So you're moving to Chengdu - now what? In this video series, I'm going to walk you
through all the different aspects of life here in Chengdu in order to help
you make a more informed decision about whether or not you actually want to move
here. So let's talk it
Chengdu is the capital city of southwestern China's Sichuan province.
It's a major city with more than 10 million people in its urban area and it
has a GDP of more than one trillion yuan. It's a city of food, beautiful women, tea,
a unique mix of traditional and modern Chinese culture. It's a city where you
can find just about everything from pandas to hot pot
parks, gardens, musicians, and even more.
Yes, Chengdu is a major city, yes - it has a booming economy, but don't let that fool
you into thinking that Chengdu people and Chengdu itself fall into that trap of
major cities with snobby people, gray concrete jungle, and all that. Look where
I'm at right now. This park is really close to my house, and as you can see it's pretty
dadgum green, and also the neighborhood I live in is super green. Lots of trees and
Chengdu's streets are lined with trees, some of them are
just covered by trees. No sun getting down to the street at all. It's a great
place to live if you love to be outside, you love to do things - because Chengdu
people are that way as well. They love to be out drinking tea, they love to be out
playing mahjong, they love to be out walking around parks and gardens, seeing
flowers, taking photos. Chengdu people are consistently voted the happiest people
in China, the most relaxed people in China, and Chengdu is always among the
top livable cities in this country. So don't let the fact that it's a major city
fool you into thinking at some boring superficial fast-paced city just like
every other place in China or in the world.
It's its own thing. It has its own distinct culture. Let's move on and talk
about the weather. Now, the weather can be a bit of a divisive subject for some
people, because some people really love it here, some people really hate it here.
It's pretty wet it's pretty humid, and that means that you've got a lot of fog
and a lot of grey skies. Pretty much anytime except for the summer it's going
to be gray a lot of the time. But when the weather is good, it's really good, and
that's why Chengdu is so green. That's why Sichuan is so green because things
grow really well here. Summers are hot, winter's not too cold, but there's no
central heating in Sichuan in the winter, which can drive people a little crazy.
As far as transportation is concerned, Chengdu has got you covered.
Getting around is not difficult. You can see, I'm on the subway right now.
We do have a subway with, I think, four different lines. You can get taxi, you
can get buses, you can get private cars, ebikes, scooters - the works. It's all fine!
Traffic is a little bit bad because they're always expanding the subway
system, but you know what? That's all right - it happens. So anyway - I'm on the
train now - people are looking at me crazy. I'll talk to you in just a second
If you had to pick one pastime that Chengdu people would choose over anything else
it's probably gonna be food. People here love mahjong, yes. they love tea, yes.
But they love food more than anything else, and actually Chengdu is listed as an
official city of gastronomy, so it is for real.
The food here is amazing!
Mmm...sweet, spicy, salty, oily.
A lot of the stuff here is is oily.
and it's spicy, but you can find just about anything you want here. Food here is
incredible and it cannot be missed and you can see people everywhere in Chengdu
eating all the time. So if you're a foodie, you need to come here - this place is for you.
Believe it or not I'm actually standing on the campus of one
of China's most famous universities: Sichuan University, and Sichuan University
is just top-notch here in China. It's famous all over this country, as is
Chengdu for its education. Southwest Jiao Tong University, Sichuan University,
Southwest University of Finance and Economics, and even more. There are tons
of great universities here to study at if you want to come to China to study or
if you want to work in education, as I do. Chengdu is a great place for you and
also Chengdu's got its one trillion yuan GDP, right? And even higher, actually!
So there are jobs all over the place. There are opportunities all over the place for
the foreigner in China looking for work. Not just in education - I.T., marketing, and
business in general. There's all kinds of stuff you can do here in Chengdu. I'll
put some links in the description. There is an abundance of places to travel
and to see in Chengdu. There are places like the Dufu thatched cottage, the
Kuanzhai Alleyway, Jinli ancient Street, Chunxi pedestrian shopping street, and
more and more and more and more. If you move here, I promise you'll never
run out of stuff to do. All in all, I'm pretty happy here in Chengdu, I must say.
The cost of living isn't too high here, which I like. We'll talk about that later.
There's food, there's fun, there's relaxation. There's plenty of places to
go see! It's a culturally driven city with a lot of history and an interesting
mix of tradition and modernity. There's a lot of really great stuff about this
city, which is why I live here. I really love living in this city, so I hope that
you enjoyed the video! There will be lots more to come in this series, and yeah!
I guess it's about it! See you all next time! Before I go, I want to mention a
couple of other people who are doing this series with me. You can see their
videos on the screen here. We've got people in Beijing, all throughout
Guangdong. We've got someone coming up in Hubei. We've got people in Chongqing,
and we're all working together to try and put out more information about China!
So I hope you can check out all their videos because I know I'm excited to see
what they have to bring to the table. SoI guess that's about it!
Now I'll see you later! I'm done talking - it's your turn!