast a park teahouse with the Daci Temple and Taikoo Li area. Panda centres, Dujiangyan and Qingcheng Mountain require their own transport plans beyond this central-city introduction.

Also known as Rongcheng (蓉城) and Jinguancheng (锦官城), Chengdu has served as the capital of nine regional regimes, including Shu Han. City walls were built in 311 BC under the Qin official Zhang Yi, modeled on the walls of the Qin capital Xianyang. Under the Han dynasty, Chengdu ranked among China's five great metropolises alongside Luoyang; under the Tang, its trade rivaled that of Yangzhou, giving rise to the saying 'Yangzhou first, Yi second' (扬一益二).

The city sits at an average elevation of over 500 meters within the Sichuan Basin. To the east, the Longquan mountains and hills, 600 to 1,000 meters high, mark the boundary between the Chengdu Plain and the hill country beyond; the plain itself, between 450 and 720 meters in elevation, is an alluvial fan built up by the Min and Tuo rivers and their tributaries. To the west rise the Qionglai mountains, the easternmost range of the Hengduan Mountains, with many peaks above 4,000 meters.

Chengdu was named among the first group of National Historical and Cultural Cities and is counted among China's Top Ten Ancient Capitals. In 2007 it was named China's Best Tourism City by the national tourism authority and the World Tourism Organization, and in 2009 it became the first Asian city named a World's Best Tourism Destination City.

What to look for

• Chengdu Museum gives context for the city and its surrounding plain.
• Park teahouses and the Daci Temple neighbourhood reveal different sides of daily life.

Location & getting there

Getting to Chengdu

Choose a specific district and arrival station before booking your transfer. Tianfu Square is a useful central orientation point; Chengdu Tianfu and Shuangliu airports, Chengdu East railway station and the outlying mountain attractions are separate destinations.