Chengdu – Capital of West China

In most of China, Sichuan cuisine means food with a few peppers tossed in. In Chengdu, according to the 2011 “UNESCO City of Gastronomy,” they cook peppers with a bit of food tossed in. And the people are as fiery as their food.

Chengdu is one of the few major Chinese cities to have remained in the same place, under the same name, for over 2,000 years – but the Sichuanese are far from staid.

Around 80 percent of China’s giant pandas live in Sichuan.

Even today, residents of “West China’s Capital” are known for being both modernist and traditionalist. A Sichuanese professor told me, “We never wash our woks, so the sauce improves over time. One Chengdu family hasn’t washed their wok in 200 years!” he laughed, adding, “Their family sauce is older than your homeland!”

When our family passed through Chengdu in 1994 on our drive from Tibet back to Xiamen, I’d only planned to stay a night or two, but we were so enchanted by the place, the people and the peppers that we stayed a week.

I was surprised to learn that Sichuan became West China’s “Land of Plenty,” as well as a great commercial and cultural center, because of a 2,200-year-old engineering marvel that in some ways surpasses even modern technology. The Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, built in 256 BC, not only halted the devastating annual floods but, to this day, irrigates over seven million hectares.