Southwest China
Sichuan cooking, teahouses that have not changed in a century, and a laid-back pace that most Chinese cities have not managed to keep. Chengdu is also the gateway to Jiuzhaigou.
The case for going
Go at 8am. The animals are active in the cool morning and asleep by mid-morning.
Covered bowls of tea, bamboo chairs, and a park full of people doing nothing at all.
The most active Buddhist temple in Chengdu, surrounded by the old lanes.
A market visit and a courtyard kitchen session, which is the best way into the cuisine.
A 2,200-year-old irrigation system still in service, two hours north.
The old bridge over the Jin River and the Sichuan opera that still runs nightly.
Practical
Humid subtropical. Mild and overcast in winter, hot and rainy in summer.
Chengdu Tianfu (TFU) has two metro lines running directly into the city. The high-speed rail reaches Xian in under three hours and Chongqing in about 90 minutes.
Airport. Chengdu Tianfu International Airport (TFU)
Rail. Chengdu East is the main hub, on metro Line 2.
In pictures
Questions travellers ask
Three days: pandas at opening time, the old quarters and the teahouses, and a day for the people-watching parks or a day trip. Four if you are continuing to Jiuzhaigou or Leshan.
Around the Kuanzhai alleys or the Jinli quarter for the walkable old town. Both are central to the panda-base shuttle and the metro to Shuangliu or Tianfu airports.
Fly into Shuangliu (CTU) or Tianfu (TFU), or take the high-speed rail — about 3 hours from Xi'an, 7 to 8 from Chongqing's shorter line or the long ride from Shanghai. It is the natural base for western Sichuan.
Yes — it is the contrast city: the slowest pace of any Chinese megacity, the food is a cuisine in its own right, and it is the gateway to the pandas, Leshan and Jiuzhaigou.
Routes through here
Southwest China
6days
Two very different experiences that work better together than separately. Chengdu is a relaxed, edible, tea-drinking city. Jiuzhaigou is a day’s drive away and utterly unlike anywhere else in China. Six days lets you do both without rushing either.
From US$1,880per person
Combine it with
Where to eat
Michelin 2 Stars
Two stars for chef Lan Guijun’s gongbi-style Sichuan banquets: gentle, layered and spice-precise cooking that rewires…
Michelin 2 Stars
Two stars for classic banquet Sichuan in a garden villa: mutton with chili oil, guaiwei (strange-flavour) preparations…
Michelin Green Star
A one-star and Green Star restaurant inside the heritage courtyard of a former Buddhist abbess’s home at Taikoo Li…
Michelin 1 Star
One star for a modern dining room built around wild fungi, Huajiao pepper taxonomy and tasting-format Sichuan. The…
Michelin 1 Star
Italian chef Leonardo Zambrino’s one-star dining room set in a restored Qing-era guild hall, folding Sichuan pepper and…
Michelin 1 Star
The star-holding branch of the Chai Men group, turning Sichuan classics into elegant courtyard dining where…
Michelin Bib Gourmand
A Bib Gourmand family shop run by a Chongqing-born clan for two decades: fish "crossed through water", pork ribs…
Local Institution
The shop where mapo tofu was invented in 1862, still frying the dish in its original wok school: silken tofu, minced…
Where to stay
Waldorf Astoria · Luxury
On the second floor of Chengdu’s tallest residential tower, with a 55-metre lap pool on the 5th floor and the best Sichuan kitchen in the building.
From US$1,050 per night
Valid to 2026-12-31
