Word: chengdu
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...Chengdu's main square, near the outstretched arm of a statue of Mao, sits a shopping center with Cartier, Zegna and Hugo Boss outlets. One night at the new Seibu department store, which opened last April, Italy's Missoni held a fashion show with Chinese models strutting to thumping reggae music. "Everybody who comes to Chengdu has a surprise," says an ebullient Antonino Laspina, the Italian trade commissioner in China, on the sidelines of the show. Living in Chengdu "is becoming like living in New York, Paris or Milan...
...quite. Yet only a few years ago, the boundless interior was a daunting and unprofitable place for many companies. Giant cities like Chengdu languished, starved of investment and government attention that went to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Chengdu was known mainly as China's largest panda-preservation center. Some companies like Korea's Samsung that tried to make an early move were disappointed and left, or limited their expansion...
...seven years ago with an aggressive program to bring balance to the national economy. The government poured money into infrastructure like new airports and expressways throughout western China, with good result. "We follow the tarmac," notes Andy Coslett, CEO of Intercontinental Hotels, which is building like mad in Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an and other cities...
Residents of Chengdu, glued to the Internet and TV shows like Friends, are striving to connect with the outside world more than ever before, in fashion trends, food and lifestyles. Starbucks is importing its coffee-education strategy to persuade customers to splurge on a cappuccino. (A grande latte in Chengdu costs about $3.30, a huge sum in a city where locals typically earn less than $7 a day.) Starbucks has seven outlets in Chengdu (more than Peoria...
Foreign investors are lured west by the interior's lower costs--salaries for highly skilled college graduates in Chengdu are about 30% lower than in Shanghai--as well as tax breaks and other juicy incentives. After Motorola opened a software R&D center in Chengdu in 2001, the city government built the company a special building, complete with a rooftop patio...