Word: chengdu
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...sight startled visitors. There, in the center of Longzhao, a prospering village on the outskirts of the city of Chengdu, were the crumbling remains of a mud-brick house, its thatched roof scattered around it like straw dandruff. The hut, obviously abandoned, was surrounded by freshly constructed brick-and-concrete apartments. The eyesore was cleared away a few weeks ago, but why had it remained so long? "We kept it there so that people would remember what it was like five years ago," explains Ru Furong, director of Longzhao's garment factory. "We used it to educate the young...
...full scope of the reforms can best be glimpsed in Sichuan's cities, especially in Chongqing and in Chengdu, the province's capital. Under a huge white statue of Mao, disparagingly called the "Old Man" by many Chinese, downtown Chengdu is alive with hundreds of peddlers hawking fruit, vegetables, meat, fabrics, pots, wicker furniture, even Brooke Shields calendars. The bargaining would shame an Arab bazaar. "What do you mean selling them at this price?" a woman asks a man hawking tangerines. "They're full of defects." The vendor yells back, "Defects? What do you mean defects...
Entrepreneurs in Chengdu dabble in many things, but few are as versatile as Zhang Wu, 36, who owns a construction firm, an appliance store, a beauty shop and a nightclub. The son of an officer in Chiang Kai-shek's army, Zhang was branded a counterrevolutionary and he languished behind bars for a dozen years before being freed in 1977. Though Zhang is so wealthy he can afford a car, the ultimate luxury, he still feels ostracized. "People look down on me because I was in jail for political reasons," he says, perhaps ignoring the fact that some may suffer...
Prosperity has brought a wave of petty crime to the cities, mostly muggings and pickpocketing. Even among the poor, however, there is the exhilarating sense that money can be made if only a little entrepreneurial gumption is shown. The latest craze in Chengdu, for example, is billiards. For about $40 anyone can buy the equipment to go into business. The tables are warped, the felt ripped and the balls chipped, but at 30 a game they offer cheap recreation and an easy chance to gamble. If no storefront is available, the tables are set up outside under streetlights. The mania...
...industrial operations. Chongqing Iron and Steel Plant No. 3, for instance, manufactures rolled sheet steel for the Post and Telecommunications Equipment Factory, three miles away. Under the old system, the material had to be shipped to a central government warehouse 150 miles away in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, and was then transported back to Chongqing. Ending such practices has helped increase industrial output and raise revenues...