I spent 5 days in Chengdu recently.  To be honest you could see all the sites in 4 or even 3 days, but as we wanted to take it easy we spread it out.  Also travelling with a 62 year-old and a 2 year-old meant that we were on a slower pace anyway.  The slow pace coupled with a wonderful serviced apartment resulted in an extremely relaxing holiday!

View Chengdu & surrounds in a larger map

When: April 2013

Who: me, A, T and A’s father

How:  We flew Air China direct from Hong Kong to Chengdu. It was fine.  We stayed at the Fraser Suites serviced apartments and this was excellent.

Weather:  grey, overcast with some rain patches on most days.  It’s smoggy and foggy which apparently is normal for this place.  It wasn’t terribly cold and we got by with a light jacket/jumper.  It was definitely warmer than Shanghai at the same time of year.

Food:  Yum yum!! Spicy noodles, river fish, lots of pork, dumplings.  Tip: stir your noodles as the good stuff is often just put on top or is at the bottom underneath the noodles.  Mix it all up to get the full flavours.

Highlights & Sites:

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding:  Chengdu is a big centre for Panda research and breeding.  The place we went to was great. well laid out, easy to walk around with lots of pandas of varying ages to see.  They also have red pandas which are much smaller and are actually a different family of animals. We got a taxi to take us there (45 mins drive) wait for us and bring us back.  Very affordable and cut out the hassle.  Tip:  Go early in the morning (8 or 9 am) when the pandas are having breakfast and are at their most active (pandas are not the most energetic of creatures)

Wuhou Temple & Ji lin Street: A lovely temple and pedestrian street just near it.  Beautifully done with an old China feel. Some good street snacks and little restaurants.

Mask changing opera:  You can catch this at a tea house or as part of a longer cultural show.  We saw the show as the theatre was right opposite our hotel.  The show includes brief excerpts from Chinese operas, hand shadow performance, er-hu performance (wonderful) and finishes with the famous mask changing.  These performers where a complex mask over their faces that they change in less than a blink of an eye – it’s really fantastic to see. Tip: sit near the front to get the best views of the face changing

Giant rock cut Buddha at Leshan:  This is a much longer treck out of the city and can be done as a day trip (which we did) or combined with nearby Mt. Ernai as an overnight visit.  This is the largest seated Buddha in the world and is worth a visit.  You can see the whole thing from a boat trip on the river and also up close and personal.  There are temples and other Buddhist things to see at the site.  It’s a walk down some very steep steps to the bottom of the Buddha, with views of him all the way down.  You can then spend some time at the feet before making the walk back up.  I saw lots of crowd control / queue system barriers at the top, so I’m guessing it gets very busy in peak times (the summer and Chinese holidays).  It would be incredibly hot and sweaty then too, so my tip is: don’t go at any peak time, March/April is actually a perfect time to go in terms of crowds and weather.

Eat dumplings and noodles, often spicy but you can ask for no spice.

Links:

Fraser Suites serviced apartments

Sichuan Opera show (including face changing)