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Hello everybody, I am coming to work in Chengdu at the close of the month, with my married woman and a small male child of 8 months, I was questioning, whether any of you out there, could tell me about food and human safety in Chengdu.
Thank you so much in advance.
Fab.
Hi Fabio,
I think China is one of the safest places you can be, with a few exceptions:
- The pollution. The air isn’t particularly clean here, but this is a problem you’ll run into in basically any large city in China
- You never really know what’s in the food, as with any third world country, but I doubt you have much to worry about other than MSG (if that bothers you)
In terms of crime against foreigners, Chengdu is an exceptionally safe place. Violent events are extremely rare here and basically everyone is friendly.
you will find yourself in heaven if you are not choosy about food. the chengdu natives are very friendly but language would be a problem, most important, reach out to charlie, he knows everying 😉
you will find yourself in heaven if you are not choosy about food. the chengdu natives are very friendly but language would be a problem, most important, reach out to charlie, he knows everything
Haha, quite untrue, but I am honored. To me, Sascha has always been the guy that has humbled me in my knowledge of Chinese culture, history and language.
Hi,Fabio,as a Sichuanese, welcome to chengdu!most of the Chinese people are very kindly to foreigners!The special food is spicy hotpot .And chengdu is a safety city .Enjoy ur days in chengdu !
In general I would agree with all of the above.
Chengdu people are very friednly, especially to foreigners. I lived in Harbin for a year and it’s a huge difference in perceived safety here.
Funny that this topic should pop up just now as I had the weirdest two experiences in this regard in the last ten days.
Last tuesday I was walking down the street behind the primary school I teach at for an after-lunch ice cream. I hear loud voices, nothing special, I turn around see a group of maybe 8 men arguing, nothing special…I keep walking. Noise gets louder, I turn around and see a massive fist fight between maybe 20 people now. I watch for maybe 20 seconds and then keep walking.
After maybe 50 meters the fight noise keeps following me and growing louder. I take out my camera and film in shaky hand mode how one group of , let’s call them gangsters runs away on the other side of the street in the direction I wanted to go followed by some more gangsters with knifes out in the open. I eventually stop filming and maybe 10 seconds later another group of thugs runs past me on my side of the street, literally within arms reach. I’m slightly shaken and realize I’m basically the only non-gangster still out on the street.
The fighting noise stops, I walk on towards my school, which is maybe 2 minutes from where I’m at now. Suddenly, five more gangsters with iron-bars run past me (where are they all coming from??) while I’m crossing the street and a red sports car comes speeding in pursuit. It stops literally right after it passed me, and 3 guys with machetes step out. The iron bar guys drop their weapons and run for their life, the 3 Machetes scream profanities and wafe with their swords…and I’m standing their in the middle of the road not five meters next from one of them.
Eventually they decide they might not want to wait for the police to show up and speed away.
That was all so bizzare that it only really got me when I arrived back at school and the adrenaline rush came. Luckily I still had an hour of breaktime.
I’m not a big city guy back at home so this was by far the most intense dangerous scene I have ever personally witnessed.
It happened during lunchtime in the public next to a primary school outside of 2nd ringroad where there is really nothing which you would associate with the 黑社会。
Two days later I’m sitting at a starbucks and musing about how annoying that spitting wannabe badboy across from me is. Later when he got up I had a good (quite) laugh at his ridiculous dresscode and was then shut up when two other tables of bodybuilding goons got up to follow him.
That was not threatening in any way but it was not really reassuring to see another open display of gangster behaviour just next to where I live. There was no mistaking the scene, those were his muscle goons sitting in due distance to their spitting, shouting annoying boss.
I still think Chengdu is safe for foreigners.
I came from quite a dangerous city, and i must say, in Chengdu its so safe it makes me sleeping. I’m not used to that still, but even when i’m trying to find some troubles, in rarely succeeds. And that includes touring north areas after midnight 🙂 So chances are, pollution, food, or road accidents will kill you faster. Especially latter.
How safe it is in Chengdu? Hummm, let’s say you can hold 10,000 cash in your hand and walk to the bank on the next street….
Welcome to this softy city! 😀
Funny that this topic should pop up just now as I had the weirdest two experiences in this regard in the last ten days.
Wow, crazy story.
A few years ago I DJ’d at a mafia bosses birthday party at a club in Yibin which was raided by a Chinese SWAT team at 1am. They told me to turn the music off and guys with helmets and assault rifles stormed into the room. Apparently the guy pissed someone off enough for them to nab him in the middle of his birthday party.
I have never heard of any violence really taken upon foreigners in Chengdu, though.
How safe it is in Chengdu? Hummm, let’s say you can hold 10,000 cash in your hand and walk to the bank on the next street…
Yup!
Jesus!!! What a story!! It is kind of scaring.
Thanks for sharing Nutzername.
I would like to thank you all for the sharing of personal experience, anyway, it seems like, that everybody feel safe in Chengdu. 🙂
Does anyone know the Qingyang district (Shujin Road)? It is a nice area? To live with a family?
Thanks a lot! I appreciate.
Fab
Yeah i live in it myself, at Jinsha area. Just stay away from 清江东路. It’s still under heavy construction, not to mention traffic. Other than that its fine, albeit a bit to far from subway/major buses. I can already foresee you buying an electric bike 🙂
Hi Al the dead,
Thanks for your suggestion, can I ask you which area it is better for a family to live in Chengdu and any good Chinese restaurant? Since I will be working in Shujin Rd, I can live anywhere near.
Thanks for the help!!!
Fab
Well for restaurants i’m a wrong person to ask, since i have a food street next to my door 🙂 Sometimes living close to university grounds helps.
Id probably choose Tongyi lu or Huangzhong lu. Its close enough to subway, low traffic, and if memory serves the area is swamped with small shops/restaurants/massage/barber/whatever + tongyi lu has a food marketplace nearby which is a bonus and a Carrefour near subway in case you need a shopping mall. Basically just move a bit north from Shujing to be closer to whatever little transport network Chengdu has at the moment. You don’t want to rely on Chengdu buses…
Suffice to say, if i stay here, i’m moving to one of those myself 🙂 Jinsha area was actually pretty cool when Jinsha bus station worked, but it was closed like a year ago, so it became a bit isolated now. 30 minutes to go 2 kms to nearest subway? No thx 🙂
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