Cheng Du

Back in Hong Kong after 8 days in China, it seems almost impossible to put into words the multitude of experiences, impressions and understandings which have been gained along the way. So over the next couple of days I will try to provide blog posts which illustrate some of the peculiarities over being a westerner in China.

The goal of this first one is to lay the foundation. Cheng Du is a massive metropolis, containing some 7 million souls (even more, if you count the outskirts of the town), and the city is the capital of the Sichuan province, which is the province just East of Tibet. It has a mountainous geography to the west, but the rolling hillsides around Cheng Du, coupled with the greyish sky and just-above-freezing temperatures, gives it a chilly, damp atmosphere, kind of like autumn in northern England. It's rural location (i.e. not East coast China) means it lacks the same level of investment, and is therefore better known for its long historical heritage, Sichuanese cousine and opera, crafts and arts, and Panda bears.

Historically, the city has been a major city since the 4th century B.C, where the name of the city was changed to Cheng Du, literally meaning "becoming capital". Throughout Chinese war-riddled history, Cheng Du was a major city of the ruling dynasty, and its position as the doorway to Tibet gave it significance, for example as the starting city in the Southern Silk Road (as early as 200 B.C) and for general trade in crafts and tea.

Although I spent most of my time in Cheng Du, I had one day in Shenzhen (located just outside Hong Kong, which is where we flew out from), and two days in Rong Xian, a rural town 4 hours drive south of Cheng Du. (We went there since the trip was organized by a fellow student and friend, whose grandparents live in Rong Xian. During the Chinese Spring Festival, people return home to their local towns to meet up with family - and we were invited along). And that gets me off the mark.