This weekend Chengdu will take a big step closer to being a major sports city by hosting the inaugural Chengdu Open the only Asian stop on the 12-leg ATP Champions Tour.
The tournament will be held November 5-8 at the 6,700-seat Sichuan Tennis Centre.

Former top world tennis players competing in the Chengdu Open include John McEnroe, Björn Borg, Michael Chang, Pat Cash (added after Mats Wilander pulled out due to injury), Goran Ivanisevic, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Sergi Bruguera and Thomas Enqvist.
The round-robin tournament will feature eight players divided into two groups, with the winners of each group meeting in the final.

A revival of the McEnroe-Borg rivalry is undoubtedly the most anticipated match prior to the final – the two have played each other in some of the greatest Grand Slam finals ever. The two will play each other once again on Saturday night.

In addition to the competition, the visiting tennis legends will run clinics with local children, with the goal of encouraging China's youth to take up the sport.

For ticket information (plus online ordering) and a match schedule, visit the tournament's official website.

Forbes China's newest rankings of the top 100 mainland Chinese cities for doing business suggest that Chengdu is firmly established as the top business destination in central or western China.

This year Chengdu was once again rated China's 12th-best city for doing business by Forbes. In maintaining its high ranking, Chengdu appears to have succeeded in mitigating the effects of the current global recession. Chengdu is arguably benefitting from the economic slowdown, with many companies – most notably Intel and Alibaba – shifting operations to the city to avoid the high costs of China's coastal cities.

Not surprisingly, Forbes ranked Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen the top three mainland cities for doing business. Provinces with the most cities on Forbes' list include Jiangsu, which has 16 cities on the list, and Zhejiang and Shandong, which have 14 cities each.

What may be surprising to some, this year's rankings – the sixth time the magazine has published the list – suggest an increasing level of competition between Chinese cities. They also reflect the rising economic clout of China's central and western regions vis-à-vis the country's coast, where external demand and investment, which have contracted during the global recession, play a bigger role in local economies.

All major economic hubs in central China moved up in the Forbes rankings this year, including number 14 Wuhan (up 19 places), number 25 Zhengzhou (up 37), number 28 Changsha (up eight), number 61 Nanchang (up two) and number 62 Taiyuan, which made its first appearance on the list.

The once laggard region of western China has also been rising in economic importance. Chengdu leads the way for western Chinese cities including number 24 Chongqing, number 31 Xi'an and number 60 Kunming. Three western cities made their debut on the list, with Nanning entering at the 54 spot, Guiyang at number 92 and Lanzhou at 93.

Construction on a rail line linking Chengdu with Lhasa in Tibet will commence this month, according to a China Daily report.

The new train route will make it possible to travel by rail between Chengdu and Lhasa in under nine hours. The trip will cover 1,629 kilometers at a designed speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

At present, the only overland options between Chengdu are a three-day road trip on the No 318 national highway or a 45-hour rail trip that passes through Shaanxi and Qinghai provinces.

No projected completion date has been provided for the rail line's construction, which will face challenges including cold weather, low oxygen levels, land and rock slides and frozen earth.

Sichuan cities that will be stops on the proposed line include Pujiang (浦江), Ya'an (雅安), Kangding (康定) and Litang (理塘).

Potala Palace image: gosichuan.com

Railway officials have detained a man for stabbing two people to death and injuring another on the 2640 train from Kunming to Chengdu after a dispute over the man's alleged "loud humming", according to a Xinhua report.

The arrested man, who police said is surnamed Yan, allegedly got into an argument around 10:35 am on Saturday with three other male passengers, over Yan's loud humming while listening to his portable CD player.

The other passengers, surnamed Luo, Ren and Wu, dragged Yan down to the floor of their train car and began to beat him. Yan then pulled out a folding knife and retaliated, stabbing all three of his attackers.

Luo died onboard the train and Ren died afterward in a hospital. Wu is hospitalized in stable condition.

Employees aboard the train said they heard passengers scream that someone had been killed. By the time they had made it to the scene of the fight, it was allegedly already over.

Police are still investigating the case and have not said if Yan will be charged with any crimes.

GoChengdoo is pleased to announce the launch of its new mobile version at m.gochengdoo.com.

Now anyone with a phone that can access the internet can keep up to date on what's going on in Chengdu from the palm of their hand.

Additionally, GoChengdoo Mobile has a convenient listings search which can be used to find bilingual listings for hundreds of restaurants, bars, hotels and other destinations around town – just show a taxi driver the Chinese address of where you're headed and go.

The new GoChengdoo Mobile is a work in progress which we expect to improve over time. Please try it out and contact us with any feedback you have. Thanks!

China's second-largest dam project is back in the spotlight after a report published by the National Audit Office criticized the dam's developer for lack of oversight, overspending and poor allocation of funds, according to a China Daily report.

This is not the first time the Xiluodu Hydropower Station (溪洛渡电站), developed by the China Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, has come under government scrutiny. Xiluodu is located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, where the waters are known as the Jinsha River.

In 2005, China's State Environmental Protection Agency halted work on the Xiluodu project until the company – which had previously built the world's largest dam downstream at the Three Gorges – completed and submitted an environmental impact assessment.

On Monday, the National Audit Office's report accused the hydropower company of adding nearly US$250 million to the project's total cost by altering the dam's original design and finish work ahead of schedule. Company management has also been accused by auditors in Beijing of collecting 10 million yuan in illegal gains via a lack of control of the project's budget and bidding process.

"They have exaggerated the problems a little. We have explained to the auditors before that we have run the project according to a long-term plan," Hong Wenhao, construction director of the Xiluodu dam project, told China Daily.

Dam projects in southwest China such as Xiluodu have come under increasing criticism in recent years for reasons including environmental impact, displacement of local villagers and the potential link to increased seismic activity in the region.

The Xiluodu project, which began construction in November of 2007, is expected to begin accumulating water in 2013.

Since playing their first gig two years ago in Lijiang at the Snow Mountain Music Festival, Kunming-based band The Tribal Moons has become one of the pillars of the Yunnan capital's live music community. Sometimes playing for as long as three hours, the band is known as much for its stamina as it is for raucous performances in which its members frequently switch instruments and roles.

The current incarnation of the Tribal Moons consists of John Nevada (US – guitar, trumpet, vocals), Da Ma Ke (Ireland – bass, guitar, vocals), JP Tremblay (Quebec, Canada – guitar, harmonica, bass, vocals) and Ma Tu (Kunming – drums, guitar, vocals). The fifth Moon, Jacques LeBlanc, is currently somewhere in North America but will return later this year.

GoChengdoo sat down with the Tribal Moons after practice in a smoky corner of a bar to find out more about what makes the band tick, just in time for three shows around Chengdu this coming weekend:

GoChengdoo: For people who haven't heard your music, how would you describe it?

Da Ma Ke: Rock.

GC: What makes the Tribal Moons different from other bands?

JP: We're all different ages and from different places, so we have something for everyone – local kids love Ma Tu and the grannies love John.
John: This is a jingjiu band, not a baijiu band.

GC: You've toured extensively in Yunnan and southern China over the last two years, what have been some of your favorite places to play?

JP: We played a bikini contest at Club Nice in Kunming once, it wasn't the best show, but it was the best aftershow.
Ma Tu: We played a show in Deqin where we had to take a thousand kilograms of equipment up a mountain in a bus… that was fun.
Da Ma Ke: Those amps didn't make it back.
John: The Snow Mountain Festival two years ago – it really had the flavor of a festival… The Little Bar in Chengdu has the best sound… Playing the Jah Bar is also serious fucking fun.

GC: What's the strangest thing that's ever happened while touring that we can write about in this interview?

Ma Tu: When we were in Changsha, the taxi drove off with our bass… then some guy just gave us his bass.

GC: What's it like playing gigs around China as a foreigner?

Da Ma Ke: It's good to play, we don't care where.

GC: Ma Tu, what's it like to play with this particular group of laowai?

Ma Tu: They know how to play. Before I used to play with classmates and we didn't know how to play the music we wanted to play.

GC: Your shows are mostly original material – who writes your songs?

John: I write, Da Ma Ke writes, JP writes… so does Jacques LeBlanc.
Ma Tu: I write all the drum beats.

GC: How long is the average Tribal Moons show?
JP: We play anywhere between an hour and three and a half hours.
John: We're a mad band – we play a lot of music.
JP: I like the power sets.
John: The kids like the sprint – I like the marathon!

Tribal Moons will be playing the Shamrock (Thursday), Little Bar (Friday) and Hemp House (Saturday) this week – check the GoChengdoo events calendar for show details. For information on booking the Tribal Moons, contact manager Brian K at 15925216452.

Chengdu police said the June 5 bus fire that killed 27 and injured 74 was deliberately set by a man who was unhappy with his family's financial support, according to a Xinhua report.

The arsonist, 62-year-old Jiangsu native Zhang Yunliang, is believed by police to have started the fire in the back of the bus, where he burned to death.

A police spokesperson said that the unemployed Zhang had threatened suicide due to displeasure with the financial assistance he was receiving from his family.