2 Days Private Chengdu Panda Tour

Lovely giant pandas, precious relics, amazing natural landscapes, popular hot pot and other famous Sichuan cuisines... As a land of abundance, Chengdu owns so many unique and wonderful things. Are you curious what Chengdu is really like? Why can it produce such a rich culture? This 2 days Chengdu tour will take you to find the answers.

Upon your arrival today, your local guide and driver will welcome you at the airport or the train station, and then escort you to check into the hotel in the downtown area. Have a short break to refresh yourself. If it is at noon time and you feel hungry, your guide will recommend you places of dinning for good local foods, such as noodles, wontons, dumpings, bean curd jelly, scalded vegetables and meat.

Now it is time to start your sightseeing tour! The first stop is the Jinsha Site Museum, which is an archaeological site museum housing many cultural relics of the ancient Shu Kingdom, during the Shang and Zhou periods (17th century BC - 256 BC). The key highlight of the collections is the "Sun Bird", a piece of round decoration with a sun in the center and four flying birds around it, which is said to be the most fashionable ancient Shu cultural relic. Do you wonder why it can be the most precious treasure of this museum? Your tour guide can't wait to introduce you to the twists and turns of its discovery, the awe-inspiring mysteries of its making and the fascinating cultural and religious implications behind it.

Afterwards, we will head to the People's Park (Renmin Park), a good place to experience the slow life of the locals. There are many self-organized activities and entertainments here such as playing Mahjong, playing Taichi, singing and dancing, painting and handwriting with large brushes and water on the floor. The local people are very friendly and you're welcome to join in them if you're interested. You can even see China's unique matchmaking corner here. The middle-aged parents search for marriage partners for their daughters or sons by displaying their detailed profiles, which is a very interesting part of modern Chinese culture. Also, you could enjoy your time to sip tea like a local in the teahouse by the lake.

Finish the visit and then you will be taken back to the hotel. For dinner tonight, you are recommended to try "hot pot". Your guide will help you find a popular restaurant around the hotel. Sichuan hot pot is famous for its spicy flavor, which could make your mouth go numb. Dare to try? Usually, you can have a Yuanyang pot (two-flavor hot pot) if someone cannot eat spicy food.

After breakfast in the hotel, we will head to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in the early morning. Believe it's one of the most important reasons you come to Chengdu. Why in the early morning? That's because the pandas are more active at 08:30 - 09:00 when the breeders feed them, which will offer you a good chance to see more lovely pandas: climbing trees, eating bamboos and apples, playing with each other or just lying there. There are around 210 pandas now in this base and they are divided into different areas, so two hours or more are needed for you to visit this site.

Next, we will come to the Wide and Narrow Alley, where you will have a chance to taste the most authentic local snacks, like the Bobo's chicken, the fried sticked meat, the ice jelly, appreciate the crafts of molding clay figurine and making sugar painting, watch the folk arts, such as Sichuan opera, hand shadow play, long mouth pot tea art performance, and enjoy the special service of ear cleaning. Ear cleaning is regarded as one of the three happiest things in life by Chengdu locals, together with getting married and playing mahjong. You can have a try here at your expense.

Afterwards, we will head to the Wenshu Monastery, which is a Buddhist holy land integrating Buddhist temple relics, ancient garden construction, worship and sightseeing, and religious study. Charity is one important part of this monastery, including funding for poor students in remote mountainous areas, organizing volunteers to go to school to study and live with the students on weekends, serving porridge for nursing homes regularly, and providing free consultations to help people with their problems such as love, marriage, career, faith, physical health and etc. It is a peaceful and beautiful place to relax and explore.

At the end of the tour, your guide and driver will escort you to Chengdu airport or train station to catch your scheduled flight or train. We wish you a pleasant onward journey!

Meals: Western buffet breakfast