Headlines
Over 1,000 prisoners from the Meishan and Xingwen prisons were relocated to a new facility about 40 kilometers away late last month. Conditions at the new Meizhou prison are reported to be much better than those at the previous two. Facilities include a medical center and psychological counseling rooms. More photos of the movement can be seen here.

During the mass movement before and after Spring Festival, buying a train ticket to travel anywhere outside of Sichuan can be extremely difficult. Amid the rush, a number of previously decommissioned "ultra long-distance" bus lines reopened to reduce the pressure on railways.

Two bus passengers were killed and 20 wounded in an accident on the Guang'an-Chongqing High Speed road on February 15.

A pair of graduates from Sichuan Agricultural University recently made RMB 60,000 in five days by feeding and selling pheasants.

Over 791,800 tourists visited the 57 official tourist attractions in Chengdu during "Golden Week," the seven-day holiday for Spring Festival.

Culture and Society
Demand for car-wash services exploded during the Spring Festival holiday this year. On the last day of the holiday, waiting lists grew so long that some drivers waited as long as two days to have their cars washed.

Last Friday, a police convoy escorted an extremely rare orchid from Xichang to Chengdu for the West Shu Orchid Expo. The flower's owner, Chen Jiwu, claimed the orchid to be worth more than RMB10 million.

Speaking of distinguished escorts, a live tiger was seen walking down the street in Jinsha on the second day of the Lunar New Year (February 15). The tiger was part of the annual Sun Festival parade and was led by a troupe of Russian actors and actresses. According to Chinese tradition, it is considered good luck to see a healthy and energetic tiger this year.

The Jinjiang District Tourist Agency has shut down the picnic tables at Tazishan Park on the grounds that pollution from the fire pits affects air quality. The area had already been closed twice before Spring Festival, but this time it may be permanent. The park manager, however, has argued that the charcoal and solid alcohol fuels used by most picnickers have a negligible impact on the air.

The 2010 Lantern Festival Commodities Trade Fair of Chengdu opened on February 19 in the Shawan Exhibition Center. Apparently, the most exciting part of the fair was free tasting of tangyuan—the glutinous rice flour balls traditionally eaten during the Lantern Festival—of which 100,000 were given out. The following day, the organizer held a "Family Tangyuan-making Contest."

An exhibition of precious stones known as "Wonder Stones" was held on February 16 in Yibin. The "Wonder Stones" are reported to have come from the area where the Minjiang River drains into the Jinsha River. Of all the stones on display, the most prominent was the "Peach of Longevity."

Speaking of peaches, the Chengdu International Peach Blossom Festival will open on March 18 in Longquan.

Construction and Development
In honor of this year's Lantern Festival, the Chengdu government has instituted a new code regulating the release of the traditional Kongming lanterns. Anyone releasing the lanterns within an airport clearance area will be fined RMB 100,000.

Stairways to Heaven: A second batch of pedestrian overpasses is set to be finished on March 10, with a third batch over the Second Ring Road to be completed sometime afterward. Free tip: invest in good walking shoes and a lightweight bicycle.

The city is planning to build a new park, Chenghua Park, next to the Chengdu University of Technology Dinosaur Museum. The park is scheduled to open in September, raptors notwithstanding.

To ease Chengdu's ongoing drought—said to be the worst of the past five decades—the government employed rain-inducing techniques last Monday.

Compiled by Chih Tseng and Isaac Myers

A man and a woman hijacked a car in Meishan while taking it for a test drive. After driving away from the dealership, the man threatened the staff with a pistol while the woman added the contents of a cleverly concealed container of gas to the fuel tank. A few hours later, the man called to assure the dealership that he intended to borrow the car just to commit crimes and would return it the next day.

On the Neijiang-Yibin expressway, a car was found parked in the emergency stop lane without warning lights and with its license plate number covered by pieces of paper. When a police officer approached the vehicle, the driver informed him that he was too tired to drive and wanted to sleep. The officer asked to see his driver's license. Instead, the driver handed the officer some cash, whereupon he was arrested for bribery.

If you've been enjoying new flower displays around Chengdu to celebrate the new year, you have the Chengdu Forestry and Garden Authority to thank. The bureau put installations on four major blocks, including Tianfu Square's "Tigers' Romping Spring," (pictured) Renmin Dong Lu's "To Celebrate the Spring Festival," Renmin Xi Lu's "Happy New Year," and Renmin Park's "Sound of Firecrackers" (more photos in the link).

The Jinsha Site Museum is hosting a "Jinsha Kingdom mask carnival night." Activities will include Chinese wushu shows, dances, African-style performances, and 10 fireworks displays featuring over 20 types of fireworks. Performances run from 8 to 9:30 p.m. through February 27; fireworks displays start at 8:20 p.m. nightly through February 19 and again on February 26.

The Municipal Administration of Work Safety has repeated its announcement that from the second to the sixth day of the lunar new year (Feb. 15 to 19), fireworks must not be set off between midnight and 7 a.m. within the Third Ring Road. People who see or hear anyone violating this rule are asked to call 110.

Society and Culture
More than 1,000 couples in Chengdu tied the knot on January 31 ... and the marriage-license requests kept coming in for two weeks. The unexpected marriage rush before the Spring Festival overwhelmed the city's major restaurants and hotels, who say they have reservations for weddings booked until November.

Many florists took an extra-long vacation for the new year because New Year's Day coincided with Valentine's Day, causing the demand for Valentine's roses to fall sharply compared to previous years.

A local teacher posting on the Internet criticized fellow teachers for becoming idle during their winter vacations; instead of reading and adding to their intellect, they are playing mahjong, chatting, watching TV, and so forth. The post was hotly contested, with some wondering, "If teachers aren't reading, what is education becoming?"

Two cans of silver coins were unearthed at a construction site on the afternoon of February 3rd. One of the cans disappeared before police arrived on the scene. The cans are estimated to have contained at least 1,000 coins. According to the police, the construction site used to be a shrine belonging to a wealthy family. Early analysis suggests that the coins were buried before 1949.

A record number of people applied for travel visas with the Nanchong Municipal Public Security Bureau this year, with that number reaching 202 by February 8th. Tourism is especially vigorous around the Chinese New Year, with Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and other Southeast Asian countries being popular destinations.

The demand for holiday trips is high enough, in fact, that Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport added 182 international flightsto its schedule, including 88 to several famous tourist areas in Thailand.

Construction and Development
The Municipal Environment Protection Bureau has declared the four roads with the highest traffic noise to be the Third Ring Road, Jiefang Lu, Chenglong Jie, and Jichang Lu. Traffic is now officially considered the most significant contributor to noise pollution.

Sichuan Airlines' first long-range, wide-body aircraft, the Airbus A330-200, arrived recently in Chengdu from Toulouse, France. The airline is planning to add two more of the same model in the next two years. Due to its energy efficiency, the Airbus A330-200 is expected to save about 700 tons of aviation fuel every year. And its first-class seats are capable of reclining to a full 180-degree position.

Seventeen new pedestrian overpasses on the First Ring Road have been completed as of February 14. This year, a similar overpass project is expected downtown. Forty-two steel overpasses are currently in use in Chengdu.

Compiled by Chih Tseng. Formatted by Isaac Myers.

Announcements were made recently that Chengdu will pilot a free, short-term bicycle-rental program in its southern new area. Concrete details for the program's implementation are to be released as early as next week.

A bike-collection station in Beijing.

Centered around the subway stations in a hexagonal "honeycomb" arrangement, the bicycle-rental stations will be positioned near popular public areas, shopping and commercial centers, and important administrative areas and traffic junctures. The honeycomb layout allows any point to be equidistant from the center.

Residents wishing to borrow a bicycle to ride between a subway station and home, doing shopping, etc. can use their own ID card or other electronic identification cards to borrow bicycles all around the urban district. Bicycles can be returned to any of the rental stations.

Sichuan Provincial standing committee spokesperson Chen Yi stated that "low carbon" is a major theme of future economic development, and that Sichuan should firmly grasp the opportunity to exert its development in such a manner. And that Chengdu, as a major city and the provincial capital, should serve as a role model, and take the opportunity presented by the impending opening of the subway to implement a "low carbon Chengdu."

"The city of Chengdu has already announced that its intention to become a low-carbon city; this is a good start," said Chen Yi.

"In 2010, the opening of Metro Line 1 is one of the city residents' most closely followed issues, and building a 'low-carbon Chengdu' is closely related to this." Chen Yi says that Chengdu should learn from the experience of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, which implemented a low-cost bicycle-rental program along its major corridors in 2008.

Beijing also launched a small-scale program in 2008, as did Shanghai's Minhang District. In Shanghai the program, which is sponsored by the city's iconic Forever Bicycle Company, became so popular that late last year city officials decided to expand it.

Various cities in Europe, most notably Paris, as well as elsewhere across the globe, have launched successful bike-sharing programs in recent years as part of a push for intermodal transportation systems.

But there was no word of how the bicycles are safeguarded against theft, a rampant problem in China's urban areas.

Headlines
Sichuan Occupation Art College's Green Path of Art Program was presented the Coming Up Taller Award by U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama for the U.S. President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities last Wednesday. The 10-year-old program has provided extracurricular arts and humanities programs for over 2,000 students. China Daily
The first batch of H1N1 vaccine in Chengdu will be given to hospital workers, police, public servants, and funeral staff by the end of the month. As of Friday afternoon, there were a reported total of 3184 H1N1 cases in the province, 2,649 of which had been cured. One person in Sichuan has died of the virus to date.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Hundreds of teachers led a four-day strike to protest low pay—under RMB1,000 per month, on average, according to some estimates—at the privately owned Chengdu Foreign Languages School and the Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School, which charge students approximately RMB20,000 per year in tuition fees. The strike ended after the city education bureau intervened, telling the teachers that if they did not get back to work, they would be replaced.
More reading at China Daily and China Study Group
Chengdu's infamous fog disrupted air and road traffic Saturday morning. At the Shaungliu Airport, 96 domestic flights were delayed until the afternoon, leaving over 10,000 passengers waiting around. The Chengdu-Leshan High Speed road was forced to shut down twice. In Meishan, one person was killed and four were hospitalized after a 23-vehicle collision.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A teacher is charged with breaking a student's arm after catching the student playing poker in class. The incident occurred Saturday at Jinniu District's Yingcai School.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

The owner of a convenience store in the Baohe community was held up early Saturday morning by a man allegedly and unsuccessfully attempting to kill another woman. The local police intervened, firing shots and wounding the perpetrator, who is now in the hospital. The hostage escaped unharmed.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

There are still no traces of any of the six foreign climbers who went missing in Sichuan last month; a Hungarian source reports that a Chinese rescue team reached 5,000 meters and found nothing.
China Daily

A bus carrying 24 passengers fell off a cliff Friday in Jianwei, killing two and injuring 22.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Construction and Development
The first tangible sign of the Chengdu metro's impending opening (scheduled for late 2010) appeared last Wednesday in the form of the completed Fuyu Yuan stop. The Tongziling stop is also scheduled for completion before the end of the year.
Chengdu Commercial Daily
Good thing, because a report published by the official website of the "Chengdu Municipal Committee of Communication" says that the average waiting time for a taxi is about eight-and-a-half minutes, up from 7.83 minutes recorded in July, and that passenger satisfaction—unsurprisingly—has declined.
Auto Home

The new Chengdu Airlines is planning to start operations by the end of the month, making United Eagle Airlines history.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Construction on the Lijiang-Panzhihua high-speed road will begin next month. The RMB5 billion project is expected to be completed in 2012 and shorten the journey from Chengdu to Lijiang to just nine hours.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Wheelchair-accessible buses will debut in Chengdu mid-November. The fleet of 45 will be run on the city's 81 line. Drivers are currently being trained on how to operate the buses.
Chengdu Commercial Daily
The China National Petroleum Corp and Chevron have signed a deal to develop a 2,000-square-kilometer gas field in Sichuan with an estimated reserve of 5 trillion cubic feet.
China Daily

The Qingbaijiang Industrial Park will soon get a facelift and be renamed the Chengdu North New Industrial Park.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Society and Culture
When the Gaoxin District government announced that it would throw a matchmaking party for single white-collar employees who work in the region, hundreds of love-connection hopefuls rushed to sign up.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A man charged with smoking in a gas station was tried in Shuangliu Court on Thursday—the first case of its kind in Chengdu. The man was found guilty of endangering the public.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A Zigong girl who has suffered from the excruciating pain caused by severe scoliosis for the past eight years has appealed to China's netizens via a post to the Sichuan Online Forums for help to pay for surgery that she cannot afford.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Thousands of newlyweds tied the knot last Sunday in Chengdu. Since the date, November 8, or 118 sounds like "will get rich" in Chinese, it will purportedly bring new couples good fortune and prosperity. Our skeptical news-finder Marvin thinks it's all a bunch of hooey.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Odd News
A Xiguanmiao man attempted suicide after winning two RMB900 lottery prizes in a row. The man was diagnosed with mental illness soon after.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A Chengdu shopkeeper adopted a stray dog, only to find it acts more like a cat, killing over 100 rats over two years. The owner says the dog's record is 20 rats in one hour.
China Daily

A Chongqing man has gone from prisoner to interior decorator and made millions in just four short years. Sentenced to 15 years in jail for robbery, the now-41 year old earned an early release for good behavior and set to work putting what he studied and learned behind bars to use.
China Daily

Four employees of a local software company who sold over RMB500,000 worth of virtual coins after stealing them via loopholes in an online game have been arrested.
China Daily

A Bazhong man was arrested for making more than 100 harassing phone calls to 110 (emergency-line) operators over the past five months.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Researched by Marvin Tan

We've written before about how frustrating catching a taxi in Chengdu has become in the last few years. And although 800 cabs were allegedly added to Chengdu's streets last month, it doesn't seem to be getting any easier.

But now help is on the way, in the form of a "chubby figure" who chases down cabs for passengers, collecting 2 RMB each time.

From Sichuan News:


For the service he makes from 2 to 5 RMB. The industrious 20-year-old, Xiao Long, started grabbing cabs for passengers about a month ago, during which time he's earned a few hundred yuan.

Who is this plump traffic angel? Xiao Long came from Anyue to Chengdu with his parents, who repair electric tricycles. To pick up some extra money for his family, Xiao Long had been collecting plastic bottles, but inspired by children at Yanshikou who were grabbing cabs, he decided to try cab grabbing himself just a few blocks down at Hongxing Lu.

The first day on the job he earned 20 yuan and since then has spent three or four hours a day chasing cabs for others. "Want me to help you hail a cab? Just 2 kuai!" he calls out to passengers stranded by the side of the road, no empty taxi in sight. What started out as an experiment has become a job. "I could go to a restaurant and order a plate of fish-flavored eggplant. Sweet!" he said.

But the job is not without its risks. Xiao Long runs, grabbing onto the trunks of cabs and trotting behind them to ensure his clients will get a seat. Still, sometimes others will knock him down in order to grab the cab out from under his grasp. Sometimes the cabs themselves inadvertently knock him to the ground. And passing bus drivers verbally abuse him for running in their way. Other times he'll run and run to catch a cab, only to have the driver say, "Sorry, my shift just ended."

If he is unable to successfully get a cab within 30 minutes, he'll return the client's money.

After a month selling his services, Xiao Long has started to develop a following. The elderly like him since they're usually less able than others to aggressively hail cabs. And once a man on his way to the airport gave him RMB10 for helping catch a cab. More recently, a 16-year-old boy from Mei Shan named Xing Lin has been taken under Xiao Long's wing to learn the trade.

City residents call hailing a taxi "guerilla warfare" (游击) and all have their own strategies for catching one or avoiding them altogether, including avoiding certain areas, timing strategies, and taking alternative modes of transportation.

In a separate article, a reporter joined a cabbie during rush hour and found that from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., he picked up a total of 34 passengers, clocked in 300 kilometers, and took in about RMB500. The driver said these numbers were lower than usual and that the reporter sitting in the front seat might have discourage people from taking his cab that day.

The Sino-Japanese Taxi Company (中日出租汽车公司), who operates over 530 of the city's cabs, reported that their drivers take on average 50 passengers per day, which is higher than the national average of 30 to 40, according to a statement from the Southwest Jiaotong University school of urban and transportation planning.

TUESDAY: 35,000 of Jane Zhang's Chengdu-based fans turned out for the former Supergirl contestant's "I Love This City" concert.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

WEDNESDAY: Two cars collided in Xindu, immediately catching fire and burning the occupants of both cars to death. The police are investigating the cause of the incident.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

THURSDAY: A vehicle carrying nine passengers collided with a truck on Zhaohuai Lu between Zhao Town and Huaikou in Jintang County. Three passengers were killed and four were injured.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

FRIDAY: The man who made international news by dangling his two-year-old daughter out of his eighth-floor-apartment window in July was accused of attempted murder. Also on Friday, a small fire set a Sichuan University building ablaze in the afternoon. The building is undergoing reconstructions; there were no reports of injuries.
Chengdu Commercial Daily and Chengdu Commercial Daily

SATURDAY: The 2009 West China International Agriculture Trade Fair (2009中国西部国际农产品交易会) opened on Sunday. It will coincide with the 2009 West China International Economy and Trade Fair to open on Oct. 16, at which Premier Wen Jiabao is rumored to make an appearance.
Xinhua

SUNDAY: A construction worker plummeted 20 floors to his death at a site on Guanghua Dadao while attempting to repair an elevator. He leaves behind a daughter and cancer-ridden wife.
Sichuan Online

MONDAY: Chengdu's Chen Yuke, 11, has been chosen to play the lead role in "City Square" (城市广场), the opening film for Shanghai's 2010 World Expo.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Society and Culture

In Tongjiang County, Bazhong, 15 farmers decided to make a change in their community. Because there is no fire station nearby, and several of them had already suffered significant financial loss due to fires, they decided to donate RMB130,000 to build a station, buy equipment, and implement a training program for the volunteers who will staff it.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Around 8,000 Chengdu couples tied the knot over the National Day holiday. Chengdu Commercial Daily

At least three Sichuan residents turned 100 or older last week: Wu Xiuying turned 100 on Monday and celebrated with her five-generation family in Sanshengxiang. Cai Bocheng, who lives on Longtansi Zheng Jie, also celebrated his 100th birthday with his sons and grandsons on Thursday. Cai has sold pork in his neighborhood for 57 years. But it's Yibin's Shen Xiuyuan (pictured) who took the cake with her birthday last Sunday, when she turned 109. More than 100 of her descendants attended the party.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Liu Wenhuan, 87, has been living with a 15-kilogram facial tumor that hangs past his waist. Liu lives in a village outside the city and has lacked the funds for surgery and faith in medical procedure.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

From China Daily: And we wonder if that's to maintain their mental health as much as their physical health, given current traffic conditions.
China Daily

A hobbyist rock collector in Yibin's Changning spent RMB10 on a rock, only to find out later that it is in fact an extremely rare "colorful cloud stone" (五彩云纹石). This type of stone is found only in one place in Sichuan and changes its color when wet. This particular one measures 19 centimeters in diameter and 22 centimeters in height. Although the stone's estimated value could be up to RMB80,000, its owner said he will not sell it; instead, he wants to pass it on to his daughter.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

How long does it take to travel from Chongqing to Chengdu? Forty minutes by plane, three hours by bus, two hours by train. What about by bike? On Wednesday afternoon, Ren Bin, 27 years old from Guangyuan, arrived in Chengdu after a 19-and-a-half-hour cycling journey from Chongqing.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Odd News

A dog named Princess gave birth to 15 puppies recently in Hejiang County. The veterinarian who oversaw the birth said he had never seen such a large litter be born at once.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

To attract tourists during the National Holiday, a tourist cottage on the Chengdu-Qiangcheng Expressway cooked chickens in a peculiar way—by burning horse manure to roast them. It is said the recipe comes from Guizhou. As to its taste, the reporter coyly writes, "You won't know until you try it."
Chengdu Commercial Daily

—Researched by Marvin Tan

Harmonious News

Chengdu celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China with a day full of events last Thursday. Thousands of people gathered in Tianfu Square in the morning to watch the flag-raising ceremony. During the daytime, singing and dancing performances were held at the city's main parks, including People's Park, Xinhua Park, and Tazishan Park. And finally, at night, a large-scale fireworks show featuring over 6,000 fireworks was set off over the Chengdu Stadium.
China News and China Daily

The Sichuan float at Beijing's military parade last Thursday was allegedly one of the most popular for tourists to have their photos taken with.

The "Chengdu Today Photo Exhibition Dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of New China" (今日成都——新中国成立60周年图片展) was held at the Sichuan Science and Technology Museum Sept. 24 to Oct. 5. Highlighting the city's achievements in regard to three milestones--1978, when the country adopted "reform and open" policies; 2003, when urban and rural development was coordinated; and 2008, when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan--the exhibit featured over 300 photos from private collections and work units. Over the 12 days it was up, the exhibit received around 10,000 visitors. If you weren't among those 10,000, you can still see the photos here.
China Daily

Among the photos at the exhibition was this one of Renmin Nan Lu in the 1960s, now the site of Tianfu Square.

Chengdu's "National Day baby" was born early on the morning of Oct. 1, at the Sichuan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital. The baby received a Schein Century Rainbow Insurance policy worth RMB21,000 upon birth. Talk about being born in the right place at the right time.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Culture and Society

With the Tuesday opening of a "virtual press-conference hall" on the Sichuan provincial government website, the local government appears to be taking preliminary steps to interact with citizens. The China Daily touts the website feature as allowing Internet surfers to "join government press conferences like reporters" and gushes that the page is "exactly like the press conference hall of the Sichuan provincial government." Selected reporters will be able to participate in press conferences online, and the questions and answers will be broadcast via the site. Also, said an official, the public will be able to interact in the press conferences "in the future."
China Daily

Visitors to the Sichuan provincial government website have overwhelmingly voted "city planning" as their most closely followed issue--over construction speed, disaster relief, and other issues. With streams of cars like this one now a regular occurrence, it's not surprising why.

After a year of post-quake reconstruction work, Huanglongxi Ancient Town reopened on Wednesday and staged a Mid-Autumn Festival fire dragon show on Monday.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Monday's Dragon dance in Huanglongxi.

Chengdu-based fans of Supergirl runner-up Jane Zhang set a new record on the Chengdu Commercial Daily tickets-booking site: 10,000 replies in 20 minutes. Why? The site was giving away tickets to Zhang's "I love this city" concert held on Tuesday. By the end of the promotion period, there were a total of 300,000 replies on the page.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Chengdu's Sixth China International Food and Tour Festival encompasses three sites and spans half a dozen cuisines, including German, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, and South Korean. It runs until October 20 at Happy Valley and other sites and is touted as the country's largest and longest-running food festival. On a related note, Chengdu, which boasts more than 60,000 dining establishments employing over 250,000 people, has reportedly put in a bid for the title "City of Food" from UNESCO.
See the full text at China Daily

Odd News

A Suining bridegroom who donned women's underwear on top of his clothes and skipped down the road announcing that he'd just gotten married turned lots of heads Monday. His picture quickly went online and earned him the nickname of "Superman Bridegroom" since he'd chosen red briefs.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A power outage occurred last Tuesday morning in the Shuikang Compound, Chenghua District. The outage was allegedly caused by a thief trying to steal the high-voltage cable.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A five-student school that opened just last month in a private residence near Dufu's Thatched Cottage is already drawing critics. The school teaches Chinese and English classical sayings and nothing else. Headmaster Xia Sheng, formerly an engineer, believes the students--all from well-to-do families who advocate this alternative education style--should be able to recite the sayings using 200,000 Chinese characters. For their English studies, students read the Bible, tell short stories, and play games with a native English speaker. While the Chengdu Education Bureau's chief claims the school's curriculum violates the country's education law, other education professionals spoke favorably of it for bringing diversity to China's education.
See the full text at China Daily

And, in case you didn't get enough of the National Day festivities, here's a video clip about the Sichuan float (in Mandarin and Sichuan dialect).

—Researched by Marvin Tan

Did you know Chengdu is surrounded by snow-capped mountains? You might know it to be true, but you might have never seen it with your own eyes. And seeing is believing, or so they say.

Chengdu resident and GoChengdoo reader David DuByne sent in this photograph along with the following text:


As we noted on Monday, 68,000 people left Chengdu via long-distance passenger bus Sunday alone. That figure paled in comparison to the estimated 500,000 Chengdu city residents who went out of town on Thursday, according to figures from Chengdu's transportation department.

On Saturday night, Chengdu residents were also treated to a rare clear view of a very bright full moon, just in time for the Mid-Autumn (or "moon-viewing") festival.

If you've caught something special with your camera that you'd like to share with GoChengdoo readers, send it to us!