Chengdu, located in southwest China, is the capital of Sichuan province. More than four thousand years ago, the prehistoric Bronze Age culture of Jinsha established itself in this region. The fertile Chengdu Plain, on which Chengdu is located, is called Tianfuzhi Guo in Chinese, which literally means "the Country of Heaven", or "the Land of Abundance". Chengdu was recently ranked as China's 4th "Most Livable City" by the Chinese newspaper giant, China Daily.
 
Location and area: in Southwest China. Its east longitude extends from 102°54′ to 104°53′ and its north latitude extends from 30°05′ to 31°26′. It has a total area of 12,300 sq km.
 
Climate: Chengdu has one of the lowest sunshine totals in China (less sunshine annually than London), and most days are cloudy even if without rain. This is especially so in the winter months, when it is typically interminably grey and dreary. Spring (March-April) tends to be sunnier, warmer and drier than autumn (October-November).

Time: Time used in Beijing and all over China is called Beijing Standard Time. It is 8 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT + 8), and 13 hours ahead of New York time.
 
Transportation: As an important city in the southwest, Chengdu has convenient communications. More than 160 scheduled fights from Chengdu go to over 60 large and medium-sized cities at home and abroad. The Shuangliu International Airport is only 20 kilometers away from the city proper. In addition, Chengdu is the largest railway transportation hub in southwest China. It has two railway stations and many train tickets offices in the city proper.
 
History: In the early 4th century BC, the 9th Kaiming king of the ancient Shu Kingdom moved his capital to the city's current location from today's nearby Pixian. He was said to have been inspired by the ancient story of King Tai of Zhou, Grandfather of King Wu of Zhou, moving his capital. History recorded King Tai of Zhou's move as "it took a year to become a town; it took three years to become a capital". Following this, king of Shu named the new city as "Cheng Du", which means "become a capital" (In Chinese, the word "cheng" means "become", "du" means "capital").After the conquest of Shu by the State of Qin in 316 BC, a new city was founded by the Qin general Zhang Yi (who as a matter of fact had argued against the invasion). This can be seen as the beginning of the Chinese Chengdu. It was renamed Yìzhou during the Han Dynasty. During the partition following the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, i.e. the era of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei founded the southwest kingdom of Shu-Han with Chengdu as its capital. During the Tang Dynasty, both the "Poet God" Li Baiand the "Poet Sage" Du Fu spent some part of their lives in Chengdu. Du Fu constructed the celebrated "Caotáng" (thatched cottage or grass-hut) in the second year of his four-year stay (759-762). But today's Caotang, a rather sumptuous house in the traditional style, was only constructed in 1078 in memory of Du Fu. During the Tang Dynasty, Chengdu was a great commercial city second to only Yangzhou. Chengdu was also the birthplace of the first widely used paper money in the world (Northern Song Dynasty, around 960).