It’s well documented the locals of both these cities are fiercely competitive and by extension so seem to be the foreigners living in those respected cities. Brendan, you make Chongqing sound like the scene of the apocalypse. A broken city devoid of soul? That seems unfair. If anything the edginess of the place gives it more soul than Chengdu IMO. Compared to chongqing chengdu is too laid back, too placid, but that suits a lot of people and I understand that. It’s horses for courses.
And with the ole supermarkets and a metro supermarket I can’t think of anything you can procure here that you can’t get in CQ.
But yeah, if your a cyclist stick to chengdu.