Chengdu Travel Guide

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province, set in the middle of the fertile Sichuan Basin. This rich land, called the Land of Abundance, has been home to a capital since ancient times, and in this flat and green city the habit of whiling away time in teahouses still lives on.

In the northern suburbs is the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, where you can watch the pandas up close across its broad grounds. Pandas are most active in the early morning, so arriving as the gates open is recommended. In the city center, the Wuhou Shrine, known from the Three Kingdoms story, and the Du Fu Thatched Cottage, where the Tang poet Du Fu lived, make for walks that trace the city's history.

Extend your trip to the outskirts and you reach the Dujiangyan irrigation works, built before the common era and still working today, and Mount Qingcheng, regarded as a birthplace of Daoism. Both are included in the World Heritage site of Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, and the mountain and water scenery can be toured in a single day.

What lights up a Chengdu evening is Sichuan hot pot, where the numbing heat of Sichuan pepper meets the heat of chili. Mala flavors such as mapo tofu and dan dan noodles are simply part of daily life in this city. High-speed rail links it with Chongqing and Xi'an, and it is a city you will want to visit again and again for its food and relaxed pace of life.