Despite sometimes overpowering pollution, Chengdu is a cheerful city, its streets and parks full of flowers - especially during the Spring Flower Festival - while market stalls groan under the weight of seasonal fruit. And everywhere, buildings are going up and coming down, demolitions carefully carried out brick by brick using muscle and sledgehammer. City expansions may be commonplace given China's snowballing economic boom, but, given its relative isolation, Chengdu seems to have attracted a disproportionate amount of investment. Locals put this down to their good, aggressive business sense, cynics to Chengdu being Deng Xiaoping's home city. Whatever the reason, the shops are well stocked with imported goods, while more traditional enterprises still flourish in the backstreets, which can make reaching the city's scattered sights more interesting than the sights themselves.