Chengdu in 3 days: the UNESCO City of Gastronomy where Sichuan pepper numbs your tongue, giant pandas eat bamboo 10km from the city center and the world's largest stone Buddha was carved 1,300 years ago to calm a dangerous river.
The world's most important panda conservation facility: the cub nursery, the outdoor bamboo enclosures and the red pandas. Most active before the heat makes them sleep after 11am.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe three preserved Qing dynasty alleyways: the ear-cleaning barber who circulates between teahouse tables is the most authentically Chengdu experience available for a visitor.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe split-pot: the red málà broth with Sichuan pepper that creates paresthesia (tingling numbness) on the tongue, paired with clear broth and cold Chengdu beer. The most convivial meal in China.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideTang dynasty (713–803 AD): the monk Haitong carved the Buddha hoping it would calm dangerous river currents; the excavated rock dumped in the river actually did so. UNESCO World Heritage.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuide71m seated Buddha: little finger 8.3m, each ear 7m, the 1,000 hair buns conceal a drainage system protecting the face from rain. Best seen from the river ferry at base level.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSilken tofu with 5-year aged doubanjiang chilli paste and Sichuan pepper (mapo), and sesame-chilli-pork noodles from a street vendor's shoulder pole (dan dan): the two essential Sichuan dishes.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideZhang Daoling founded the first organized Taoist sect here: the Tianshi Cave where he meditated and the 4th-century Jianfu Palace. High-speed rail 1 hr, ¥15.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe reconstruction of the hut where Du Fu wrote 240 surviving poems in 5 years of exile: his complete works carved in stone in the corridors of the 240-acre memorial garden.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe most authentic teahouse in Chengdu: the three-piece lidded tea bowl, the mahjong players and the barber who circulates with his bronze rods to clean your ears.
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