Chengdu-known as “storehouse of heaven”

The prime sights in Chengdu are Thatched Cottage of Du Fu 杜甫草堂, which is a commemorative museum in the form of a traditional Chinese-style garden built at the site where Du Fu (712-770), one of China' greatest poets, lived for nearly four years. He composed more than 240 poems reflecting the misery of the labouring people and his enlightened views about it. Du, whose poems prescribed reading for any foreign students majoring in Chinese literature, was a humanist. His writing style is revered both for its manifest sympathy for people’s sufferings and resentment of injustice and corruption; Wuhouci Temple (Marquis Wu Shrine) 武侯祠built in the sixth century, the temple, which covers 37, 000 square metres, is a shrine dedicated to Zhuge Liang (181-234), prime minister of Shu Kingdom of the Thee Kingdom period (220-265) which witnessed one of the most fierce wars in China fought by three rival states trying to reunify the country. Zhuge is the personification of wisdom and loyalty in China; Dujiangyan Irrigation System 都江堰水利工程constructed in the period 306 to 251 BC by the local people under the guidance of Li Bing, the then leader of Shu Prefecture in the Kingdom of Qin, and his son, Erlang, and Yongling Mausoleum 永陵 is the tomb of Wang Jian (847-918), founder of the Former Shu Kingdom (903-925) in the Five Dynasties (907-960) and 10 Kingdoms Period (902-979). The mausoleum is China’s only imperial tomb built above ground. Archaeologists believe its relief sculptures are the most completely preserved sculptures of the imperial band of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The tomb is 15 metres in high and 80 metres in diameter. It was exhumed in 1942, and was revamped in 1960s on several occasions.