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March 14 Something You Should Know Before Going to ChengduChengduFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
Chengdu (Chinese: 成都; Hanyu Pinyin: Chéngdū; Wade-Giles: Ch'eng-tu), located in southwest China, is the capital of the Sichuan province and a sub-provincial city. It is the 4th most populous city in China and a political, cultural and economic centre of southwest China. More than four thousand years ago, the prehistorical Bronze Age culture of Jinsha (Chinese: 金沙; Pinyin: Jīnshā) established itself in this region. The fertile Chengdu Plain, on which Chengdu is located, is called Tianfu zhi guo (Chinese: 天府之国; Pinyin: Tiānfŭ zhī guó) in Chinese, which means "the Heavenly country". 
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PopulationThroughout most of Chinese history, Chengdu has been a city with a large number of people. By 2004 the population was 10 596 900 (5 381 700 males, and 5 215 200 females), which made Chengdu the fourth largest city in China in terms of population, just following Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing. There were close to 200 long-term foreign residents (not including Chinese from Hong Kong or Taiwan) living in the city in late 2004, according to unofficial US Consultate estimates. [edit]
History
In the early 4th century BC, the 9th Kaiming king of the ancient Shu moved his capital to the city's current location from today's nearby Pixian. He was said to have been 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, the word "cheng" means "become", "du" means "capital"). There are, however, several versions of why the capital was moved to Chengdu, and more recent theories of the name's origin point to it as stemming from, or referring to, earlier non-Han inhabitants and/or their languages. After the conquest of Shu by the State of Qin in 316 BC, a new city was founded by the Qin general Zhang Yi (who as a matter of fact had argued against the invasion). This can be seen as the beginning of the Chinese Chengdu. It was renamed Yìzhōu (益州) during the Han Dynasty. During the partition following the fall of the Western Han Dynasty, i.e., the era of the Three Kingdoms Liu Bei founded the Southwest kingdom of Shu-Han (Shǔ-Hàn 蜀汉) (220-263) with Chengdu as its capital. During the 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. Du Fu constructed the celebrated "Cǎotáng" (草堂 or grass-hut) in the second year of his four-years stay (759-762). But today's Caotang, a rather sumptuous house in the traditional style, was only constructed in 1078 in memory of Du Fu. Chengdu was also the birthplace of the first widely used paper money in the world (Northern Song Dynasty, around A.D. 960). Two 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. The Second World War brought an unexpected wave of prosperity to Chengdu as the Guomindang (Chinese Nationalist) government under Chiang Kai-shek fled to Sichuan Province to escape the invading Japanese forces. They brought with them businesspeople, workers and academics, who founded many of the industries and cultural institutions which continue to make Chengdu an important center. Chengdu was the last city in mainland China to be held by the Kuomintang. Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo directed the defence of the city at Chengdu Central Military Academy, until 1949-12-10 when the People's Liberation Army took the city and the Nationalist Chinese government fled to Taiwan. Today the industrial base is very broad, including light and heavy manufacturing, aluminum smelting and chemicals. The textile industry remains important, with cotton and wool milling added to the traditional manufacturing of silk brocade and satin. [edit]
Alias
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Culture and FolkloreChengdu natives speak a dialect of Southern Mandarin Chinese. Because of the local dialect's soft tones, Chinese people joke that it is the speech of baby girls, whereas the more rough-sounding dialect of nearby Chongqing is that of baby boys. In Chengdu the sky is almost always cloudy, and the people are shorter than average; so the locals say that they are so small because the sky is so low. Their is also an old saying "the dogs of Shu bark at the sun" which is still used to decribe someone who, due to unfamiliarity, reacts strongly on something very common. The Sichuan cuisine is famous for being very spicy, but in fact only slightly more than 30 % of dishes officially labell "local" rely on chili pepper. The reputation for hot food is, however, much older than the use of peppers, which became common only in the 17-18th century. Chengdu's cuisine is considered to be one of China's most outstanding. The many local specialties include Grandma Chen's Bean Curd (Mapo doufu), Chengdu Hot pot, and Carrying Pole Noodles (Dan Dan Noodles). An article by the Los Angeles Times (2006) called Chengdu "China's party city". Chengdu outnumbers Shanghai in the number of tea houses and bars despite having less than half the population. The inhabitants have a reputation both within Sichuan and in China at large for having a laid back attitude and for knowing how to enjoy life. [edit]
Colleges and universities
Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed. [edit]
Music[edit]
Astronomical phenomenaFor the urban area of Chengdu, the next total solar eclipse will occur on 22 July [[2009]. [edit]
Chengdu Children's Welfare InstituteThe Chengdu orphanage was until recently located at this address: 246 Ying Menkou Road Chengdu, Sichuan Province China 610036 [edit]
See also
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External links
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengdu"
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