Chengdu Travel Guide

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Things to Do in Chengdu

Compare the Panda Base, Sichuan Opera, food and the regional day trips.

Chengdu Panda Base Guide

Tickets, reservations and how it differs from Dujiangyan Panda Valley.

Sichuan Opera Face Changing

How bian lian works and what a Chengdu opera evening looks like.

Chengdu Itinerary: 1, 2 & 3 Days

Realistic day plans across the city core and both regional day trips.

Chengdu Airports & Transport

CTU vs TFU — two separate airports and how to plan transfers.

Best Time to Visit Chengdu

Seasonal weather notes and why panda viewing works year-round.

Dujiangyan & Mount Qingcheng

A regional day trip pairing a 3rd-century-BC irrigation system with a Taoist mountain.

Leshan Giant Buddha

A full-day trip to the largest stone-carved sitting Buddha in the world.

City Core vs Regional Day Trips

Most Chengdu trip planning splits into city-core stops and two separate regional day trips, each with its own travel time:

• Chengdu Panda Base: about 10 km from the city center — the closest and most accessible panda visit, not the same facility as Dujiangyan Panda Valley.
• Dujiangyan & Mount Qingcheng: a regional day trip (roughly 1-1.5 hours away) pairing a 3rd-century-BC irrigation system with a Taoist mountain, jointly UNESCO-listed.
• Leshan Giant Buddha: a full-day trip to a Tang-dynasty cliff carving, separate from the larger Mount Emei trip.

Treat the two regional trips as separate day plans rather than an afternoon add-on — see the itinerary guide for how to sequence them.

Choose by Number of Days

• 1 day: Panda Base in the morning, food and city-core streets in the afternoon, opera in the evening.
• 2 days: add one regional day trip — Dujiangyan-Qingcheng or Leshan, not usually both.
• 3 days: fit in the second regional trip, or slow the pace with a teahouse afternoon.

See the full itinerary guide →

What About Food?

Chengdu food runs wider than pure heat — mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, kung pao chicken and hot pot each bring a different flavor profile, and not every dish is extremely spicy. See the Chengdu food guide for what to order and where hot pot fits in.

Main Planning Constraints

• The Chengdu Panda Base and Dujiangyan Panda Valley are separate facilities with separate tickets — about 40 km apart.
• Panda activity is never guaranteed on any given visit; morning entry near feeding is a tendency, not a promise.
• Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU) and Chengdu Tianfu (TFU) are two separate airports — check the code on your ticket.
• We do not quote prices on this guide — send your dates and group size through an inquiry for a confirmed quote.

Chengdu Private Tours

If you would rather hand off the planning, we arrange private routes with hotel pickup and ticket coordination around the same attractions covered in this guide.

• Chengdu Panda Base Private Tour — a city-morning panda route.
• Dujiangyan & Qingcheng Day Tour — the irrigation system and Taoist mountain in one day.
• Leshan Giant Buddha Day Tour — a full-day route to the cliff carving.
• Chengdu Food Tour — a hosted evening of local dishes and hot pot.
• Sichuan Opera Show + Private Transfer — an evening face-changing show with pickup and return.

See All Chengdu Tours

Get a Chengdu Plan

Tell us your dates, group size, and which regional day trip interests you. We reply with a realistic route and quote — no obligation to book.

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