Chengdu | Wikipedia audio article
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Chengdu
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SUMMARY
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Chengdu (Standard Mandarin: [ʈʂʰə̌ŋ.tú] (listen)), formerly romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China. It is one of the three most populous cities in Western China, the other two being Chongqing and Xi'an. As of 2014, the administrative area houses 14,427,500 inhabitants, with an urban population of 10,152,632. At the time of the 2010 census, Chengdu was the 5th-most populous agglomeration in China, with 10,484,996 inhabitants in the built-up area including Xinjin County and Deyang's Guanghan City. Chengdu is also considered a World City with a Beta + classification according to GaWC.The surrounding Chengdu Plain is also known as the Country of Heaven (Chinese: 天府之国; pinyin: Tiānfǔ zhi Guó) and the Land of Abundance. Its prehistoric settlers included the Sanxingdui culture. Founded by the state of Shu prior to its incorporation into China, Chengdu is unique as a major Chinese settlement that has maintained its name (nearly) unchanged throughout the imperial, republican, and communist eras. It was the capital of Liu Bei's Shu during the Three Kingdoms Era, as well as several other local kingdoms during the Middle Ages.It is now one of the most important economic, financial, commercial, cultural, transportation, and communication centers in Western China. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, a hub of Air China and Sichuan Airlines is one of the 30 busiest airports in the world, and Chengdu Railway Station is one of the six biggest in China. Chengdu also hosts many international companies and more than 12 consulates. More than 260 Fortune 500 companies have established branches in Chengdu.
The Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction: What Really Killed the Dinosaurs?
About 66 million years ago, 70 percent of all the species that existed at the time, including the non-avian dinosaurs, became extinct in an apocalypse widely thought to have been caused by a meteor or comet impact on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. At approximately the same time, a series of volcanic eruptions in Western India produced torrents of lava that discharged large amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfur gas into the atmosphere. Mark Richards reviews these remarkable events and explains a radical new theory suggesting they may be causally related. He also discusses how ongoing research is shedding new light on the true cause(s) of the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction.
Presented in collaboration with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Recorded February 3, 2015