Chengdu Brief Introduction
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, sits in the heart of Chengdu plain in southwestern China.

Chengdu, at 540 meters above the sea level, embracing the sub-tropical moist monsoon climate with distinctive four seasons, enjoys mild summer and winter. The annual average temperature stays between 15.2~16.6℃ with the annual average rainfall hovering around 945.6 MM and more than 337 days free from frost.

The population of 10.59 million people scattering on the total region of 12,400 square km makes out the density of 854 people per square km.

Endowed with a history longer than 2,300 years and abundant historical heritages, Chengdu is long being served as an important outpost in southwest China and the center of Gu Shu (Ancient Sichuan) culture showing its distinctive humanity, custom, and the culture of diet and leisure.

The coverage of afforestation and greenbelt are 32.9% and 30.4%; the urban noise all year around stays under 54.6 decibels; the pollution index of the urban air stays under API 100; and the water quality reaches the standard of EEC (98).

Beautiful environment of Chengdu

The geology of Chengdu has a long history and the stratigraphic exposure is relatively complete. The hypsography of Chengdu slants gradually from northwest to southeast. Characterized by hills and gullies is the western peripheral area of Sichuan Basin, which is 1,000 -3,000 above the sea level. The highest part is Shuanghe (Twin rivers) located in Dayi county with an altitude of 5,364 meters and a relative altitude of 1000 meters. At the bottom of Sichuan basin is the eastern part of Chengdu, forming the heartland of Chengdu plain. It is mainly composed of alluvion plains, mesas and part of low hills, where there the land is profound and fertile. The lowest part of the basin is only 387 meters, which located in Yutai, Jintang County. Due to the great difference of 4,977 meters on altitude between the east and the west of Chengdu, the moisture and heat distribution varies quite remarkably. As a result, in the mountainous areas of the west areas, the temperatures of air, water and land are much lower than that of the eastern plain. Moreover, even in the same mountain, the vertical distributions of different climatic zones occur. As a result, large varieties of vegetations grow in profusion, which provides favorable conditions for the development of agriculture and tourism for Chengdu.

Climate in Chengdu

Located in the bordering areas of the Sichuan northwest highland and Sichuan basin, Chengdu has its own climatic features. First, the eastern part of the city is different from western part in climatic zone, due to the abrupt change of the height from the east to the west. In Chengdu, generally speaking, the west is cool while the east is warm at the same time. Even in the same mountain, the foot of hill is several degrees higher in temperature than that on the top of the hill. This dramatic change in temperature is favorable for the agricultural development. Second, the winter in Chengdu is short, with a long frost-free period of over 337 days each year. The annual average temperature is around 16.4 degree. Even in the cold January, the average temperature is some 5.degrees. It rarely snows. Compared with other areas of the Changjiang River, it is 2-3 degrees higher. Third, there is not much precipitation in winter and spring while it is affluent in summer and autumn with the total precipitation volume of 1,124 centimeters. And this figure is comparatively stable, the ratio of the year with most rainfall and the year with least precipitation being 2:1. Fourth, the climatic elements of light, water and heat almost occur in the same season, which is a very favorable combination to the growth and propagation of the vegetation. Fifth, the wind speed is low. On the plain and in the mountainous areas, the normal speed of wind is around 1 to 1.5 meters per minute. The total sunshine hours average 1,042 to 1412 each year.

Chengdu Investment Environment
1. Transportation
(1). Road
Chengdu is one of the 45 main highway hubs in China. There are 9 national trunk lines and highways crossing through or starting from Chengdu. The city has one of China's densest highway networks, with 10 expressways so far, of which, two are leading to the sea: Chengdu-Beihai and Chengdu-Chongqing-Shanghai.

(2). Railway Transportation
Chengdu is an important railway hub in southwestern China, where four trunk lines, Chengdu-Chongqing, Baoji-Chengdu, Chengdu-Kunming and Daxian-Chengdu, cross. At present, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjing, Nanjing, Qingdao and Lianyuangang are the ports of entry and exit for railway transportation of Chengdu's imported and exported goods. Chengdu has opened 9 cargo railway routes towards Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjing, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Xuzhou, Lianyungang and Lanzhou, which are recognized by quickness, fixed departure and arrival, and low freight.
Chengdu railway stations currently can handle 100 000 containers per year. The Chengdu Railway Container Center is under construction, and its first part expected to be finished and put into use in the first quarter of 2008, which shall then have an annual handling capacity of more than 1 million containers and 12 million tons of cargo.

(3) Airlines
So far, the major domestic and international airlines which provide passenger and cargo services at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport include China International Airlines Southwestern Company and Sichuan Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Southern Airlines, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, Thai Airlines, Korea Asian Airlines, Macau Airlines and Singapore Silk Airlines. The main airplane types are Boeing 757, 737 and Airbus 340, 321, 320 of big and medium size. The annual passenger occupancy being 62% and the load ratio 58% averagely, the air transport capacity is relatively abundant, able to provide mixed traffic and chartered cargo flights for customers.

2. Infrastructure
Chengdu has a relatively perfect infrastructure. Alteration of old town zone and construction of new district have ameliorated the appearance of the city. Central urban area of Chengdu has reached 283.86 km2. Public facilities such as water, electricity power and gas supplies, etc. have constantly improved and the diffusion rate of tap water has reached 100 per cent in urban area. In the whole city, more than ten backbone roads have been constructed one after the other, such as Shudu Road, the First Ring Road, the Second Ring Road, the Third Ring Road, City-circling Expressway, Tianfu Road, etc. Through implementing “straightway project”, central urban roads of more than 300 km have been repaired; new constructed road area is about 400,000 m2; bridge area is 42,000 m2; some projects, such as Laonanmen Flyover, New Yiguanmiao Trestle, and Hongxing Road Underground Tunnel, etc., have been constructed. Transportation situation in urban area has constantly been improved and a city road transportation network combining circularity with rediatiform has initially formed.

3. General Situation of Human Resources
Chengdu is China's important educational and scientific research centre, having trained large quantities of high-level scientific talents every year. In addition, Chengdu is an important talent's distributing centre in the western China too. A large number of overseas students and graduates from many other cities come to work in Chengdu every year. Chengdu keeps high talent's stability and has remarkable long time labor cost advantages compared with the coastal cities.

Compared with other domestic main cities, Chengdu has a relative advantage in talent's quantity. The number of various kinds of professional technical personnel is up to 580,000, ranking the fourth among national large and medium cities and the first in the western regions. Among them, those talents with master's or higher degree account for 4%; bachelor’s degree account for 30% and 40% are with the educational background of junior college.

4. Financial Institutes

Chengdu has established its status as the regional financial center with most complete types and numbers of financial institutions. The exchange volume of the financial institutions in Chengdu ranks the first among the cities in western China, and the stock turnover ranks the third in China which is only after Shanghai and Shenzhen. So far, 13 foreign-funded financial institutions including Standard Chartered Bank, National Bank of Paris, OCBC Group, United Overseas Bank, Bank of East Asia and HSBC have established their own representative offices and branches in Chengdu. The People’s Bank of China, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and China Insurance Regulatory Commission have established their own major regional branches and agencies in Chengdu supervising the business exchanges of banks, securities and insurance in southwestern China.