The Perfect Chengdu Itinerary: 3 Days

Before you start

Stay central (Tianfu Square or Chunxi Road), put Alipay or WeChat Pay on your phone, and set one early alarm: the pandas. Everything else in Chengdu rewards slowness — this itinerary builds in teahouse time on purpose. Sight prices: panda base ¥55, Du Fu ~¥50, Wenshu free, opera ¥100–200.

Day 1 — Pandas and the teahouse city

Morning: the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding at the 7.30am opening (metro line 3 to Panda Avenue, then shuttle; or Didi ~¥40–60). Pandas eat and play in the cool morning and sleep from late morning — arriving at 10am is arriving at a dormitory. Two to three hours covers the adult enclosures, the nursery and the red pandas.

Afternoon: back to the centre for People’s Park: claim a bamboo chair at Heming teahouse, order jasmine tea (¥15–30), watch the matchmaking corner and the ear-cleaners. In November the ginkgo canopy turns gold.

Evening: Sichuan opera — face-changing, fire-breathing and shadow puppetry (¥100–200 depending on venue and seat). Book earlier the same day; shows run about 90 minutes. Late dan dan noodles after.

Day 2 — Monasteries, poets and lanes

Morning: Wenshu Monastery (free) — Chengdu’s best-preserved Buddhist temple, with incense, a vegetarian restaurant and tea garden at the gates. Then metro to the Du Fu Thatched Cottage (~¥50): the recreated home of the Tang dynasty poet in a quiet riverside park.

Afternoon: Kuanzhai Alley — three restored Qing lanes of courtyards, snack stalls and small museums. Touristy, yes, but handsome; duck into the side alleys for better prices. Coffee or tea in a courtyard when the crowds peak.

Evening: hotpot night. Budget ¥80–150 per person, order the split pot, and let the meal run two hours — that is the point.

Day 3 — Leshan or Dujiangyan

Option A — Leshan Giant Buddha: high-speed train from Chengdu East or South to Leshan (~50–70 minutes, ~¥50–65), then bus or taxi to the 71-metre carved Buddha (entry ~¥80). Take the boat (extra) for the full frontal view, then climb the plank path beside it. Back in Chengdu for dinner.

Option B — Dujiangyan: the 2,300-year-old irrigation system that still waters the Sichuan plain (entry ~¥80), reached by intercity rail from Xipu (line 2) in ~30 minutes. Combine with Mount Qingcheng (Taoist mountain next door, ~¥80–90) if you start early.

Both run as independent day trips with no tour needed — trains are frequent and stations are signed in English.

If you have a fourth day

Sleep in, then the university district snack crawl and the Sichuan Museum, or the full Qingcheng–Dujiangyan combo at a walking pace. Chengdu also links onward by high-speed rail: Chongqing in ~1 hour, Xi’an in 3–4.