Inside the ‘chill capital’ of China

Visitors looking at a map at the Chengdu Zoo in Chengdu. Once derided for its slower pace, Chengdu has a surging population and booming real estate market as workers look beyond China’s major coastal cities. — The New York Times

THE inland city of Chengdu in southwestern China is often ridiculed for its slow-paced and leisurely lifestyle.

It is portrayed as a haven for slackers, lacking the unrelenting, hardworking culture found in wealthy coastal trade centres like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.