Chengdu named China’s most successful economic city

Chengdu has been named China’s most successful economic city in a recent study done by Milken Institute. In its inaugural Best-Performing Cities China Report, the US-based independent economic think tank revealed that it divided 266 Chinese cities into two categories – 34 first and second-tier cities, and 232 third-tier cities. Results showed that Chengdu surpassed Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen as the provincial capital of Sichuan province secured a Top 10 spot in seven of the nine components used to evaluate and rank the cities. Chengdu’s position is unsurprising given the city has become an important commercial centre in western China. International hotel groups have rushed to open properties in Chengdu over the past couple of years. In 2015 alone, the city saw the opening of The Temple House by Swire (see here) and Niccolo Chengdu by Marco Polo (see here). “This is a tell-tale example of how our hotel group’s expansion plans are visionary and far-sighted,” said Eric Waldburger, president of Marco Polo Hotels, commenting on the results of the report. “We began planning our Chengdu property back in 2008 before many of the city’s businesses existed. Now, the city has transformed into what we projected, with more than 60 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies having a presence there.” Connectivity has been greatly improved, with Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport being one of the world’s 40 busiest airports, served by nearly 50 carriers worldwide. While the airport attracts plenty of domestic travel within China, it also enjoys growing passenger traffic from other Asian destinations courtesy of flights by carriers such as All Nippon Airways, Silk Air and Thai Airways. Flights from Europe and the Gulf are growing, with British Airways notably launching a five-times weekly service between London Heathrow and Chengdu back in 2013 (see here). Meanwhile, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways also serve the city from their hubs in Abu Dhabi and Doha. United Airlines made headlines last year when it became the first US carrier to launch flights to Chengdu (see here). The successful launch represented a precursor for the airline to expand its presence in the second-tier Chinese markets, with United recently revealing its plans to fly to Xian next year (see here). For more information, visit gochengdu.cn Clement Huang