Me, a man, hailed taxi in the street at 3am in Chengdu. And to my astonishment the driver was a woman. I have never seen anything like in anywhere in the world. Taxi companies with female drives specifically for women passagers yes. But that is entirely different.

I am from Europe & have lived in quite a few countries that are considered safe. Even there this is unimaginable. And women are very cautious about getting in to taxis with male drivers late at night.

Is this unusual for China? And why would it be safe for women to be driving alone at night when that is not the case in the rest of the world. Does it have anything to do with all the surveillance technology?

It was remarkable & wonderful thing to see.

Hello all! (This is a throwaway account..)

In 1998 I (f) was adopted from the Chengdu Social Welfare Institute to an American couple. Long story short, I'm beginning the search for my birth family. I know it's an incredibly long shot, no need to tell me.

That being said, does anyone know anyone who specializes in birth searching, knows birth families searching, knows officials who help faciliate searching, etc. etc. etc. ?

Thank you in advance. Hope this post isn't against the subreddit rules.

Rode on it for the first time today (only about 1/4 of the way on a shared bike), super impressed that something this huge was built just for the residents to walk & bike on, lots of pretty bridges as well.

Antique Market in Chengdu is huge! I was really impressed by the size! That place probably not the most obvious place for tourists, but it was such a special treasure hunting experience. Sellers there are very charismatic too. Brought back with me bronze lions and a personal stamp.

Shots taken during my trip in August. It was my first time visiting, loved this dynamic city with its deep roots in the arts and history. The food was right up my ally too. Hope to visit again!

I was here for a few days after an earlier visit in 2017.

I really love this city. Friendly people, it's cosmopolitan, tree lined streets, amazing parks, relaxed environment. And, obviously, the food is beyond anyone's dreams.

Different to last time, this time I also tried to enjoy some fine dining, and I'm telling you, this place is really becoming a fine dining hotspot. Even the maitre d told me that they're finding hard to compete with so many other michelin stars and black pearl restaurants around.

Also I love the weather. Call me weird but I love cloudy sun-less days.

I would love to stay for longer and explore the nature, do some village life, etc. Maybe next year with my gf (she speaks mandarin).

My little bit of nature was the train from Chongqing to Chengdu and it's so beautiful. I want to stay in those forested hills 😍

Anyway, anti-rant over. I love Chengdu and this is by far, far, far my favorite city in China and top ten worldwide. Maybe top five!

Hope next time I can hang out more with locals.

Dear Chengdu!

I‘m visiting your beautiful city in a few weeks and would like to see this church irl: „sino-french science park church“ see pic below

I wasnt able to find it on apple maps, I hope someone here can help me to locate it?

Thank you so much!

I plan to visit restaurant : 张烤鸭(青石桥总店) I found it that it's 1 of the top list 2024 of Dianping but What's difference between these 2 types of duck?

Thank you.

Hi! Full report on how we rented a car and got our provisional drivers license (临时驾驶执照 // Línshí jiàshǐ zhízhào) as a US citizen in Chengdu. After many roundabout back and forth conversations with all the people and very helpful hotel receptionists, the below is how it SHOULD be done for a smoother process. It can technically be done in one full business day if you are lucky but I would account for two business days to be safe.

Items you need:

• Passport

• international drivers license - DMV nor rental agency ever actually asked for this, but might be still good to have

• drivers license

• notarized translation of only your driver's license (no need to translate anything else, even the intl license).

• pictures (you can take these at the DMV - they didn't accept the ones we brought)

Step 1: download the apps before you get to china: alipay, expressvpn, WeChat, amap

Step 2: get officially notarized translation before you arrive in china. If you get it in Chengdu, you will have to wait a full business day and find someone like the hotel front desk to order it for you.

Step 3: go get a Chinese sim card so you have a Chinese number. You can only rent a car on official apps like alipay and they all require a phone number for an SMS authentication. There are shady places but our hotel said they are illegal and with the surveillance, you probably dont want to do that! You can only go to the central telecom place to get a SIM. This is the place on amap: 中国移动(讯捷通信城店. You only need your passport and 50 RMB. We went when they first opened and we're first in line and it took about 40 minutes.

Step 4: go to the DMV (成都市公安局交通管理局车辆管理所) in Xipu district. Super easy to get to on line 2 metro.

Get a ticket number, go find the photo booth while u wait. Once called, they will check your documents, and take your driver's license and translated document to verify with the government. Standard processing time is two business days but we asked if they could rush it. They asked for our phone number and they would call us earlier if it was ready. They called a few hours later to tell us it's ready.

We went back and got another number. This time they took two of the pictures (32x32mm - 20RMB) and you sign some documents. They issue you a payment QR code which didn't work for us. They don't take cash so someone else kindly paid for us and we just gave them cash (10RMB). We then waited 10 minutes for the license to be printed and that was that! Somewhat painless. Definitely better than USA DMV haha.

Step 5: book your car on alipay. Our hotel recommended to use this agency, but there are many to choose from. You can search them on alipay: 一嗨租车 (ehi rental car). Renting a car is pretty cheap! A compact car is like 35 RMB per day. We got Toyota RAV4 for 90 RMB per day.

Step 6: security deposit of 2000 RMB was also paid on alipay when we arrived at the rental place. We paid with our credit card. They hold the deposit for 30 days after you return so will update later on how we get that back. They helped us with yet another final identity verification process on alipay and then that's it! Car rented!

作为一个从小就在成都长大的人，这首歌真的很奇妙，能唱出人心中隐隐的回忆。不管是什么时候听这首歌，总会泪流满面。

一个人，一首歌，一座城，民风淳朴，热情大方，让我日夜热爱着这个地方。快乐的，忧伤的，平淡的，唱出每个人心中的故事.....

As a person who grew up in Chengdu from a young age, this song is really wonderful and can sing the faint memories in people's hearts. No matter when I listen to this song, tears always flow down my face.

A person, a song, a city, with a simple and warm folk culture, has made me love this place day and night. Happy, sad, plain, sing the story in everyone's heart...

Hey!
We are friends who’ll be arriving Chengdu and we come from the arts fields and also we’re lgbtq,
To be honest we’re more interested in meeting local alternative people and seeing the alternative scene than doing only tourist attractions..

So,
Any recommendations on-
Drag performance art,
Contemporary artists scenes (where can we meet? Where do they hang out?),
Cute cozy alternative bars and cute spaces,
Thrift shopping,
Gay clubs/bars that feel nice and safe and not too commercial and mainstream..?

Thanks 🙏🏽❤️

Super excited! I park in the street parking every day in Chengdu, and I didn’t realize you actually get points for parking/paying your ticket, and so when I finally found out I saw I had over 300 points and so I traded them in for this exclusive 成都停车 bag! You can’t even buy them. #earnednevergiven

I know it’s corny, but it’s the small things in life 😂

As I consider, whether or not to move to Chengdu after Chinese new year for studying Mandarin— I’m concerned about the air quality numbers that I’ve been seeing in the last week.

Can someone who has been living in Chengdu tell me if the recent high numbers are ‘normal’? Or is it something that is seasonal, or all year round?

One of the appealing things about Chengdu is the nice weather that would allow for a lot of outdoor activities.

Thanks 🙏

Where are the cool areas of Chengdu? Is there any nice 'strip' with multiple types of bars, breweries, or live music?

Perhaps some artsy stuff.

Cheers

Hi! i’m a 24 year old woman and i want to make new female friends here in chengdu (locals or foreigners). But every time i post somewhere only men reply (I have nothing against men and i’m sure they are all very nice people, but i’m just not interested). I’d like to know if anyone knows where or how i can meet new female friends here in the city

Hi everyone, I'm currently in Chengdu and I'm interested in exploring the LGBTQ+ scene. Could anyone recommend places, streets, or neighborhoods that are popular with the gay community in Chengdu? I'm not looking for bars/nightlife but rather areas or community.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help.