Sichuan capital to Benefit as investors look inland

It was only 390.1 billion yuan in 2008, the year when the world slipped into financial crisis.

But Chengdu managed to achieve rapid economic expansion annually over the past five years despite global economic turmoil and slower growth nationwide.

The city's total trade volume with foreign countries reached $47.54 billion in 2012, up 25.5 percent compared to the year before.

Per capita disposable income of urban residents rose 13.6 percent to 27,194 yuan, outpacing inflation, which was 3 percent last year, according to official figures.

The gap between rural and urban incomes has also narrowed gradually in the last decade. Rural incomes were at 37.6 percent the level of urban incomes in 2002, and by last year, that figure had risen to 41.5 percent.

Roughly 35 percent of Chengdu's 14 million residents are rural, and their average net income per capita grew by 14.1 percent to 11,301 yuan in 2012.

The local authorities have also pushed ahead with many public welfare projects, such as free bus rides and more than 50,000 government-subsidized apartments.

Its rapid rise began in the 2000s as a result of the Chinese government's western development strategy, which aimed to reduce the developmental gap between coastal regions and inland areas.