Sichuan’s vibrant 3,000 years-young capital is an exhilarating launchpad for an adventure across the province. Bumped up last year to China’s list of Tier 1 cities, the 20-million-strong metropolis is home to a fascinating coupling of ancient history and furious modernisation over the last decade that few places can lay claim to. 

This is the location of Sanxingdui, a Bronze Age site with intricately carved bronze, gold and jade relics bearing an artistic style so atypical of Chinese culture that aliens have been thought to be behind it. (Much of the collection is now housed in a stunning CSWADI-designed museum-park that opened last year.) And it’s hard to imagine that the city’s massive Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, a national innovation initiative packed with breathtakingly futuristic buildings, was farmland a mere 10 years ago. 

The best place to experience the harmony of this old-new mesh – and the wealth and prominence that has emerged from the city’s rise – is the award-winning Taikoo Li, a cluster of restored heritage pavilions and newer buildings centred on Daci Temple, a remarkably preserved Buddhist monastery dating back to the third century. Opened in 2015, it’s the city’s most fashionable area, and has earned a reputation as a stage for bold displays from the world’s largest luxury brands. Louis Vuitton’s first China restaurant is here, as is Asia’s first Ralph’s Bar by Ralph Lauren. Exhibitions such as the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Bags: Inside Out have also been hosted in the space.  

Although it’s nearly a decade old now, Taikoo Li’s architecturally touching The Temple House – run by Swire Hotels, operators of Hong Kong’s upscale The Upper House – remains the place to park yourself in Chengdu. The entrance, a beautifully restored Qing Dynasty building, opens up to a courtyard surrounded by two ultra-modern hotel and serviced apartment buildings with landscaping that echoes Sichuan’s terraced paddy fields. 

Meanwhile, a stay in Chengdu’s Hi-tech district offers perhaps the best view of just how much the city has progressed in recent years. Many of the world’s biggest finance companies (as well as tech and pharmaceutical firms, from Amazon to AstraZeneca) have set up offices here – a poetic development for a place that invented paper money. Among the many international business hotels in the zone, the towering Waldorf Astoria Chengdu stands out for its impeccable service, sumptuous furnishings and cloud-nudging panoramas.