Chengdu

There has been some recent publicity about the posting of an Australian Consulate-General to Chengdu.  Chengdu is well known as being the location of a major panda reserve, the home of spicy hot Sichuan food and as a centre for the Sichuan opera (noted for its incredible face changing masks).     Australia already has a Trade Commissioner, Jeff Turner, based there, who gave a glowing write up of Chengdu on the business pages of the Australian this week - although I couldn't locate it on the newspaper's website (and yet they're trying to sell subscriptions for electronic access?)

Quiet side street

Turner mentioned Chengdu's expanding position as a regional hub for transport and logistic services, its "good food [and] urbane and civilised approach to life" and the fact that ANZ Bank has established its Chinese language support centre there.  And he didn't see any need to mention the pandas at all!


Having only spent one night there, I am certainly not in a position to comment on Chengdu's virtues or aspirations, but it wasn't until I started googling that I found out that, since February, there have been 3 non-stop flights between Chengdu and Melbourne each week, operated by Sichuan Airways.   This airline also operates flights between Chengdu and Vancouver, but there doesn't appear to be an English language version of its website.

Infrastructure under construction at Chengdu

It certainly reminds us that there is far more to China than the Hong Kong/Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing regions.   I suspect that at present the tourism flow is from Chengdu to Australia, but maybe the day will come when Australians looking for a short break at a different destination might head to Chengdu, especially as my quick look at airfares suggested that there are some good deals to be had and south-western China seems to have a lot to offer.

I was taken aback by the scale of construction activity

The obligatory panda photo!