Day by day
Arrive Chengdu — welcome hotpot
Airport pickup, eSIM installed, Alipay International set up on your phone, and a spice-level briefing over your first hotpot. Your guide stays with you for the whole week — same person, same running jokes, zero re-explaining.
Panda Keeper day + Sichuan opera
The Dujiangyan Panda Keeper program in the morning — prepare bamboo and enrichment, learn the rewilding story from keepers. Afternoon at the 2,300-year-old Dujiangyan irrigation works. Evening: face-changing opera, premium seats.
Bullet train to Leshan — Buddha by river
High-speed rail south, then a river cruise that gives you the only view the 71-metre Giant Buddha was designed for: from the water, eye-level with his toes. Afternoon drive up Mount Emei to a monastery-adjacent hotel; evening hot spring soak.
Emei Golden Summit sunrise
Cable car before dawn to the Golden Summit. On clear mornings the clouds pool below the peaks — the famous "sea of clouds" — while the first light turns the statue gold. Breakfast with the view, then a gentle descent and return to Chengdu by bullet train.
Fly to Jiuzhaigou
A short morning flight or scenic drive north into the Min mountains (we choose the option that suits your dates). Settle into an in-park-zone hotel — staying inside the valley means early access before day-trippers arrive. Late-afternoon walk to warm up your legs and your camera.
Jiuzhaigou — the blue day
A full day in the valley: Five Flower Lake, Nuorilang Falls, Long Lake, the shuttle-and-walk rhythm your guide times around the crowds. This is the day people book the trip for — and it reliably outperforms the photos.
Huanglong's terraces
Huanglong, the "Yellow Dragon": thousands of travertine pools stepping down the mountainside in impossible blues and golds. Cable car up, walk down through all of it. Afternoon return toward Chengdu (flight or drive, timed for a proper dinner).
Cook it yourself, then fly out
Morning cooking class — you make (and eat) your own hotpot base and a proper mapo tofu, with recipes to take home. Afternoon transfer to the airport with your photos, your recipes and your Alipay still working.
What's included
Included
- 7 nights: 4★ hotels incl. 2 nights in Jiuzhaigou park zone
- Private English-speaking guide, days 1–8
- All transfers, bullet-train seats, internal flight
- Panda Keeper program fee
- All park entries incl. Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong, Emei, Leshan cruise
- 12 meals as listed
- Sichuan opera + cooking class
- eSIM with data, Alipay setup, point-and-show card
Not included
- International flights
- Visa or entry permit fees
- Travel insurance
- Emei cable cars (paid locally, ~US$15)
- Personal purchases, drinks beyond listed