Taikoo Li Chengdu

Chengdu Taikoo Li opened in 2014 as Swire Properties' second mainland China Taikoo Li project after the Beijing version, using the same formula of open-plan lanes between low-rise buildings rather than conventional enclosed mall form. The defining element that makes the Chengdu version distinctive is the Daci Temple, a Buddhist foundation established in the Tang dynasty around 642 AD and rebuilt after various destructions. The temple was integrated into the retail development rather than relocated or demolished, creating a direct juxtaposition between an actively used religious complex and a luxury commercial environment.

The Daci Temple's main courtyard is accessible through a gate from within the commercial lanes. Worshippers and monks conduct normal religious activities alongside the retail foot traffic — an arrangement that is either startling or entirely natural depending on one's prior experience of Chinese cities, where religious sites and commercial development have coexisted for centuries.

The adjacent International Finance Square (IFS), a mixed-use tower that rises above the retail complex, became a social media phenomenon when the Chengdu Municipal Government commissioned a giant panda sculpture climbing the building's upper facade. The sculpture has become one of Chengdu's most widely reproduced images.

The surrounding Chunxi Road commercial area, developed over the past century as Chengdu's main shopping street, provides a denser, less curated alternative to Taikoo Li for shopping. The contrast between the two makes the transition between them — a five-minute walk — one of the more instructive exercises in reading Chinese urban retail development.