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Hey everyone,
I will be moving to Wenjiang, Chengdu in late October, I have never been to Sichuan province and haven’t been to China in about 3 years. I was wondering what people have to say about Wenjiang and what living there is like vs. living within the third ring road of Chengdu. There is surprisingly little information about this neighborhood online.
What I want to know is:
Are restaurants/street food/tea houses abundant like it supposedly is in Chengdu proper?
Is transportation within the district cohesive?
Are there many expats living in Wenjiang?
How would you describe the “vibe” (if any) of Wenjiang compared with Chengdu?
What are some cool tings to see/do in Wenjiang?
Are there any open green spaces/parks?
Anywhere within the district to take formal mandarin lessons?
I really appreciate any feedback on Wenjiang, hopefully you guys have good things to say!
I haven’t lived in Wenjiang but I was on the opposite side of town (Longquanyi area) for my first contract and moved into the city last summer. Night and day difference for me, in a good way. If you’re interested in hearing more general comparisons of ‘rural vs. urban’ Chengdu let me know.
I lived in Wenjiang for 5 months last year and i’m now living in Xindu, north of Chengdu, and I would say that Wenjiang compared to other areas outside of Chengdu, is really great. It’s got a nice area around the eastern exit of the university SWUFE, with small shops, restaurants and street food, and you can take a bus to carefour, Itayokado and a newly build mall. There’s not a big foreign community except for the few exchange student at the university and the kindergarten I worked at, so people stare a lot, but a generally really nice and helpful.
There’s not a lot going on during the week so you need to learn how to entertain yourself. They have a lot of different bars, a single “club” and we even found a place to play pool. Compared to living in Chengdu it might seem a little dull, but we learned to appreciate having a nice quiet suburb to come home to after a long weekend in Chengdu.
There is an amusement park in Wenjiang called Flowerland which is definitely worth a visit. It’s got loads of roller coasters and is a cool place to walk around in. Be sure to go while its still somewhat hot though, otherwise a lot of the attractions might be closed.
We found no open space park areas of any sort, but a walk along the river was usually quite nice.
From where we lived we didn’t need to go a lot of places so the bus to carefour and Chengdu was more than enough. It runs frequently and costs 2 yuan all the way to Chengdu.
I have only good things to say about Wenjiang and if you have any further questions just let me know 🙂
I met someone through Chengdu Living recently who lives in Wenjiang, he described it as pleasant but boring. There aren’t a lot of expats there from what I’ve heard, and it’s not convenient to come to the city on a whim. I would expect the pollution to be less out there and the lifestyle to be more laid back.
I Have been living in Longquanyi for just over a year. For me it’s all about the environment and mountains. Luckily we have the metro line so it’s very convenient. The problem about living in the sticks it feels a bit like Chengdu 10 years ago. People pointing and calling you Lowai is a daily grind, but the positives outweight the negatives. Anybody else living in Longquanyi? I did see another Lowai once we both just looked at each other confused.
Anybody else living in Longquanyi? I did see another Lowai once we both just looked at each other confused.
That may have been me haha…I was out in Tonganzhen until last summer. Can’t say I miss it that much, but I should’ve bought a bike when I was out there instead of renting crappy ones.
Compared to the Center of Chengdu,it’s comparatively hard to find authentic bars in Wenjiang, you might think it’s a bit boring.But it’s a quiet and clean district, especially the beautiful scenery along the Guanghua Road.And there are several supermarkets and shopping malls, like Ito Yokato and Zhujiang International Square. It’s not so often for me to come across expats here, but there are some nice English schools and key universities, so there will be more and more expats.and the metro line is supposed to be done at end of this year, so this place gonna to be more convenient.
May you have wonderful time here.
It used to be a long way to Wenjiang from Chengdu, but you are extremely lucky, metro line 4 is expected to start to operate before the end of this year, which definitely shorten the time and much more comfortable compares to 2 yuan commuter bus
Wow thanks everyone! I’m from a relatively small city in Canada so I ‘m quite sure Wenjiang won’t be surprisingly boring or anything, provided that transportation is decent within the district. Overall it sounds really nice!
For those of you who have spent a bit of time there, do you think I would be able to get around Wenjiang alright with just a bicycle? Should I consider getting an ebike? Maybe someone could elaborate a bit more on public transportation?
Yeah I’m really hoping that metro line will be good to go by the time I arrive, anyone know where it will stop in Wenjiang? It would be ideal if I could rent an apartment close to it.
I lived in Wenjiang for six months before I escaped. First thing is the metro will absolutely not be open. The first section is opening this year, but the western end of that is nowhere near Wenjiang proper. They’re just building the tunnels in the eastern outskirts, it’s not going to be finished for another few years.
If you enjoy going out, bad times. There is basically nothing to do in Wenjiang and I never saw another expat or met any Chinese people there who spoke English. It is relatively chill and the pollution’s usually a bit better. Getting into town is a pain–from Wenjiang to, say, Tongzilin can be two hours easily. There are only a handful of buses so they’re always packed like sardine cans at any time of day. The buses also shut down at about 9 PM and taxis will not take you to Wenjiang without a hefty bribe. To get home, you have to get to Wanjianwan in the western edge of Chengdu, then get one of the illegal taxis back. The price is 10 yuan per person in the car (four to a car), do not pay them more than that.
Lots of people use bicycles here, I have seen too many people run over for me to be willing to do so but it’s up to you.
Thanks JC, its always good to get a sobering perspective. I know Wenjiang will have draw backs due to its obscurity and distance from Chengdu, but I still think it will have several positive aspects to keep me content! Guess I will find out when I get there!
If anyone would like to offer any additional recommendations as to areas/things to check out -or any words of warning- please let me know!
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