Chengdu, has earned the reputation of being“China's happiest city”

The inland city of Chengdu in southwestern China is often ridiculed for its slow-paced and leisurely lifestyle. It's portrayed as a haven for slackers, lacking the unrelenting, hardworking culture found in wealthy coastal trade centers like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
For decades, industrious young people left Chengdu, and other landlocked urban centers, to pursue opportunities near the coast, where money poured in as China opened its factories and exported its goods to the rest of the world.
Chengdu is one of the fastest-growing cities in China. Its population has surged 30 percent in the last five years to 21.5 million, and its real estate market is booming.
The appeal of Chengdu, an ancient city with a history dating back more than 2,300 years, reflects a budding disillusionment among young people.
Better pay and a successful career are not a guaranteed trade-off for endless workdays and the grind of living in crowded and unaffordable cities. Wuhan, another inland city and the capital of Hubei Province, has also experienced a significant increase in residents over the past four years.
Jobs in Chengdu generally pay less than those in other major cities, and the opportunities for career advancement are more limited, but it is a less stressful place to live.
Huang Xue, a general manager at the Chengdu branch of China Index Academy, a property market data provider, said housing prices in the city were more in line with wages than in other cities.
“Chengdu is more friendly to young people in every aspect,” said Wang Di, a history professor at the University of Macau who has written extensively about the city. He compared Chengdu to Austin, Texas — another city known for its embrace of art and counterculture.
Currently, about 70 percent of Chengdu's economy derives from the service sector, which includes spending from tourism and dining at the city's popular spicy hot pot restaurants.
There is also a thriving entertainment sector in Chengdu. The animated film “Ne Zha 2,” which became China's highest-grossing movie ever upon its release this year, was produced by a studio in Chengdu. The city has also become a hub for video game development, driven in part by Chengdu's emergence as a center for the e-sports industry.

Source: The New York Times