City Special: Chengdu recruits global ambassadors of Sichuan cuisine

Chengdu, named by the World Tourism Organization as one of China's three best tourist cities, has recruited global ambassadors to promote Sichuan cuisine worldwide.

The initiative is one of three major marketing activities to promote inbound tourism to the city in the latter half of this year, as Chengdu strives to build itself into a world-class tourist destination.

The other two activities are Chengdu's appearance at the ongoing Expo Milano 2015, and a two-month overland journey by 12 panda lovers from six European countries from their homes to Chengdu, known as the "home of the panda".

Chengdu was selected as one of 24 global tourist destinations to feature at the Milan expo thanks to its rich tourism resources and partnership with Etihad Airways. The other cities include New York, Washington, London, Sydney, Milan and Bangkok.

The chosen ambassadors of Sichuan cuisine will assist top Sichuan chefs to cook the province's cuisine in the "Top Sichuan Kitchen" at the Milan Expo from Aug 6 to 12, seeking to inspire visitors to travel to Chengdu. The cooking show will be held five times a day, with each session lasting nearly an hour.

The ambassadors and professional chefs will also invite visitors to experience the cooking skills, sample the cuisine and learn about the cultural background and interesting anecdotes related to Sichuan cuisine.

Named by UNESCO as a "City of Gastronomy", Chengdu is well known for its spicy and diverse cuisine. Many famous Chinese dishes, including mapo tofu and kung pao chicken originated in the city.

The recruitment of global ambassadors of Sichuan cuisine, initiated and organized by the Chengdu Tourism Bureau and supported by the Chengdu Culture and Tourism Development Group, became popular on the Internet soon after it was launched in July, and was seen by 750,000 people on Facebook within five days.

People over 18 years old from around the world were invited to describe what they loved about Sichuan cuisine and to share their most appetizing photos.

The winners were selected by a jury based on the creativity of their answers, the quality of their writing and their popularity among fellow netizens.

The ambassadors were named at the Milan Expo on Thursday to coincide with the opening of the "Top Sichuan Kitchen" stand in the Etihad Airways & Alitalia joint pavilion.

During the Sichuan cuisine promotions, the Chengdu Tourism Bureau plans to sign agreements with the tourism administrations of the Venice and Lombardy regions and the organizers of the Milan Expo to develop marketing partner ships.

After their stopover in Milan, the ambassadors will set out in September on a "spicy tour" to the cities of Chengdu and Leshan, where provincial master chefs will teach them to cook famous Sichuan dishes, such as fuqi feipian (beef and ox tripe in chili sauce), fish flavored shredded pork and Leshan bobo chicken.

In November, the ambassadors will go to Silicon Valley to hold a "Sichuan Cuisine Culture Week" and show their newly acquired culinary skills in the staff dining halls of famous high-tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Apple and Tesla Motors.

As part of the "panda tour", 12 panda lovers from six European countries arrived in Sichuan province on Aug 1 after a trip that crossed 14 countries and lasted nearly two months, and started the last leg of their adventure in the province. The team, which began with two pairs of panda fans from Britain and Spain, traveled in 10 sport utility vehicles made in Chengdu, the province's capital, picking up another four pairs of panda fans in France, Belgium, Germany and Austria.

They traveled along the southern leg of the ancient Silk Road, which started from Chengdu, went through Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Bangladesh, crossed India and stretched to Europe.

To help the European guests fully experience the charms of Chengdu, the Chengdu Tourism Bureau and Chengdu Culture and Tourism Development Group arranged a twoday trip that included the Sichuan Silk Museum, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Jinsha Site Museum, Kuanzhai Alley, Dujiangyan Irrigation System and Qingcheng Mountain.

The visitors learned about the mysterious and unique ancient Shu culture, enjoyed a close look at pandas, sampled the local food and laid-back lifestyle and experienced the charm of the city's world heritages.

"My love for pandas started when I was a child," said Konstanze Tamila from Germany. "Seeing the little panda babies in their hometown is a dream come true."

Huang Xinchu, Party chief of Chengdu, came up with the idea to provide the visitors a dream tour in Chengdu, the "Land of Abundance", to provide new opportunities for the development of Chengdu tourism.

pengchao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/07/2015 page18)