Why it looks like this

Chengdu is one of the very few great cities that has never moved and never changed its name since ancient times. Its wealth comes from an engineering marvel: around 256 BC, governor Li Bing split the Min River at Dujiangyan to irrigate the Chengdu Plain without dams — the system still works today.

On that flat, rich plain the city grew outward evenly in all directions, so the modern map is almost a target: the old core (where the Ming palace once stood) at the middle, wrapped by ring road after ring road.