City showcases its cuisine, culture and more at global event. This week, visitors to the Expo Milano 2015 are getting a taste of the cuisine from Chengdu, the capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province. For food lovers who have been to the city, the mere mention of the city makes their mouths water.

Many visitors have been tucking into sandapao, which literally means "three cannon shots", and were amused to find that the popular food has nothing to do with war but gets its name from the way it is made.

To make it, a chef hits three glutinous rice balls against a table and bounces them into a bamboo container filled with soy flour, creating three loud noises that sound something like a firing cannon.

The balls are mixed with soy flour, drenched in warm brown syrup, and are then served.

Despite the sweet snack's charm, what really impresses foodies are the region's hot spicy dishes that originated in Chengdu.

Classic meals such as hotpot, mapo tofu and kungpao chicken now have more and more fans both in China and overseas.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made time between official meetings to learn how to stir-fry kungpao chicken, a dish of chicken, peanuts and chili peppers, when she visited Chengdu in 2014.

Specialties from Chengdu won wide acclaim during Asia Pacific Week in Berlin in May.

But Sichuan food goes beyond spice, pepper and chili and every dish is the result of wisdom gleaned over thousands of years, said Xu Liang, a local food culture expert.

Hotpot soup, for example, contains dozens of traditional Chinese medicine ingredients including cassia, cardamom, cumin and star aniseed, which helps dispel colds and toxins, ease humidity, warm up the body and stomach and fend off colds and coughs.

Cultural heritage

Local wisdom in Chengdu is not confined to food. Delicately woven Shu brocade and Sichuan Opera are both on the list of local intangible heritage items.

"It is widely believed that Shu brocade is the best and the origin of the four greatest brocades of China," said Wang Yi, director of Chengdu Museum.

Chengdu has been a silk producing city for more than 2,000 years and served as a major source of silk products on the ancient Silk Road.

The North Silk Road was as long as 6,000 kilometers. It started from Chang'an, the then national capital, and went through India and the Middle East before ending at the Mediterranean Sea.

It is thought that Chengdu's excellence in food and silk in ancient China gave rise to the old saying that the young should not go to the city for fear that they will be swept up with enjoyment and will achieve nothing.

Despite the saying, residents in Chengdu have made several great accomplishments over the years.

Great potential

The city's GDP last year passed 1 trillion yuan ($160 billion), 8.9 percent higher than in 2013.

The local statistics bureau said foreign investment in the city hit $10 billion last year.

A total of 265 Fortune Global 500 companies have a presence in the city and there are 83 international air routes that run from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport.

The city hopes great development potential lies ahead as it lies at the intersection of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, two of China's newest national strategies.

With a good entrepreneurial atmosphere, relatively low living costs, clean environment and strong government support Chengdu is now more attractive to workers from around China and the world.

The "Entrepreneurial Tianfu" project launched in February has added to the city's charm. The project aims to encourage university students, scientific and technological experts and top overseas professionals to start businesses, as well as encourage venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to invest in Chengdu.

According to the Chengdu development and reform commission, the city has also stepped up its efforts in regional and international cooperation in industry, technology and market integration.

Chengdu's advantages in the high-tech industry, education and human resources will help the city attract more investment and opportunities from around the world, according to local officials.

The city government also encourages top local companies to go multinational.

Economists said that Chengdu will become a new economic growth engine for the country and will boost the region's development.