German Chancellor Angela Merkel will kick off her four-day visit to China in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Saturday in the hope of tapping into the trade and investment opportunities in China's economically fast growing western regions.

Merkel is set to be accompanied by a high profile business delegation including executives of Siemens, VW, Airbus, Lufthansa and Deutsche Bank, the Bild daily reported recently.

For Germany, China is a crucial mass market where companies vie for its technology, and increasing population of middle class and the new rich crave German products from luxury sedans to first-class home appliances.

China is Germany's second largest export market outside Europe after the US, and Germany is the largest European investor in China. The bilateral trade reached $161.6 billion in 2013, 29 percent of all China-EU trade, and Germany's investment in China account for 30 percent of EU's investment in China last year.

Germany also reportedly contributes about 40 percent of EU technology exports to China.

That the German chancellor chose Chengdu, capital city of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, as the first stop for her visit shows Germany is eyeing trade and investment opportunities in China's western region, the German Chamber of Commerce in China (GCCC) told the Global Times on Friday.

After visiting Chengdu, Mekel will fly to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders for political talks.

It is the first time for Merkel to visit Chengdu, and the western region has received heavy investment from the Chinese government under the 12th Five-Year Plan, the GCCC said in an e-mail reply.

"Our recent Business Confidence Survey, carried out in May and June 2014, indicates that the cities of Chengdu and Chongqing consequently are most likely to become the next German business hubs," the GCCC wrote.

Merkel's visit is expected to bring further cooperation between the two countries in environmental protection, high technologies such as electric vehicles manufacturing, which Germany has an advantage, according to the GCCC.

Nearly half of the surveyed companies this year believe that the Chinese business environment is improving and will positively affect their company's performance. The majority of German companies forecast achieving or exceeding their business targets, according to the GCCC's latest confidence survey.

Both Chengdu and Chongqing are important markets in Southwest China. However, Chengdu has more convenient transportation facilities than Chongqing, which was why FAW-Volkswagen, a German automaker's joint venture in China, set up one of its production bases in Chengdu, Jia Xinguang, an executive director of the China Automobile Dealers Association, told the Global Times on Friday.

The auto joint venture in Chengdu was established in May 2009 and started production in January 2013. It has a current annual output of about half a million sedans.

Chengdu expects to open a two-way express rail service with Lodz, Poland in the second half of 2014, according to media reports citing Chen Zhongwei, director of the Chengdu Logistics Office. The route opened in April 2013 and currently offers only a one-way rail service transporting goods from Chengdu to Europe.