Big city attracts expats with small-town feel (3)

Matuszak agreed.

"If chefs can't provide authentic, twice-cooked spicy pork (a traditional Sichuan cuisine), nobody will visit their restaurants in Chengdu," he said in the local dialect.

Chengdu residents tend to be fond of restaurants that are hidden in alleys and street corners and only have room for a few tables.

"If the chefs (at these places) aren't in a good mood, they'll just close their restaurants for a day or two," he said. "They're serious about their food."

Apart from Sichuan cuisine, people can find relaxation in the teahouses dotting nearly every corner of the city. In many ways, the teahouse is to Chengdu what the bar is to London and the cafe is to Paris.

Both Barnett and Matuszak go to teahouses in the city ― often to meet friends. They said a cup of tea can cost them anything from less than a dollar to more than 10 dollars, depending on where they buy it.

"Everyone here has a teacup," said Matuszak, who is married to a Chengdu woman and has two sons. "People drink tea while they're working."

Matuszak first arrived in Chengdu in 2002 and left and returned several times over the following years. In 2011, he spent an entire year in Shanghai in search of better pay. In the end, though, he decided to settle in Chengdu, where he began his Chinese journey.

"Chengdu has a little bit of everything," he said. "It has the culture of Beijing, but isn't as big. It has the business and jobs that Shanghai has, but isn't as stressful as Shanghai."

In the past few years, renowned organizations and economists have bestowed various honorary titles on Chengdu. The World Bank, for instance, has deemed it "a benchmark city for investment environment in inland China" and economists have called it the "engine" of the western development, a government initiative.