Chengdu

成都大熊猫繁育研究基地

Arrive at opening. The pandas eat at 8:30 and sleep after 11.

乐山大佛

The largest stone Buddha in the world, an hour away by train.

人民公园

Heming Teahouse, ear cleaners, matchmaking corner. Chengdu in one park.

蜀风雅韵

Face-changing, fire-spitting, shadow puppets. Touristy and still fun.

文殊院

A working Buddhist monastery with a vegetarian restaurant and teahouse.

金沙遗址博物馆

Jinsha Site Museum preserves an archaeological site within the modern city and presents the ritual life, craft and environment of the ancient Shu civilisation. The Excavation Hall keeps remains visible where they were found, while the Exhibition Hall explains objects such as gold, jade, bronze and ivory in context. Together they make the museum much more than a display of isolated treasures.

四川博物院

Sichuan Museum provides a broad regional framework through archaeology, sculpture, ceramics, painting, calligraphy, Tibetan Buddhist art, folk culture and changing exhibitions. It helps connect ancient Shu material, later religious traditions and modern artistic production, making it especially useful after a more site-specific museum such as Jinsha.

杜甫草堂

Du Fu Thatched Cottage is a landscaped memorial museum on the site associated with the Tang poet's years in Chengdu, where he composed more than 240 poems. Reconstructed cottage spaces, traditional halls, gardens, inscriptions and literary displays turn biography into a walk through place and memory; it is best understood through selected poems rather than only the picturesque architecture.

成都武侯祠

Chengdu Wuhou Shrine is the leading museum complex devoted to the Shu Han state and Three Kingdoms memory. Halls commemorating Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and other figures, the Huiling Mausoleum, inscriptions and later landscape design show how history, political ideals and popular storytelling became intertwined over many centuries.

宽窄巷子

Kuanzhai Alley preserves a group of courtyard lanes within Chengdu's former Manchu garrison area, now adapted into a busy pedestrian district of teahouses, food, retail and cultural displays. It offers an accessible introduction to courtyard scale and commercial heritage, but its polished visitor economy should not be mistaken for an untouched residential quarter.

都江堰水利工程

The Dujiangyan Irrigation System is a living hydraulic landscape begun in the third century BCE and still used to manage the Min River and distribute water across the Chengdu Plain. Yuzui, Feishayan and Baopingkou demonstrate how topography, channels and seasonal flow were used instead of a conventional blocking dam, while temples and mountain paths preserve the memory of its builders.

青城山

Mount Qingcheng is a forested sacred mountain closely associated with the formation and development of Chinese Taoism. Temple compounds and paths are distributed through humid woodland rather than concentrated at one monument, so the visit combines religious history, traditional architecture and a genuine mountain walk. The quieter atmosphere depends on leaving enough time between nodes.