Entering Sichuan from the north, Chengu may well be your first stop. The provincial capital for about 2400 years, the capital is smaller than Chongqing. Situated in the middle of the Western Plain, this city with two faces is practically the only flat stretch of the province. There are broad avenues lined with trees and flowers as well as small narrow streets of half- timbered houses with wooden porches crowded with pot plants in the traditional style. Once ringed by 12 miles of battlements and gates (damaged in 1949, pulled down in the 1960s) the city's remoteness meant that it played little part in mainstream Chinese history. Yet, it remained a wealthy and sophisticated centre for industry, crafts and learning for more than 2000 years. During the Han dynasty, it earned the name of "Brocade City". Its silk, washed by local women in the Jinjiang (Brocade River) south of the town travelled westward along the caravan routes as far as imperial Rome. Records speak of the thousand and more goldsmiths, silversmiths and lacquer craftsmen working here at much the same time. Under the Tang dynasty, Chengdu was much praised by poets. Emperor Xuan Zong chose it as his refuge from a rebellion sparked by his infatuation with his beautiful concubine, Yang Guifei. Later, under the Song, this was a great printing centre. Here, books, dictionaries, paper money was first printed.                                                   Sacked by the invading Mongols in 1271, Chengdu recovered soon enough to astound Marco Polo, a visitor from the court of Kublai Khan with its great host of trading boats moving up and down the river. Since then, Chengdu has survived more than its fair share of punitive wars and revolution to become a major industrial centre with a university founded in the 1920s, an important School of  Chinese Medicine and a strong cultural tradition enjoyed by a million and a half people. Although very few key sites or buildings have survived this chequered history, you can visit the poet Du Fu's thatched cottage as well as a sprinkling of temples and tombs but you may find some less interesting than the streets you walk through in order to reach them.                                                             Two of Chengdu's three rivers make a loop which encloses the city centre on three sides. Beyond the city, the railway line describes a great curve to the north east and south. The main railway station is in the north at the top of Renmin Lu. This long main road dives south over the Fu river through a city centre of ponderous public buildings and across the Nan river to the south railway station.