Chengdu City, Sichuan Province 成都市， 四川省.
Good morning from the roof of my apartment in Chengdu. It was a great spot to watch the sunrise and listen to the city wake up.
I was able to watch these buildings go up within a matter of months. Laborers worked from 7am to 6pm seven days a week. We all hear about China urbanizing at breakneck speed, but it was strange to physically see it manifest.
Taken at a downtown shopping mega-center. Underneath the ground is a vast network of subway lines all orbiting a subterranean shopping complex. Strange to think that beneath my feet is a huge shopping complex, complete with a movie theater, multiple salons and countless restaurants and cafes.
A rather pretty park. A guy yelled at me because I wasn't allowed to be in the area, but it was the only place that wasn't slammed with people. I'd easily get yelled at in exchange for a few minutes of peace and quiet.
Nothing spectacular about this photo, but it is special to me because I took it the night before I left. I grew rather fond of the nightlife characteristic of Chengdu culture. Locals are often called 'lazy', but it should be noted that the term is applied with affection. Beijing (to promote uniformity) holds the same time zone across the country, so the business day unofficially starts a bit later for locals (with the exception of state banks and other official offices) prompting most people to "sleep in". As a result, Chengdu locals tend to stay up "late" and congregate around street BBQ and hotpot. People happily wait in line for (literally) hours for a table at a trendy restaurant and apologetically allocate a huge proportion of their financial budget on cuisine. Fortunately, spots like this is an great way to socialize while eating hotpot (火锅) or chuànchuàn (串串) while sipping a cold, cheap beer and smoking a cigarette, if desired.
I feel rather fortunate to have lived near this spot. To the left of the bridge is a fantastic street food & restaurant magnet for all the night owls. Jump across the river and you'll get a dense concentration of nightclubs and bars if you feel like raging a bit. I taught a class near here so I rode past it quite often.
This is largely the reality of Chengdu. It is often ranked as one of the most polluted cities on the planet. It is inland and in a basin so there is not much wind to clear the air away. I reckon this is what I'd see 2 out of 3 days I woke up and looked out my window.
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