|
ChengDu
Chengdu, capital of the Sichuan Province, is known throughout
China for giant pandas, tea houses, spicy food, and as one
of the most relaxing cities in China. Chengdu is also one
of China's most important industrial bases with main industries
in machinery, chemicals, textiles, tools, computers, electronics,
metallurgical products, wood processing, and more.
Because of its geographical
location, Chengdu has played an important role in Chinese
history and has many beautiful historical places within the
city such as the Marquis Wu Shrine, DuFu's Thatched Cottage,
and more. Just outside Chengdu is LeShan (the world's largest
Buddha statue), DuJiangyan Irrigation System (the first in
the world), EMei Mountain, and more. Besides being the birthplace
of tea-culture, Chengdu is also where paper money, relief
printing, the use of natural gas, and one of the world's earliest
banks were all founded.
In more recent
years, Chengdu has begun building itself into an international
metropolis, being South-West China's center for science, technology,
transport, trade, communication, and commerce. As of 2006,
there were already over 108 Fortune 500 Companies represented
in Chengdu.
The Chengdu highway system is one of the busiest in China;
it has 13 national highways (nearly 800 km of road), 106 county
roads (1,800 km), and 335 km of special roads.
Three major railways
meet in Chengdu and the airport is one of China's largest
with direct flights to more than 20 major Chinese cities.
Chengdu also has one of China's 6 main telecommunication centers
as well as one of China's largest mail processing centers.
Geographic Situation
and Layout
Chengdu is located
in the middle of Sichuan Province which borders Hubei, Hunan,
Guizhou, Yunan, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces,
it covers an area of 12,400 square kilometers, and has a population
of around 10 million. For the most part, Chengdu is shaped
like a circle and utilizes a ring-road system. There are 5
main ring roads, but most of the city is situated within the
first three.
Chengdu Facts
and Statistics
Population: 9,970,000
Area: 12,390 Km²
Population Density: 804.68/Km²
Time: GMT + 8. Despite the vast size of the country, Beijing
time is standard throughout China.
Language: In addition to Mandarin, the official language of
China, Sichuan Dialect is also prevalent. There are many different
minority groups (i.e. Tibetan, Yi) in Chengdu which also have
their own minority languages.
Religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam.
Electricity: 220/240 volts AC, 50Hz. Two-pin sockets and some
three-pin sockets are in use.
Mobile telephones: GSM 1800/900, GPRS and CDMA networks provide
coverage in Ningbo; Networks are operated by China Mobile
and China Unicom.
Fax: Hotels and a few 24 hour convenient shop offer fax facilities,
but are often incoming only. Rates are generally high in the
hotels.
Internet/E-mail: China Telecom provides high seep connect
e.g. ISDN, ADSL and LAN. There are also numerous cyber/internet
cafes.
Post: Service to Europe takes about a week. Tourist hotels
usually have their own post offices. All postal communications
to China should be addressed 'People's Republic of China'.
Press: The main English-language paper is the "China
Daily." National newspapers include "The People's
Daily" and "The Guangming Daily." Local, daily
papers include "Chengdu Daily" and "Chengdu
Business.
Downloads: see Useful Information (menubar on left) |
