 For most, Sichuan is synonymous with delicious food. It has a unique cuisine, which has gained an international reputation. The second most striking feature of the province is its surrounding mountains. These mountains form a basin, in which the province's 85 million people live.
Sichuan is a mountainous region, with a basin called the Chengdu Plain. This plain has high rainfall and fertile soil, making it a rich agricultural region of China.
Sichuan Province lies between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, making it an essential transportation passage linking the north and south regions of western China. The province covers an area of 485,000 square kilometres.
 Sichuan is located in a sub－tropical belt, with a varying topography and climate. It has an abundance of flora and fauna, with 143 kinds of rare animals and more than 10,000 species of rare plants. The amiable natural environment also influenced the customs of the local people.
Sichuan cuisine is the most distinguishing feature of the province's culture.
 “Sichuan cuisine is one of the eight major Chinese cuisine. It devotes particular attention to the color, aroma, flavor and appearance of each dish. But it is mainly known for being very spicy. This is the famous Sichuan "Bobo Chicken." Is it really spicy？ It is, but in a good way. And it has a great aftertaste,” said Zeng Shaohe, a chef.
Sichuan people are famous for their tolerance of hot and spicy food. It is said that eating chili somehow reflects the culture and temperament of the province's people.
Each Province has its own particular culture that has developed over centuries. This culture reflects the people's attitude to life and the surrounding world. The Sichuan culture is very poetic. For example, they take a very different approach to tea drinking. They believe it should be an entire serene experience, with the atmosphere being just as important as the actual taste of the tea.
In all of China, Sichuan province has the most teahouses. Tea drinking plays an important role in the lives of the local people's, they believe consuming tea daily is as necessary as eating rice.
While Sichuan people are relaxing and enjoying their tea, they like to be entertained by performances, particularly the local Sichuan opera.
 Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding was founded in 1987. There are 31 Pandas in this breeding centre. Once the population reaches about 50, they plan to release some back into the wild. At the moment there are less than 1,000 pandas left in the wild in China, with 80 percent of these in Sichuan.
The Giant Panda is a unique animal found in Sichuan. The Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding hopes to boost the Giant Panda population, through their artificial breeding program. The Pandas which are born in this centre will be given minimum handling by the staff, and prepared for eventual re－release into the wild.
 Emei Mountain is a place of natural beauty, with wild mountains and clean rivers, and the area is listed on the World Cultural and Natural Heritage list. Taking a cable car up to the Mountain you can have a clear view of the magnificent surrounding scenery. Emei Mountain is one of the four main religious mountains in China, with many pilgrims and tourists visiting. The steep sided mountains also provide a perfect playground for the local monkey population.
The development of the Global IT industry has made life a lot easier, forming a new network economy. However, the concept of networking though is not a new idea. Sichuan has had an irrigation network called Dujiangyan, for more than 2,000 years. This system contributed significantly to the rural prosperity of ancient China, and it is still in use today.
 The water resources in Sichuan are plentiful, resulting in good fertile lands, but also devastating floods. The Dujiangyan Irrigation Network has been trying to tame the province's waters for 2,000 years. It has been proclaimed by the Chinese as the "most perfect irrigation network in the world".
The network was designed by Li Bing in 306 BC. He was the local governor and a highly acclaimed irrigation expert of his time.
 The Dujianyan consists of three major sections, the water－dividing dyke, the spillway and the water inlet. The network is positioned to take advantage of the natural topography, and flow of the river. Ever since its construction there has limited floods and droughts in the lower plain areas, leading to the province's reputation as the "Land of Abundance".
 Historically Sichuan developed its economy early. It has rich land and abundant natural resources, thus boosting the growth of the region. Sichuan province has always been an important base for China's industries and in particular science and research, machinery, electronics, power generation, metallurgy and chemical industries. Up until the 1980s the economic strength of Sichuan province was unsurpassed, but with the industrialization and urbanization of eastern China, the agricultural based province began to lag behind. However a lot of Sichuan's natural resources still remain untapped.
Several million Sichuan residents have chosen to migrate to Eastern China in search of better work prospects. The money they bring back to the province is equal to the yearly financial revenue of the whole region. Often when these workers return to Sichuan after several years working, they are even more aware of the economic gap between their homeland and the eastern states.
 Chengdu Plain covers 6,000 square kilometres of Sichuan. The remainder of the province is covered with mountains and plateaus. In these areas many farmers have never been outside their villages, due to the constant nature of their agricultural lives.
However the villages in Sichuan are gradually changing, single agricultural production is being replaced by a diversified economy.
Luzhou is a medium－sized city in Sichuan. The Luzhou airport has just undergone extensive renovations and expansions. Several new routes from Luzhou to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have begun service. Other transport expansions include the construction of an international goods container port, due to be completed at the end of this year. With the continuation of the West China Development Project, the small and medium－sized cities in Sichuan have a good opportunity to grow and expand.
“We have many goals for the next 30 years. First, to make Sichuan's economy the strongest in western China； second, to provide ecological protection for the upper areas of the Yangtze River； third, to achieve cultural prosperity and coordinate economic and social growth,” said Zou Guangyan, Deputy Governor of Sichuan Province.
 The cost of living in Chengdu is one of the lowest anywhere in China. For 60 US cents, you can hail a cab and ride for up to 4 kilometers. Many people believe the province’s high standard of living should exclude it from the West China Development Project.
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