Qatu Qatsi!: Chengdu, Sichuan province, China

We left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and flew to Chengdu China on October 22nd. It's about a 4-hour flight north of KL. Chengdu is “mid western” China. It is about 2000km west of Shanghai. Chengdu is a city of about 15 million people. Its roots go back 4500 years.


Map of our travels in China. Click to enlarge.

From our experiences in various Chinatowns around the world we had expected to see some of the following in China:

“Snot-Rockets”

Lots of Spitting

Dirt, litter, etc

Chaotic Driving (like Argentina or worse)

Parking all over the sidewalks (they do this in Chinatown in Calgary!)

People dressed in color matching sweatsuits with rhinestone animals like rabbits on them

Smoking everywhere!

Peeing in the street, on the sidewalks, etc...

There is no doubt these things happen in China (and other countries), but Chengdu is very much the opposite of everything we expected, in the best ways!

Chengdu is clean! Very little litter is to be found as they have city workers constantly sweeping up all over the city!

Compared to most places in the US and Canada it feels very safe here.

The vibe/feel is laid back, no one ever seems to be in a rush but you don't get a sense of laziness either. People have been polite and generally helpful to us.

We have not seen a single “snot rocket” in 7+ days. We have seen very very little spitting, on par with what you might see in US/Canada.

The driving rules are interpreted very loosely but it's not as bad as Argentina and it's not aggressive.

Parking on the sidewalk is actually kind of orderly and does not interfere with pedestrian traffic. Sidewalks are very wide.

People generally dress smartly here. A mix of business, casual and fashion with varying degrees of mix but most people here would not stand out in a business/shopping district of a major city in US/Canada.

For the most part smoking seems to be under control but you can smoke in many restaurants. You will find people smoking in the bathrooms at shopping malls (even the high-end ones) and sometimes in cabs but overall it's not bad. Its not near as much smoking as we expected but still more than you see in US/Canada these days.

We have not seen anyone pee on a sidewalk or street, etc!

There are very few foreigners here, save from the area right near the Pandas. We may see one other Caucasian a day. Everything is in Chinese and very little English is spoken. This all adds to the experience! We use a lot of inventive sign language and make sure we load the Chinese names for things on our cell phones before we leave for the day so we can get directions or take a cab there. At restaurants we point at pictures. People pick up on body language and interpolate what we are trying to say pretty effectively.

They have not pestered us “tourist” foreigners at all, in any way.

Cab drivers here have been very honest, taking very direct routes to our destinations, tips seem to be a foreign concept to them and they hand they money back. It was a nice change from Malaysia where the cabs can be crafty and complicated at times.

Chengdu is a very modern city, with modern highrise condo projects going up by the dozens and dozens. We saw about 25 highrise (25-30+ stories) condos going up in a 1km walk from Wal-mart to a mall. There are about 6 condo highrises and commercial sky-scrapers being built in the area we are staying in, which is about a 12 minute drive away from the Wal-mart. They don't build them too high here as they have had some pretty devastating earthquakes, some of the worst in history in fact.

Their metro train is very new (about 2 years old), built very much like the ones in Singapore. They are clean, on time and the platforms are enclosed and bright! It's very easy to get around by train and they are adding three more lines so they should have the city covered in a couple years. Each station has security/police presence and they are safe! The trains are heavy rail like many in Japan as opposed to the light rail you see in smaller cites.

There are the occasional poor/homeless begging on the sidewalk but its dramatically less than what you see in Vancouver. Overall it feels like a thriving middle class and upper middle class city. The cars you see on the road are a mix of Volkswagen, Buick, Ford, BMW, Audi, some Chinese brands and the occasional Toyota/Honda.

The only thing that hampers the livability here is the unbearable smog, it is very bad. Smog is a plague in China due the heavy reliance on coal fired electrical generation. At this point we had not seen the sun, sky or a cloud in 7 days! Hopefully they can get those nuclear reactors built ASAP! If it wasn't for the smog, taking the cost of living in to account, this is one of the more livable cities we have experienced.

Overall Chengdu is a classy modern city. It has been a wonderful surprise, an enjoyable, comfortable, fun experience!