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BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- In July, Business Travel Magazine rated Chengdu the top business-friendly and livable city, ahead of Portland, Montreal, Amsterdam and other famous cities. Milken Institute, a U.S. think tank, top-ranked Chengdu in its best-performing Asian cities rating in 2015, based on its appraisal of job, FDI and economic value add. Shanghai and Tianjin ranked second and third, while Beijing stands at 13. The institute says Chengdu's advantages—such as human capital, central government support, established industries in high-end aerospace and aircraft design, and a more recently developed electronics manufacturing sector—are driving its recent success in economic growth.
How could a western inland city become the most livable and business-friendly, outperforming other cities? It is due to Chengdu's natural and investment environment.
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province and a mega-city in western China. It is located at roughly 30 degrees north latitude and has clear seasons. Chengdu is a flowery city throughout the year. A casual walk in this forested city can bring you to green land, lakes and wetlands. The beautiful cityscape adds a sense of fulfillment to city dwellers. Foreign investors say Chengdu is as charming as Paris along the Seine.
In 2014, Chengdu became the first trillion yuan city in western China, its GDP surpassing the one-trillion yuan benchmark. Chengdu’s growth rate was 1.4 percentage points higher than the national average, ranking first among 15 sub-provincial cities. Chengdu as a trillion-yuan city is extraordinary, given that the economic zones traditionally center around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which are coastal cities. Taking advantage of its inland location, the city has relatively low productive and living costs. It has created a good investment environment with efficient administration, attracting world-famous companies including Dell, IBM, Microsoft and Intel. Now, 268 Top 500 companies have been attracted to Chengdu. Chengdu has become the third-largest hub for transnationals in China. In 2014, the city’s imports and exports totaled 55.85 billion U.S dollars. Trade volume in the Chengdu High-Tech Comprehensive Bonded Area ranked third in the country and first in western China.
Chengdu is also known as “the world’s city of food” and has many famous tourist destinations. Its offerings include hotpot, spicy dishes and other satisfying refreshments. An hour's drive can bring you to the Taoist Qingchen Mountain and Dujiang Dam, a 2,000-year-old water project that still irrigates acres of farmland. The cute, global-star giant pandas find their habitat near the city, where tourists can see wild pandas. Chengdu is also home to a panda breeding research center where one can see pandas of all ages.
Now, the city proper has 187.15 square meters of green land. It cleans the city and provides a place for entertainment. Chengdu is an ideal place to live for those who cannot bear the overcrowded cities.
Nourished by age-old culture, Chengdu has developed into an modern cosmopolitan city, fashionable and innovative. Also, a shopping hub is taking shape. Chengdu has a total of 5.39 million square meters of shopping facilities. In 2014, more than 85 percent of international brands that set up shops in Chengdu were premium ones, the highest percentage in western China.
Chengdu's output of IT, mechanics and auto-making reached more than 100 billion yuan. It plans to expand its IT industry to the one-trillion level, the first one in western China. Auto-makers in the city have manufactured 900,000 vehicles, and the number may exceed 1 million this year—making Chengdu a world auto-making hub.
FAW-Volkswagen Chengdu now produces 2,000 automobiles per day. It is the most cutting-edge production base in western China. On May 22, 2015, Volvo Chengdu started to manufacture limousines and transported them to Shanghai port immediately, which signals China’s exportation of cars to America. Chengdu customs data show that Chengdu exported cars worth 280 million yuan from January to July, a large increase.
In 2014, Chengdu attracted 10 billion US dollars in foreign investment. The import and export totaled 55.85 billion dollars. A total of 100 foreign-invested projects have been contracted and overseas projects and labor-exporting projects grew by 30 percent in terms of business volume.
Chengdu is applying for the free-trade experiment zone in order to expand its trade in goods and services. Enterprises are encouraged to go global, making Chengdu’s products and services known to the world.
Chengdu is China’s fourth-largest air transport hub after Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. In 2014, the passenger traffic of Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport totaled 37.71 million, of whom 3.21 million were overseas passengers. Starting from June 6, 2015, scheduled round-trip flights from Chengdu to San Francisco increased from three a week to one per day. The latest statistics show 246 flights link 190 cities; 83 of them are international flights. Chengdu has a transport network that can link it to the world. Chengdu’s second airport has now been approved. It is designed to accommodate 80 million passengers and will make Chengdu the third city in China to have two airports. In addition, Chengdu is the fourth city on the Chinese mainland to apply transit without a visa within 72 hours. Chengdu provides timely and comprehensive services to those tourists without a visa by building a tourist alliance. Free tourist handbooks will be handed out that guide your travel in Chengdu: where you eat, where you stay, where to entertain and how to get to those places.
Thanks to China’s Belt and Road initiative, Chengdu deepened its trade relations with European and Asian countries. The Chengdu-European railway opened in April 2013, linking Chengdu to Lodz, Poland. The goods transported to Poland can be diverted to other European countries within one to three days. On May 2, 2015, direct flights from Chengdu to Russia began.
Now, Chengdu has 27 friendship cities, including Phoenix, Arizona in America. It built cooperative relations with 38 world cities. By July, 2015, 15 consulates have been established in Chengdu.
Chengdu is embracing the world. If you want to know the real Chengdu, come and see for yourself.
