A Brief Introduction of Chengdu City
Chengdu, known as the City of Hibiscus, is the capital city of Sichuan Province. As a vice-provincial city, Chengdu is an important economic, scientific and technological, financial, cultural and innovative as well as international exchange center and a comprehensive transportation and communication hub in China. The city covers an area of 14,300 square kilometers. It has jurisdiction over 20 districts, cities and counties, as well as the High-Tech Zone and part of the Tianfu New Area directly administered under Chengdu. The city has 16.33 million residents, including 14.76 million permanent residents, and a total managed population of 21.28 million. In 2018, the GDP of Chengdu reached 1.53 trillion yuan, an increase of 8% over the previous year, with the local general public budget revenues amounting to 142.42 billion yuan, up by 9.4%, and the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents growing by 8.3% and 9%, respectively.
Guided by President Xi Jinping's thoughts on building socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era and by a series of important instructions he made for Sichuan Province and Chengdu City, the Chengdu municipal government has been firmly implementing the strategies of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee to promote one main pillar and multiple pivots, and coordinated development of the five economic zones and four-directional expansion and all-front opening up. It is deepening reform and opening-up, concentrating on innovation-driven development, and speeding up the development of this national metropolis as a beautiful and livable park city, an international gateway hub city and a world-famous cultural city. Chengdu has established a three-step development strategy for the new era: by 2020, a well-off society will be built in Chengdu, a national central city that reflects the new development philosophy, in an all-round way and with high standards; by 2035, a beautiful and livable park city and an international gateway hub city with important influence in pan-Eurasia will be developed in an accelerated and over-arching manner; by the middle of the 21st century, a modern Land of Plenty as a sustainable cosmopolitan city will be completed in a comprehensive way.
Chengdu is building a national central city. We are optimizing the urban spatial layout. With the strategies of advancing eastward, expanding southward, controlling the west, redeveloping the north and optimizing the center, we are promoting the development of cities across Longquan Mountain to the east and transforming the urban spatial layout from one city trapped between two mountains to one mountain with two wings. We are reforming the urban management system, breaking the old three-circle structure and forming a new layout of an urban center + new suburban cities. We are developing a modern economic system, focusing on high-quality development and building an open modern industrial system supported by five advanced manufacturing industries, five modern service industries and the new economy. We are promoting the new economy and fostering new momentums, forming an economic organization model with the industrial functional areas as the carrier, the ecosphere innovation chain as the core and the projects as its pillars. The output value of the high-tech sector in Chengdu has exceeded 1 trillion yuan. We are accelerating the synergistic development of Chengdu and Chongqing, promoting the integration of Chengdu, Deyang, Meishan and Ziyang as one metropolis, the amalgamation of the Chengdu Plain Economic Zone and the collaborative development of the five major economic zones. In 2018, it won the title of China's benchmark city for international business environment, ranked top of China's most attractive cities for investment for the sixth consecutive time, and jumped to 71st in the GaWC world city ranking, reaching the level of Beta+.
Chengdu is building a beautiful and livable park city. We are putting ecological conservation and sustainable development as our top priority and implementing the strategies of reducing smog and traffic jams, preventing floods and increasing greenery. With One Axis, Two Mountains, Three Rings and Seven Belts as the main framework, we are planning and building the world's longest green belt, the 16,900-km Tianfu Greenway. We are turning the Longquanshan Urban Forest Park as the world's largest urban green heart. We are vigorously developing the life service industry, supporting professional providers to improve quality of life for the people, and expanding high-quality public services. We are accelerating the development of an urban rail transit network, with a total operating mileage of 240 km. We are promoting efficient governance and following the five principles of putting people first, rule of law, one standard for all, refined management and smart governance. We were the first in China to set up a Governance Committee for Urban and Rural Community Development, exploring a social governance mechanism of one core and multiple components, with the Party Committee leadership, government guidance, social coordination and public participation. We have formed a new urban governance system with Party organizations as the core. Our new model of urban and rural community development was awarded the first prize in the National Demonstration Projects for A Better Life. Chengdu has been ranked the happiest city in China for 10 consecutive years. It won the 2018 BlueSky Award for Pioneer Cities in Green and Low Carbon Field and was named the Model City for Healthy China in 2018.
Chengdu is building an international gateway hub city. We are accelerating the development of three-dimensional corridors with a Land Silk Road and an Air Silk Road, including 48 commercial air routes, 14 all-cargo air routes, 30 international air routes for tourism and cultural visits, 7 international railway routes and 5 international rail-sea intermodal transportation routes. We are planning and constructing international airports, international railway ports, free trade zones and other national-level open ports, enhancing the distribution capacity for key source areas, and forming the two networks for domestic and international markets. We are building a supply chain hub and a distribution center for the Belt and Road market, which has already gathered 285 Fortune Global 500 companies, and 117 A-level logistics enterprises. We have set up 20 Overseas Chengdu workstations in 19 countries. 17 foreign consular missions have been established in Chengdu. The city has friendly and cooperative relations with 94 cities from around the world. The Shuangliu International Airport has joined the 50 million passengers club. The annual and accumulated numbers of freight trains run between Chengdu and Europe ranks first in China.
Chengdu is building a world-famous cultural city. The city has a profound civilization of more than 4500 years and an urban history of 2300 years. The cultural umbrella of Tianfu, the Land of Abundance, includes the ancient Shu culture, the Three Kingdoms culture, the poetry culture, the panda culture and the gourmet culture. Chengdu is home to 40 scenic spots at or above the 4A level, such as Mount Qingcheng, Dujiangyan Irrigation System, Giant Panda Sanctuaries, Wuhou Temple, Dufu's Thatched Cottage and Jinsha Site, and a lot of intangible cultural heritage such as Sichuan Opera and Shu Embroidery. At present, the city is vigorously promoting the Chinese culture, preserving the Bashu civilization, developing the Tianfu culture, and upholding modern values such as innovation, creativity, elegance, fashion, optimism, inclusiveness, compassion and charity. We are building a world-renowned city of culture and creativity, tourism, sports events, gastronomy, music and conventions and exhibitions as our concrete efforts to raise the cultural profile of Chengdu on the world stage. We are planning and building some cultural landmarks, such as the Tianfu Brocade City, the Tianfu Art Center, the Panda Planet and the Tianfu Olympic Sports City. Together they'll boost the cultural allure and city spirit of Chengdu, a city that ranked TOP 10 in China's most influential tourist cities in 2018.
