Chengdu

Source: UN World Urbanization Prospects, 2022 Revision (metropolitan agglomeration estimate). Observation date: 2022. The Bureau cross-checked major-city figures against UN WUP; smaller-city figures are presented as published and have not been individually re-verified.

Chengdu has a metropolitan population of 11.5 million, according to the UN World Urbanization Prospects (2022 Revision) cited on this page.

Chengdu is in China. It is the capital of Sichuan province in the west of the country, on the Chengdu Plain.

Chengdu is known as the home of the giant panda, the capital of Sichuan cuisine and its fiery hotpot, and a major technology and manufacturing centre of western China.

Chengdu is one of China’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. It was founded as the capital of the Shu kingdom in the 4th century BC, and its name — meaning “become a capital” — has survived more than two thousand years. Under the Han dynasty it grew into a centre of silk weaving and trade; its brocade was prized across the empire.

The city later served as a wartime capital during the Three Kingdoms period and again in the 20th century, when China’s wartime government moved inland during the war with Japan. The Dujiangyan irrigation system, built in the 3rd century BC on the Min River northwest of the city, still waters the Chengdu Plain and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Chengdu is the economic engine of western China. Its industries span electronics and semiconductors, aerospace, automobile manufacturing and biopharmaceuticals, and it hosts major research universities and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. The Tianfu New Area, a state-level development zone south of the city, has drawn technology firms and logistics investment.

The city is also a gateway on the modern overland trade routes linking western China to Central Asia and Europe, and its airport ranks among the busiest in China. Sichuan cuisine — above all the Chengdu hotpot — has become one of China’s most successful cultural exports.