By Muhammad Shafique Raja
CHENGDU, CHINA, Aug 17 (APP): The World Games 2025 have concluded, the cheers have faded and the medals hang with pride, but in Chengdu memories linger like the fragrant steam rising from a cup of longjing tea.
In this vertical city, visitors arrive and never wish to leave. Here, history isn’t confined to textbooks; it breathes through narrow alleyways, ancient towns and skyscrapers that stretch into the clouds. With over 1,500 public parks, exploring a new one each day would take four years. The city’s culinary wealth is just as staggering. Trying a new dish daily would require nearly a year.
And at the heart of the city lies Tianfu Avenue, the world’s longest central axis, stretching an astonishing 150 kilometres.
Among Chengdu’s many treasures, Kuanzhai Alley, Jinli Street, Luodai Ancient, the Chengdu Museum, and the Panda Centre, each offers a unique dialogue between past and future.
Step into Kuanzhai Alley (wide and narrow alley) and you’re transported to a Qing Dynasty dreamscape. Grey-brick courtyards, adorned with ornate wooden carvings, now house artisan shops, boutique cafes and Sichuan opera theaters. By day, the alleys hum with tourists sipping jasmine tea; by night, red lanterns cast a warm glow over cobblestones, as if the past whispers to the present.
Just a stone’s throw away, Jinli Street erupts with energy. Once a Three Kingdoms-era market, today it’s a riot of sizzling skewers, sugar-blown dragon candies and the clatter of mahjong tiles. Its wooden architecture, etched with murals, defiantly faces neon-lit shopping plazas proof that Chengdu’s soul remains unbroken by modernity.
Venture farther to Luodai Ancient Town, a 1,700-year-old water town where canals mirror teahouses and ginkgo trees shade chess-playing elders. Yet even here, innovation peeks through Ming-era buildings now host art galleries and boutique hotels, ensuring the town’s legacy endures.
The Chengdu Museum marries sleek modernity with ancient treasures: Shu Kingdom relics, Han Dynasty pottery and shadow puppets that once danced under oil lamps. Digital projections breathe life into exhibits, collapsing millennia into a single glance.
No visit to Chengdu is complete without the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, a sanctuary where China’s most beloved ambassadors thrive. Here, bamboo forests mimic the pandas’ natural habitat, allowing visitors to observe them lounging, climbing or clumsily tumbling like living plush toys. The centre isn’t just a tourist attraction; it’s a global leader in conservation research, successfully breeding endangered species and rehabilitating pandas for the wild. Watching a panda cub nap or munch on bamboo is a heart-melting reminder of humanity’s bond with nature and Chengdu’s role in preserving it.
Above it all, Chengdu’s skyline soars glass towers piercing the mist, testaments to China’s meteoric rise. Yet unlike cities that erase their past, Chengdu stitches heritage into its urban fabric. A 300-year-old temple might neighbour a futuristic mall; a high-speed train rockets travelers to millennia-old sites in minutes.
This is Chengdu’s magic: a city that refuses to choose between tradition and tomorrow. Here, history isn’t a relic but a companion, walking hand in hand with the future, one steaming cup of tea, one soaring skyscraper at a time.