I flew direct from Beijing to Chengdu, landing around 11am. Due to Covid, every city has its own ‘green code’ (a code that shows you are healthy). I set this up while collecting my luggage then set off for the hotel using the subway system.
Chengdu has 10 functioning lines on their subway currently. It took 45 minutes to reach Tianfu Square (my hotel was in this area) from the Airport; take Line 10 – Line 3 – Line 1. After check-in, I went out to see what Chengdu had to offer.
Day 1 –
Tianfu Square
Check in (hotel – Magic Smart Live Hotel)
Tai Koo Lee
Daci Temple
People’s Park
Anshun Long Bridge
Shuijin Street
Jiangtian Street
Tianfu Square
Tianfu Square is huge, I will admit I got lost and that was just trying to find the subway exit to the main road. My hotel was a short 5/6 minute walk away from the square. I would recommend the hotel, it was ideal location, clean and very different to any hotel I’ve stayed in before.
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Hotel Link: Magic Live Smart Hotel – https://uk.trip.com/hotels/detail/?hotelId=46763448&cityId=28
After check in, I realised I was starving so I made a trip over to Tai Koo Lee (walking but a subway option is there). This area is pretty new and has 2 floor levels. The main level is home to many restaurants and small shops as well as Daci Temple. I thought it was really interesting to see a Temple in the middle of this brand new built up shopping area. I chose to eat at the Element Fresh here and then took a walk around the area again. I also went for a walk around Daci Temple, it’s quite small and doesn’t take too long to explore. In the end, I headed back over to my hotel area, this time using the subway line, and went to see People’s Park.
Daci Temple
People’s Park – I won’t lie, I found this park very boring. To me, it was just a local park with lots of overgrown plants. Yet, so many people had made it clear that I should make time for People’s Park. I would argue, it’s not worth it. Just my thoughts though.
In the evening, I knew I wanted to see Anshun Bridge, so I took the subway towards this area. Unfortunately as we were nearing July 1st and the National Celebrations, most of the river walk was barricaded off and you couldn’t get close. This meant that I could only see a limited amount of the area. I did manage to find 2 streets filled with bars and clubs. I walked through Shuijin Street and across to Anshun Corridor. Again the main viewpoints were closed off but I was able to cross the river at Anshun and walk along Jiangtian Street where I found a calm bar and stopped off for a drink. As I travel alone, I am quite used to drinking alone in a bar, luckily Chengdu had so many to choose from I felt like I had many options. After a drink or two, I headed back to the subway to prepare for the next days plans.
Day 2 –
Panda Base
Wagas – Yanlord Area
Leshan Giant Buddha
Tai Koo Lee
Day 2 started early!
Panda base – From the hotel I took a DiDi (around 30 minutes – 50RMB) this took me as close as taxis could, meaning I had a 10 minute walk into the park area still to buy tickets and start my tour. The whole path into the Panda base is well routed and labelled clearly so its hard to get lost. Tickets cost 55RMB for entrance into the area and you can freely walk around from there. Currently they are not having people go in and feed the pandas, but this used to be an option. Inside you can see Giant Pandas and Red Pandas, there’s the breeding area where you can see babies and a cafe (fully panda style of course) where you can have a rest and drink.
Panda base tickets
Lunch – Wagas in the Yanlord Area. I chose to meet 2 friends in the Wagas for lunch on my second day, this kick started out afternoon trip to Le’shan.
Leshan Giant Buddha – We took the train from Chengdu to Le’Shan from the train station we took a taxi to the Giant Buddha area. We chose to take the boat trip around the base of the Buddha statue so that we could see it without being squashed. The boat was 30RMB and lasted around 30 minutes, the boat goes past the Buddha, turns and then sits where you can take photos directly in front of the stone statue. For us, this was worth it as we all just wanted to see the Buddha and not the additional park areas or mountain steps.
Evening – We went together back on the train to Chengdu and head into Tai Koo Lee area for italian food and a few drinks. The area has a lot of choice for food once you really start to look around. We chose a quiet bar in the centre of Tai Koo Lee which looked like it was built within the temple itself.
Day 3 –
Wenshu Monastery
Chengdu 339
Mengzhuiwan Street – Tease
Wuhou Shrine
Jinli Ancient Street
Chengdu Museum
Great Leap Brewery
Kuanzhai Alley
Final day in Chengdu and its safe to say I tried to fit everything I could in! It was also raining in the morning which made it slightly more annoying to get around. I started off by taking the subway to Wenshu Monastery. Here I wandered through the old style streets before reaching the entrance to the monastery, the buildings all have the same style as you look around.
Pagoda inside Wenshu Monastery
From the Monastery, I took a taxi to Chengdu 339. I didn’t know what to expect here and the rain was starting to calm down again. Locals had told me that I should see this but all I found was a mall which was mostly deserted. So I walked on to Mengzhuiwan Street where I stopped at an independent cafe for a quick coffee before continuing to Tease – a hip little restaurant that also had live music nights! The food in Tease was good, simple yet tasty.
An entrance hidden round the side
After stocking up on nachos, I continued my day of adventures by visiting Jinli Ancient Street, there is also a temple here but living in China, I imagine that I have seen enough temples to be able to miss this one. The street was incredibly busy, it was as if everyone wanted to visit it today. I quickly walked through, looked in some of the little stores and took photos before escaping.
Jinli Ancient Street with this many people!
Next stop was the subway back towards Tianfu Square, I did this because I wanted to get out of the heat of Chengdu and step inside somewhere. I chose to visit Chengdu Museum, purely because I love a museum almost as much as a temple! The museum was quite empty, but had only Chinese explanations and labels for things so it was much more of a flying tour of Chengdu, just looking and not really knowing.
Chengdu Museum – Tianfu Square
Final evening in Chengdu –
I started out by finding an interesting bar/restaurant on my maps. I had another friend who was visiting Chengdu at the same time so we agreed to meet at the subway closest and go together. Unfortunately, the place I had found no longer existed but we did happen to find The Great Leap Brewery on the same road. The food was delicious! Burgers and cookie dough to fill us, amazing!
Look out for Great Leap Brewery!
To end the trip, I wanted to see Kuanzhai Alley, I had heard all about these streets, so I convinced my friend to join me and we went over to see the streets. They were worth the trip, not as busy as Jinli had been but people snapping photos everywhere. We found a little bar/cafe in one of the side streets so chose to sit here and just soak up the atmosphere before leaving for our hotels.
Kuanzhai Alley
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