When people talk about Chengdu, pandas are always on the agenda! That’s only right, as the nearly-extinct pandas should thank Chengdu for offering them the best living conditions on earth, and for its massive efforts to help pandas with breeding and with training to live in the wild.
But we Chengdu people should also thank those cute pandas, as pandas have brought great renown to the city, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world!
Chengdu, however, has more than just pandas! You’ll find that the city also has an amazing food culture, over 3,000 years of history, and a unique local lifestyle! If you only have one day and want to experience the best that Chengdu can offer, then this trip is just for you.
You’ll receive a welcome call from your guide via hotel, he/she will tell you the exact pick-up time for the next day’s trip. If you are not available at that moment, the tour guide will leave a message for you.
Just in case that if you don’t receive our emails or phone calls, please call our 24-hour hotline at +86-18074837277 or add WeChat ID: tracy-tang829 and we will put things right.
The guide will be waiting in your hotel lobby (or at the appointed location) at the appointed time (usually between 7am and 8am) with a Trippest banner so that you can recognize him or her immediately. You’ll join a group with no more than 6 members, a good size for a better tour experience.
Professional tour guide and our vehicle / Photo by: David Deng
After picking up all the group members we will head to our first destination – Chengdu Panda Base. As you know, Chengdu is a paradise for pandas. Now at least 5 places are opened to the public for seeing pandas in the city and its environs. In order to save your precious time and visit with a best possible experience, we choose Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base (Chengdu Panda Base) as the first choice. You may also have a chance to see cute newborn panda babies here.
Chengdu Panda Base
Baby pandas
To make sure you have a better experience, we have designed the best possible routes to avoid crowds and queues, and save your time, so you have more time to see pandas and take photos!
Pandas are more than good-looking and cute, they are special! Join us to find out a full story of how do they live and why do they live in Sichuan. You might not know, the giant panda has been downgraded from endangered to vulnerable species. Follow your tour guide to learn more about what we have done and how human being to protect these cute nature treasures.
The Giant Panda
At the panda base
It’s about 40-minute driving back to Chengdu downtown. We’ll drive to a local restaurant to have a Chengdu Hot pot lunch.
While in Chengdu you should not miss hot-pot! It is not only a meal but also a local cultural phenomenon. Because of the hot and humid weather in summer and cold and wet weather in winter, Chengdu locals love to eat hot-pot, especially spicy hot-pot, as hot-pot helps to remove the moisture in your body to keep you healthy.
Nowadays there are hot-pot restaurants in almost every street in Chengdu, more than 30,000 in the city, and now hot-pot is famous the world over. You may have seen hot-pot restaurants in your own country, right?
Today we’ll head to one of the most famous hot-pot restaurants in Chengdu, highly recommended by local people, to experience the original Chengdu hot-pot.
Hot-pot in Chengdu
In the grass-root style opera house, lots of old fans gather round here everyday, meet up friends and enjoy the show. You can be one of them, watching the performance and drinking tea. But the most interesting part of this place, you have a chance to go into their backstage to see how the actors and actresses make up and rehearse.
Local opera troupers in Chengdu
Actors and actresses are making up at the backstage
Rehearsal before the show
After the opera show, we’ll head to Chengdu People’s Park and you’ll see how Chengdu locals spend their free time and observe their unique culture and leisurely lifestyle.
You’ll see people gathering in tea houses, drinking tea, and playing mahjong. You’ll see earwax-cleaning services, old ladies singing and dancing, and parents putting advertisements in the marriage market for their adult children.
Slow down, and put down your burdens. Let’s have a cup of tea and enjoy life just as these Chengdu locals do!
Tea house in the People's Park
Playing mahjong and drinking tea in Chengdu People’s Park
Ear-wax cleaning in Chengdu
Marriage market in Chengdu
After visiting Chengdu People’s Park our trip comes to an end. You will be dropped off at your hotel (or other appointed place).
Chengdu people have a colorful nightlife. In addition to all kinds of modern pubs and bars, you can see there are many theaters in Chengdu. Sichuan Opera is very popular in the city.
We recommend that you watch Sichuan Opera in Shu Feng Ya Yun. You’ll have a chance to experience the celebrated changing faces, hand concepts, suona horns and all kinds of distinctive local arts performed by local Chengdu artists. Amazing and funny!
Sichuan Opera
Adult (age 12+) | Child (age 2 – 11) | Infant (age < 2) |
---|---|---|
$ 125 USD | $ 110 USD | free |
The hotel collection and drop-off areas will be within the 3rd Ring Road of Chengdu.
For further distances, you need to hire a taxi to the appointed hotel which your tour guide will tell you the day before the trip.
Hotel Pick-up and Drop-off Area Map of Chengdu City
In order to making sure we have enough time to arrange your trip and make sure the availability we usually require customer make their booking at least 24 hours in advance and that’s why you can not book directly on-line for a 24-hour last-minute booking.
But that does not mean you have no chance to book a last-minute trip within 24 hours. For urgent booking, please make a phone call to us at: +86-18807734970 to check the availability (usually it is available ) or send an email (not recommended as you may not get the response immediately) at: inquiry@trippest.com
Due to state control of internet security in China, many popular websites and APPs are blocked, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WhatsApp etc. It is very possible that you may not be able to receive your emails and other important information. For this reason, we highly recommend you to sign up for a VPN service(for example, ExpressVPN) before your trip, to make sure you can connect to the global internet.