Chengdu 3-Day Tour: Panda Base & Leshan Buddha

We start the day by hearing birds singing in Huanhuaxi Park, from where we stroll all the way along Funan River, pass Dufu's Thatched Cottage and to an antique market. In there, you may get dazzled by the fakes and genuine ones. A Chinese Tea Ceremony experience is arranged for a short break before continuing our walking tour. Our last stop before lunch is Qingyang Gong (Bronze Goat Taoist temple), which is an unexpectedly quiet and peaceful temple in spite of a location in the busy noisy center of Chengdu.

For lunch, we will continue to walk through a park and along Funan River to finally reach one of the most popular noodle restaurants among the locals.

In the afternoon, after visiting Kuanzhai Alleys, a perfect combination of modernism and tradition, we will arrive at People's Park to experience the locals' laid-back lifestyle. There is an open-air tea house of over 100 years' history. It is the place where we will spend about 40 minutes doing nothing but drinking tea, eating sunflower seeds, watching people get their ears picked or hearing outdoor karaoke by the seniors.

The third stop in the afternoon is Wenshuyuan Monastery, which is not only a religious place to learn about Buddhism, but also serves as a living quarter for the locals. Inside the traditional Chinese old-style buildings, we can find elegant tea houses, local snack restaurants, stylish cafés and even luxury hotels. Then there comes the real foodie moment. We can stop stand by stand for an amazing bite of Guo Kui (crusty pancakes with pork or beef filling), baked egg cake, or hot bean jelly etc..

In the evening we will watch the Sichuan Opera Show before finishing our day tour. 

We will go to Chengdu Panda Base to visit the different enclosures of Chengdu Panda Base, where you may not only see adult pandas, but also newly born baby pandas if luck enough. We spend whole morning walking around this area to see different pandas playing in the enclosures or on the trees.

After our tour in the Panda Base, we will drive about 2.5hrs to Leshan Giant Buddha Statue. On arrival Leshan, we will arrange a lunch in the local restaurant for you

Later after lunch, we will visit the Giant Buddha Statue by walking up the hill, the walk last about 2-3 hours including a lot of up and down sections. (If there was a long queue to go down to the feet of giant Buddha, skip the line, and take the river cruise to see Leshan Giant Buddha is recommended.)

You will drive about 1.5 hours to Dujiangyan City, where take you for an immersive exploration of Chengdu's famed UNESCO World Heritage site - Dujiangyan Irrigation Project. You will visit the famous Dujiangyan Irrigation Project which was built in 256 BC. And it still is playing an important role in the southwestern Middle Kingdom. Those ancient people were so smart and sacrificial that they were able to make a system which have been handled the problems of Water Diversion, Desilting and Flood Discharge for more than 2000 years. That is the reason why Sichuan gains the name as the Land of Abundance.

After our lunch in Dujiangyan city, we will drive about half hour to Mount Qingcheng, the birthplace of Taoism. The mountain is great for a half day trip and also has a ton of temples covering its 36 different peaks. Trekking up and down the mountain takes around 3-4 hours to complete depending on your hiking speed. The hike takes you up the mountain and through many different Taoist temples. The hike is really pretty, and if you go the entire distance you will be led throughout many different remote parts of the forest. We will choose the cable car up and down which makes our hiking much more easier, and the cable up takes us half way up the mountain. 4,134 feet up to the top of the mountain, you'll find yourself at the Laojun Pavilion Temple.

After that we will walk down to the bottom along the same way and meet our driver there, go back to downtown Chengdu, the end of trip.