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Chengdu, formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status. The urban area houses 14,047,625 inhabitants: 7,123,697 within the municipality's nine districts and 6,730,749 in the surrounding region.Chengdu is one of the most important economic, transportation, and communication centers in Western China. According to the 2007 Public Appraisal for Best Chinese Cities for Investment, Chengdu was chosen as one of the top ten cities to invest in out of a total of 280 urban centers in China. In 2006, it was named China's 4th-most livable city by China Daily.The fertile Chengdu Plain, on which Chengdu is located, is also known as the "Country of Heaven“, a phrase also often translated as "The Land of Abundance". The discovery of the Jinsha site suggests the area of Chengdu had become the center of the bronze age Sanxingdui culture around the time of the establishment of the state of Shu, prior to its annexation by Qin in 316 BC.

Chengdu is the original city name which dates back to its founding over 2000 years ago. However, its following nicknames are well known in China.The City of Hibiscus: In the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960), Mengchang, the king of the Later Shu Kingdom, ordered the planting of hibiscus on the fortress wall surrounding the city. After this, Chengdu started being called the City of Hibiscus. The Brocade City

The Turtle City

Nowadays, the hibiscus is still the city flower of Chengdu, but the last city wall was torn down in the 1960s, along with the Royal Palace situated in the middle of the city, where the statue of Mao Zedong now stands.The fortress wall was torn down after Mao Zedong's only visit to Chengdu in 1958. After touring the city, he suggested the wall be dismantled because of its 'ugliness and inconvenience to traffic'. The wall was demolished afterward and now only remains as scattered ruins across the city.Hibiscus

Rosa Sinensis

Hibiscus schizopetalus

Tianfu Square

overlooked by the enormous Chairman Mao

statue, is in the center of the city and

was once the site of the Imperial Palace.

Tianfu Square

Tianfu SquareEvery evening at dusk, as well as at noontime, an elaborate water show, synchronized to music, bursts out from the square’s fountains and attracts crowds of people during the spring and summer.Below the square is a shopping mall and the hub of Chengdu’s subway system. The major streets branching out from here are Renmin Road south and north and Taishan Road.

Tianfu Square

Tianfu Square

The Anshun Bridge is a bridge in the provincial capital of Chengdu in Sichuan, China. It crosses the Jin River. The veranda bridge contains a relatively large restaurant and is a popular eating location in the city.Meaning "Peaceful and Fluent" the bridge was constructed in 2003 as a replacement of the old bridge which was destroyed by a flood in the 1980s.

In the 13th century, Marco Polo wrote about several bridges in China and the Anshun Bridge (or an earlier version of it) was one of them

On May 12, 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck causing damage to the area, killing about 80,000 people and injuring 26,413. 4,021 of the casualties and most of the property damage were from Dujiangyan and Pengzhou, two cities within the administration of Chengdu, the sub-provincial city. Chengdu did not suffer any discernible damage. The reason why many people died in the surrounding areas had to do with poor construction. Though only 75 kilometres (47 mi) from the epicenter, Chengdu itself was built to earthquake specification, and most buildings there remained intact

The Anshun Bridge

The guzheng or gu zheng, also simply called zheng, (gu means "ancient”), is a Chinese plucked zither. It has 18 or more strings and movable bridges.

Steven Holl Architects Sliced Porosity Block

Known as the ‘Sliced Porosity Block’, the Raffles City Chengdu project in collaboration with Steven Holl is turning heads for its cutting-edge design and impressive green features. Shaped by the distribution of natural light, this multi-use complex of five sun-carved concrete towers defines itself by the formation of three large public valleys that, not only supports a hybrid of different functions, but anchors the building into the surrounding urban fabric.

Steven Holl Architects

Sliced Porosity Block

Steven Holl Architects

Sliced Porosity Block

Forming giant public plazas

with a mix of various

functions, the group of five towers is

intended to be seen as more

of a public area despite its towering design as

already witnessed in

the site

Steven Holl Architects Sliced Porosity Block

Its sun sliced geometry results from required minimum daylight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribed by code and calculated by the precise geometry of sun angles. The large public space framed by the block is formed into three valleys inspired by a poem of Du Fu (713-770). In some of the porous openings chunks of different buildings are inserted.

In the center of Chengdu, at the intersection of the first Ring Road and Ren Ming Nam Road, the Sliced Porosity Block forms large public plazas with a hybrid of different functions. Creating a metropolitan public space instead of object-icon skyscrapers, this three million square foot project takes its shape from its distribution of natural light.

The required minimum sunlight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribe precise geometric angles that slice the exoskeletal concrete frame of the structure. The building structure is white concrete organized in six foot high openings with earthquake diagonals as required while the "sliced" sections are glass.

The large public space framed in the center of the block is formed into three valleys inspired by a poem of the city's greatest poet, Du Fu (713-770), who wrote, 'From the northeast storm-tossed to the southwest, time has left stranded in Three Valleys.'

The three plaza levels feature water gardens based on concepts of time-the Fountain of the Chinese Calendar Year, Fountain of Twelve Months, and Fountain of Thirty Days. These three ponds function as skylights to the six-story shopping precinct below

Three large openings are sculpted into the mass of the towers as the sites of the pavilion of history, designed by Steven Holl Architects, the Light Pavilion by Lebbeus Woods, and the Local Art Pavilion

Opened in 2011, Raffles City is a multi-use development located on Renmin South Road in the South of Chengdu. Featuring office and residential space in addition to an expansive mall, Raffles City is among the most lauded premium property developments in Chengdu.Raffles City is most well known for the four-level shopping mall which features dozens of international stores, stores, and restaurants that can’t be found anywhere else in Chengdu. Places inside the complex include Treat, Lumiere Pavilions movie theater, and more. The Raffles City mall has direct access to the Sichuan Gymnasium subway station.Raffles City is a “city within a city” development, designed by famed American architect Steven Holl.

Shadow puppets from the Sichuan Museum

Shadow puppets from the Sichuan Museum

Shadow puppets from the Sichuan Museum

The large supermarkets are located on 2 or 3 stories instead of spread out on one floor

The Chengdu Silk Museum

The Brocade City: In the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 23), brocade produced in Chengdu enjoyed great popularity among the royal and elite class in China. An emperor created the office of Jin Guan to oversee brocade production in Chengdu. Since then, Chengdu has been called "Jin Guan Cheng“ meaning "Brocade Official's City", or in its short form, "Jin Cheng“ meaning "Brocade City." The Chengdu Silk Museum design adopts the shape of a silkworm pupa and merges five pupae together in a configuration that will shape grand exhibition spaces. ETFE “pillows” and aluminum cladding will be used to create a larvae shell.

Embroidered mandarin ducks

Chengdu, also known as "the

land of abundance”,

has a history of more than

2,000 years of hand-woven

brocade craft. Since Sichuan

Province is called "Shu" for

short, the brocade

produced in Chengdu but

famous throughout

China is known as Shu

brocade.

The history of sericiculture and silk handcrafts in China can be traced back to ancient Sichuan,

which is the cradle of

Chinese silk. The earliest

record of Shu brocade was in the Spring and

Autumn Period (770-476

BC).

By the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), Shu brocade had become an important export, for which a famous trade route was blazed from Chengdu to the Middle East via Yunnan, Burma, India and Pakistan, which is known now as the "Southern Silk Road." In the Song Dynasty (960-1279), a royal brocade workshop was set up in Chengdu, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shu brocade girdles were presented to distinguished foreign guests as royal souvenirs.This brocade, soft and colorfully flamboyant, is one of the four best and most famous brocades in China.Predominantly using red, Shu brocade has a variety of designs, fully reflecting the flowery nature of Shu culture.

Several hundred varieties of Shu brocade have

developed over more than 20 centuries of

development.Shu brocade is one of the most important cultural heritages in

China and is the most well known of the

Famous Four Chinese Brocades, which include the Song

(Suzhou), Yun (Nanjing), Zhuang

brocades (Guangxi). It has become an

integral part of the ornament of women

in the ethnic groups of southwestern China.

Sound: Teresa Teng - Classic Chinese Songs

Text and pictures: InternetCopyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasanda