Chengdu () is the capital of Sichuan province and a sub-provincial city, located in southwest China, and bordering Tibet. Its exact location is between 102°54′ – 104°53′ east longitude and 30°5′ – 31°26′ north latitude.

Chengdu has a population of 9.9 million and an area of 12,300 km². The GDP per capita was ¥20111 (ca. US$2430) in 2003, ranked no. 58 among 659 Chinese cities.

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.

In more recent times, 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 December 10, 1949 when the People's Liberation Army took the city and the Nationalist Chinese government fled to Taiwan.

Alias

• The Brocade City (Jǐn Chéng, 锦城)

  In Western Han Dynasty (206 BC- AD 23), brocade produced in Chengdu enjoyed great popularity among the royal and elite class in China. Emperor installed Jin-Guan (an official in charge of brocade production) to oversee brocade production in Chengdu. Since then, Chengdu has been called "Jin-Guan Cheng" (Brocade Official's City), or in its short form, "Jin Cheng" (Brocade city).

• The City of Hibiscus (Róng Chéng, 蓉城)

  In Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960), Mengchang, the king of the Later Shu Kingdom, ordered to plant hibiscus on the fortress wall surrounding the city. After this, Chengdu started being referred as the City of Hibiscus. Nowadays, hibiscus is still the city flower of Chengdu.

Colleges and universities

• Sichuan University
• Southwest Jiaotong University
• University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
• Southwestern University of Finance and Economics
• Southwest University for Nationalities
• Sichuan Normal University

External link

• Official site, in English