Chengdu has served as the capital of China's Sichuan province. Discover special photos and some information about it. Chengdu is one of the three most populous cities in Western China, a place with very old roots.
It is now one of the most important economic, financial, commercial, cultural, transportation, and communication centers in Western China.
Its prehistoric settlers included the Sanxingdui culture (Bronze Age culture). There are amazing examples of objects and masks in the National Museum in Beijing. Here two bronze masks, which I photographed in Beijing, but are from the Sichuan Province. Both masks are from the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th-11th centuries BC). Researchers were astonished to find an artistic style that was completely unknown in the history of Chinese art, whose baseline had been the history and artifacts of the Yellow River civilization.
Many Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu. There is a deep connection between these masks and the roots of Chinese Opera (Chinese Drama and the painted faces and masks). There are more than 300 kinds of Chinese Drama, which has very tribal shamanic roots. This will be a topic for futures blog posts, stay tuned. I did a research on that in China.
Back to the beautiful modern city of Chengdu. There are wonderful glowing buildings in the dark.
The local food is fine for European taste (Sichuan / Chuan cuisine). I find it better than the Beijing cuisine (Jing or Mandarine cuisine). The food in Tsingtao is I think the best in China, because it is less oily, and light. (Soon there will be a post about Tsingtao/Qingdao). By the way I am vegan, so I am not able to speak about the meat & fish dishes.
In Chengdu there are amazing Buddhist & Tao temples, here you will see some photos.
This was the garden of our hotel. There are very nice and affortable places.
Tao Temple
One of the problems in China is the constant building of modern architecture and not taking care of old, historical places. Chengdu is one of the few cities Western people can see really good original old culture and also buy beautiful Chinese art. There is a great market for objects & books. People must be very tired;). I kept on find sleeping people everywhere.
The Giant Panda, is one of the rarest animals in the world. The total number is estimated to be 1,500, including those living in the wild, 80 percent of which are in Sichuan Province.
A breeding center for giant pandas called Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is based in the north suburbs of Chengdu. There are different voluntteer programs to take care of the pandas. For most of them you have to pay.
Thank you for your time;)
My post is on the Steemit Worldmap:
!steemitworldmap 30.660360 lat 104.063187 long CHENGDU-CHINA (Original photography & city information) d3scr
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Love & light
Bella