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Szechuan

Sichuan (四川 Sìchuān), also known as Szechwan, is a province in the west of the Southern Central area of China.

Regions

Cities

  • Chengdu - the capital of Sichuan has 2000 years of history, its south east part is encircled by mountains and to the north east is Chengdu Campagna.
  • Dege - home to an amazing Tibetan library.
  • Ganzi - rough Tibetan town and launching point for exploring local monasteries.
  • Kangding - gateway to western Sichuan's Tibetan region.
  • Langmusi - beautiful Tibetan border town sitting in both Gansu & Sichuan, has 2 monasteries, horse trekking opportunities and a sky burial site.
  • Leshan - home of the largest Buddha in the world.
  • Songpan - base camp for exploring Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve and Amdo Tibetan culture.
  • Xiangcheng
  • Xinlong

Chongqing Municipality is administratively separate, but culturally still Sichuanese. See List of Chinese provinces and regions.

Other destinations

Understand

Climate. See the climate table on Chengdu page

Talk

Mandarin and Sichuanese are widely spoken through out the province and in the north and west Tibetan is the mother tongue.

Get in

Get around

See

Do

Eat

Sichuan cuisine is well-known worldwide, including dishes like Kung Pao Chicken (宮保雞丁) and Twice Cooked Pork (回鍋肉). It is also famously spicy, with liberal use of chilies and the indigenous Sichuan pepper (花椒 huājiāo).

Drink

Feeling4Seasons Cafe Orient Times Mall 2F,xia dongda street,chengdu 028-66208848 offers italian espresso.

Sleep

  • The Pleasure Hotel is located in Qingyang District. It is conveniently situated 25 km from the Chengdu Shuang International Airport. It offers 97 air-conditioned guestrooms with a satellite TV, IDD telephone, private toilet and bath, and mini-bar. Address: 130 Babao St. Qingyang District, Chengdu Sichuan, China. Phone Number: 86-28-86250888. Price: CNY 237.80
  • Nanfu Bund Hotel, ☎ 86-28-84553939, [1]. Nanfu Bund Hotel is a five star hotel located in Jinjiang District. While staying at this hotel, you might want to visit some of their tourist spots which includes Jinjiang River and Wangjiang Park. They have air-conditioned rooms that has a cable TV, private toilet and bath, hair dryer, and a free high-speed Internet access. No. 117 Shunjiang Road, Jinjiang District, Chendu, Sichuan, China. Rates start at CNY 322.25+.  

Stay safe

The province of Sichuan suffered a catastrophic earthquake on May 12, 2008 centered on Wenchuan County, about 100km north of Chengdu city. Many cities were nearly completaly destroyed and over 80,000 people are dead or missing with hundreds of thousands more injured or homeless. Government response was fast, but reconstruction will still take years.

Many of Sichuan's main attractions are located at altitudes above 3,000 meters and thus altitude sickness is a threat. Make sure to monitor your own health and take it easy for a day or two if moving from the low lands to higher elevations.

To help combat this sickness, many local Chinese eat medicine known as Hong Jing Tian. These are red capsules that the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army use to help them quickly adjust to altitude conditions in the Western Chinese provinces. Local tour companies will have a ready supply of this medicine if you ask.

There is also tension in Western Sichuan between the Chinese government and the mainly Tibetan people there and travel restrictions may apply to this area. See the warnings under Tibet.

Get out

This page was last edited at 02:52, on 17 February 2009 by Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. Based on work by Aine Hickey, Jani Patokallio, Timothy Chuter, Derek Harkness, Marc Heiden and Roger Chrisman, Wikitravel user(s) Pashley, WTDuck2, WindHorse and Omni, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others.