With its mild weather, teahouses, quiet leafy streets and internationally known food, Chengdu in south-west China has long been rated one of the country’s most liveable cities.
For much of the city’s 2,000-year history as an administrative and agricultural capital surrounded by good land, Chengdu thrived in relative isolation in China’s hinterlands. Over the last two decades, though, it has experienced a burst of rapid growth, fuelled by Beijing’s “Go West” policy encouraging development in interior cities.