Chengdu East Station welcomes travelers arriving by high-speed train from Hong Kong, with the city’s scale and livability setting a calmer tone. The city’s atmosphere appears in teahouses, parks, and street stalls where people gather to drink tea, stroll, and eat spicy noodles. Chengdu is described as China’s most LGBTQ-friendly city and as a “queer capital,” reflecting a broader temperament. A local travel designer explains that when people see a riverside, they first imagine a place to sit, drink tea, and spend time with friends rather than immediate commercial development. This relaxed way of living is linked to the region’s history, including labor migration and the trauma of the 2008 earthquake.
"I arrived at Chengdu East Station on a balmy spring night after taking the high-speed train from Hong Kong. The ride was roughly eight hours of idyllic countryside landscapes with brief station stops along the way. Pulling into the busy train station was my only reminder that Chengdu is a city of 21 million. Some 1,100 miles southwest of Beijing, the Sichuan provincial capital has long been considered one of China's most livable metropolises, and after a chaotic itinerary, I was looking forward to the promise of a relaxed pace."
"I found it everywhere: in teahouses where grandparents chatted as morning warmed to afternoon, in parks where friends took long strolls along the paths, and at streetside shops where people crouched over bowls of spicy noodles. Dubbed the queer capital of China, Chengdu is known as China's most LGBTQ-friendly city, an extension of its broader temperament."
"YuWei Tian, a Sichuan native and travel designer with WildChina, explains that "when we see a riverside, we don't first think about how to develop it commercially-we imagine a teahouse, somewhere to sit, drink tea, and spend time with friends.""
"That relaxed atmosphere and enjoyment of life is part of Chengdu's culture, and in many ways a response to its past (Chengdu's history includes generations of labor migration and the trauma of the 2008 earthquake-7.9 on the Richter scale-that devastated the entire region). The more I spoke to locals, the more I learned about this intentional way of living and saw it in action."
Read at Conde Nast Traveler
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