Chengdu
Chengdu (成都, pinyin cheng2 du1) is the capital of the Sichuan province and a sub-provincial city, located in southwest China, and bordering Tibet. Its exact location is between 102º54' - 104º53' east longitude and 30º5' - 31º26' north latitude.
Chengdu has a population of 9.9 million and an area of 12,300 square kilometers.
The name "Chengdu" was first used in early 4th century BC, when king of ancient Shu moved the capital to the place where is Chengdu now. He was inspired by the ancient story of King of Zhou moving his capital. King of Zhou was considered as a king with high moral and intellectual standard in Chinese history. Classic history recorded King of Zhou's move as "it took a year to become a town; it took 2 years to become a capital". Following this, king of Shu named the new city as "Cheng Du", which means "become a capital" (In Chinese, word "cheng" means "become", "du" means "capital").
Chengdu was the birthplace of the first widely used paper money in the world (Northern Song Dynasty, around A.D. 960).
Alias
- The Brocade City (Jin Cheng, 锦城)
- In Western Han Dynasty (206 BC- AD 23), brocade produced in Chengdu enjoyed great popularity among the royal and elite class in China. Emperor installed Jin-Guan (an official in charge of brocade production) to oversee brocade production in Chengdu. Since then, Chengdu has been called "Jin-Guan Cheng" (Brocade Official's City), or in its short form, "Jin Cheng" (Brocade city).
- The City of Hibiscus (Rong Cheng, 蓉城）
- In Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960), Mengchang, the king of the Later Shu Kingdom, ordered to plant hibiscus on the fortress wall surrounding the city. After this, Chengdu started being referred as the City of Hibiscus. Nowadays, hibiscus is still the city flower of Chengdu.