People's Park, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

People's Park (人民公园) in Chengdu, China, is a vibrant urban oasis located near Tianfu Square in the heart of the city.

Originally established in 1911 as Shaocheng Park, it was the first public park in Chengdu and remains the largest green space in the downtown area, covering over 112,000 square meters. The park was built on land that once housed Qing dynasty garrisons, and its transformation into a public space marked a significant shift toward civic engagement and leisure. Today, it features lush gardens, an artificial lake, and several historic monuments, including the Railway Protection Movement Monument, which commemorates the 1911 uprising that helped spark the Xinhai Revolution.

The park is renowned for its teahouse culture, especially the century-old Heming Teahouse, where locals gather to sip tea, chat, and enjoy impromptu performances. Other teahouses like the Singing Crane and Forever Gathering Teahouse offer tranquil spots to relax by the lake or among the potted landscape gardens. The Gold Water Stream and Goldfish Island add to the park’s charm, with winding paths shaded by peach and willow trees. These features reflect Chengdu’s leisurely lifestyle and its deep-rooted tradition of socializing in teahouses, which historically served as venues for education, entertainment, and community bonding.

Beyond its natural beauty and cultural ambiance, People's Park holds historical significance. The Railway Protection Movement Monument, erected in 1913, honors those who resisted foreign control over China's railways—a pivotal moment in modern Chinese history. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the park suffered bombings that destroyed many facilities, though the monument survived. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the park was renamed and refurbished in 1952, becoming a symbol of civic pride and resilience. Today, it remains a beloved gathering place for locals and visitors alike, easily accessible via Chengdu Metro Line 2 and numerous bus routes.

Entering People's Park through the south gate

Plan of People's Park
Plan Legend:

Tourist Center
Monument of Sichuan Railway Protection Movement in 1911
Sichuan Railway Protection Movement History Exhibition Hall (Former Site of Society for Social Education)
Nongyin Teahouse
Children's Playground
Bonsai Garden
Shaocheng Jinghua (People's Park Incubation Centre for Creative Cultural Products)
Meeting Room (Former Site of Society for Mass Education)
Park Administrative Office (Former Site of Chiang Kai-shek Library)
Chengdu Blitz Memorial
Sichuan Railway Protection Movement Memorial Square
Shaocheng Gift Shop
Banbian Folk Market
Shaocheng Garden (Shaocheng Teahouse Feed the koi fish)
Heming Teahouse
Ziwei Pavilion (Zhong Dumplings Snack House)
Shaocheng Post Office
Theme Square for a Holistic Approach to National Security
Martyrs' Memorial of the Sichuan Army in the War of Resistance against the Japanese Aggression
Chuoying Garden(Sip Coffee)
Chrysanthemum Garden
Staff Only
Theme Island for a Holistic Approach to National Security
Artificial Lake (Rowboats)
The East Hill (Colorful Foliage Plants)
Junping Garden

Bonsai Garden

Entering Bonsai Garden from the south

Bonsai Garden
«Built in 1986, the Bonsai Garden covers an area of 2,600 square meters and has a corridor and a lotus pond. The architectural style is in line with gardens in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. In December, 2011, the garden was redesigned and rebuilt. The new garden embodies the Sichuan bonsai culture, and integrates natural beauty with artistic beauty. There are more than 10 large landscapes in the garden and over 200 pots on display all year round, including more than 20 pots of miniature landscape bonsai and more than 180 pots of tree stump bonsai. Trees such as the elm, Ginkgo biloba, Podocarpus, Campsis grandiflora, Diospyros cathayensis and Chaenomeles speciosa are mainly adopted in the garden. The most precious one is a pot of hundred-year-old Podocarpus, which is cultivated with the "knotting technique". It won the special prize of China National Pengjing (Bonsai) Exhibition and is a well-deserved treasure of the garden.»

Panorama of the north entrance to Bonsai Garden

Love Garden

Matchmaking Corner
The Love Garden in Chengdu’s People's Park is a charming and culturally resonant corner of the city’s most beloved public space.

Nestled among winding paths and shaded groves, this area serves as a unique social hub where locals—especially parents and matchmakers—gather to exchange information about eligible singles. Often referred to as the “matchmaking corner,” the Love Garden is not a romantic garden in the traditional sense, but rather a lively bulletin board of handwritten profiles, detailing age, height, education, income, and other personal attributes. These profiles are pinned to trees, umbrellas, or displayed on string lines, creating a mosaic of hopes and possibilities.
This matchmaking tradition reflects Chengdu’s communal spirit and its blend of old and new values. While some may find the practice quaint or even intrusive, many locals see it as a practical and heartfelt way to help their children find compatible partners. The atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed—parents chat, sip tea, and negotiate introductions, while curious passersby observe the ritual with amusement or quiet interest. Occasionally, professional matchmakers offer their services, and some couples do trace their beginnings to these informal exchanges. The Love Garden thus becomes a living testament to Chengdu’s emphasis on family, connection, and the enduring importance of social harmony.
Beyond its matchmaking function, the Love Garden contributes to the park’s overall ambiance of leisure and cultural continuity. It sits alongside other iconic features like the Heming Teahouse and Goldfish Island, forming part of a broader landscape where tradition and modernity coexist. Visitors to the park often stumble upon the Love Garden by chance, drawn in by the handwritten notes and the quiet buzz of conversation. Whether one is seeking companionship or simply observing the rhythms of local life, the Love Garden offers a poignant glimpse into Chengdu’s human heart—where love, family, and community intertwine beneath the shade of ancient trees.

Monument of Sichuan Railway Protection Movement

Monument of Sichuan Railway Protection Movement in 1911
(a national cultural relic, a patriotic education base in Sichuan Province, and one of the first immovable revolutionary cultural relics in Sichuan Province)

«In 1913, the Chuan-Han Railway Company built this monument to commemorate the compatriots who died in the 1911 Sichuan Road Protection Movement. Wang Nan was hired as the chief supervisor, responsible for the design and construction. The monument took a year to build and was inaugurated before the anniversary of the "Chengdu Massacre". Covering an area of about 200 square meters, the tower-shaped monument is made of bricks and consists of four parts: the platform, the pedestal, the body and the top. The diameter of the round pedestal is approximately 9.8 meters, the length of each side of the body's largest cubic part is about 4 meters, and the overall height of the monument is 31.85 meters. From east to north, the inscriptions on the four sides of the monument are respectively: in stele script by Wu Boqie, calligrapher and president of Chengdu Zunjing Academy in the late Qing Dynasty, in regular script by Yan Kai, official of the Imperial Academy of the Qing government and president of Chuan-Han Railway Company, in stele script by Zhao Xi, litterateur and official of the Imperial Academy of the Qing government, and in seal script by Zhang Kuijie, scholar and meticulous painter of the late Qing Dynasty. In keeping with the traditional Chinese pagoda architectural style, the monument resembles Beijing Baiyun Temple and Shanxi Lingyun Pagoda. It both has strong characteristics of the times and Chinese architecture, while absorbing some artistic features of foreign architecture. In 2016, with the approval of Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, red sandstone guardrails were installed to protect the monument.

In 1988, the monument was listed as a national cultural relic. In 1995, it was selected as a provincial patriotism education base. In 2021, it became one of the first immovable revolutionary cultural relics in Sichuan Province.

The monument is still standing after a century of vicissitudes. It is an important physical material for commemorating the Sichuan Railway Protection Movement and is of great value for patriotic education and research on Sichuan's modern history.»

Monument of Sichuan Railway Protection Movement seen from the southeast

Heming Teahouse

«In 1923, a businessman surnamed Gong from Dayi County, Sichuan Province, went to Shaocheng Park (now Chengdu People's Park) to enjoy the spring scenery. When he strolled to a spot surrounded by streams and shaded by trees, Gong was obsessed with the beautiful view and decided to build a pavilion-style house there with western Sichuan architectural style-featured by Dougong brackets, flying eaves and red-painted pillars. He thought it would a good place for tea and rest. It is said that back home Gong had a dream, in which purple light beams were winding round the house and several white cranes were playing and singing in the backyard pond. Therefore, he took the name of “Heming” (cranes' singing) for the teahouse as a token of prosperity and auspiciousness.

The business of the teahouse was booming for its specialty. The water and tea leaves were carefully chosen: the water was drawn from the Jinjiang River in the south of the city, and the tea leaves were all delicately scented, infusing the fragrance of jasmine flowers into the tea leaves. The bamboo chairs were stable and firm, and of appropriate height. The saucers, cups and lids bearing the name of the teahouse were all tailor-made in Jingdezhen, one of China's leading porcelain-manufacturing centers, or by the hands of famous craftsmen. The superb tea making skills of the waiters always made the guests applaud in awe.

In those days, the majority of the guests were teachers and alumni of schools in Chengdu. When every summer and winter vacation came, teachers have to compete fiercely for a job to support their family because of the scarcity of teaching jobs and the lack of basic social security at that time. The teahouse was a silent witness to all the struggles, helplessness and sorrow.

After the founding of New China in 1949, many shops and stands in the garden disappeared one after People's another for the reconstruction and renovation projects of the park, but Heming has survived to this day with its lasting reputation. Top CPC and state leaders of China, Chin such as Zhu De, one of the major founders of the People Republic of China, Yang Shangkun, former President of China, and Zhang Aiping, former Vice President of the State Council, came here for tea and wrote their inscriptions for the teahouse during their visits to Chengdu.

The two-character plaque of "Heming" was handwritten by calligrapher Wang Jiazhen in 1940, and was torn down in 1952 when the park was being repaired. Mr. Wang was invited to re-inscribe it in June 1988.

After several repairs and renovations, the old building with a long history put on a new look. In February 2012, as the oldest existing teahouse in Chengdu, Heming Teahouse was listed as one of the first historic buildings in Chengdu.»

Theme Garden for a Holistic Approach to National Security

Entering the Theme Garden for a Holistic Approach to National Security
Theme Square and Theme Island for a Holistic Approach to National Security are recent additions to People's Park in Chengdu, designed to promote public awareness of China’s evolving national security philosophy.

These installations reflect the concept introduced by General Secretary Xi Jinping in 2014, which emphasizes a comprehensive, integrated view of national security encompassing political, economic, military, cultural, ecological, and technological dimensions. By embedding this doctrine into public spaces, Chengdu aligns civic education with leisure, inviting citizens to engage with complex national themes in an accessible and visually engaging environment.
Theme Square serves as a central platform for exhibitions, public lectures, and interactive displays that illustrate the twenty key domains of holistic national security. These include cybersecurity, energy security, biosecurity, and space security, among others. The square often features large-scale infographics, digital panels, and symbolic sculptures that convey the interconnectedness of these domains. Visitors—whether strolling through the park or attending organized events—encounter a narrative that frames national security not merely as military defense, but as a multidimensional effort to safeguard the well-being of the people and the stability of the nation.
Theme Island complements the square by offering a more immersive, contemplative experience. Surrounded by water and landscaped with native flora, the island hosts curated installations that explore the philosophical and strategic foundations of holistic security. Pathways guide visitors through thematic zones, each representing a facet of the national security framework—such as cultural resilience or ecological stewardship. The island’s design encourages reflection and dialogue, blending Chengdu’s tradition of public parks as spaces for social exchange with the state’s emphasis on ideological education. Together, Theme Square and Theme Island transform People's Park into a living classroom, where national policy meets everyday life.