Chengdu's River House and Urban development

Chengdu, the mega city in Sichuan has been an incredible treat to me so far. Compared with Beijing, it feels a lot more thought out as a city with a lot better urban planning and realistic comfortable living. If you've ever stayed for any length of time in Beijing, you'll know that traffic is a serious problem and even with the measures put in place to reduce the number of cars, it is a nightmare to travel via the roads pretty much at anytime of the day other than the middle of the night.

Impressively, electric vehicles have taken hold in China in a way that eclipses any other country in the world. Already, the commercial complexes and parking lots (that's another thing i'll get to) have charging bays anywhere you go. Accessibility has made electric cars much more viable and that's not it, the target of the government is to get everybody onto electric vehicles by 2025! When you compare that to the 2040 year thrown around by other governments in the world, it seems very impressive.

One thing you'll notice instantly about Chengdu is the air quality and general cleanliness of the city. In Beijing, big fogs and dust storms are frequent with pollution getting out of hand every other day. Here in Chengdu, things are markedly improved with opportunities to see clear blue skies during the day.

You won't see cars covered in dust here nearly as often as you would in Beijing. The air quality is simply much better. Although it too suffers from a very large population and urban over crowding, the population density is much better managed over a larger piece of area.

Building complexes and residential developments tend to be less dense than the kind you'll find in Beijing. It's scary looking across endless towers of residential blocks, all empty, like the end of the world has come. You find less of that here, with a lot more diversity in the building style too. I like this a lot.

As you can see, this Hotel called "The river house" was built for the large expat work force here. It is a restaurant which features western style cuisine to the highest quality, served in the upper levels of it's very own luxury hotel. Outside, you can see various buildings with their lights turned on at night time delivering quite the show!

Having come back from England not so long ago, I was beginning to miss my contemporary western food and so this meal was appreciated a lot more than usual.

Don't hesitate to visit Chengdu. I'm falling in love with it already and i'm sure you would have the same feeling as well.