Day by day
Arrival — wheels-down to hotpot
Your driver meets you at Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU) or Tianfu (TFU) with a name board. On the way in we stop for the practical magic: your eSIM installed, Alipay International linked to your card and tested, so you're never stranded behind the Great (Payment) Firewall. Evening: your first Sichuan hotpot — with a spice-ometer talk that saves your tongue for later in the week.
Panda Keeper day at Dujiangyan
The experience most people only photograph from behind a barrier: the Dujiangyan Panda Keeper program. You help keepers prepare bamboo and enrichment cakes, clean an enclosure (yes, really) and learn how the base's rewilding work functions — in the company of keepers, not crowds. Afternoon: the 2,300-year-old Dujiangyan irrigation system, still functioning, still elegant. Evening: Sichuan opera — face-changing (bianlian), fire-spitting, glove puppetry.
Slow morning, wild evening
Morning the way Chengdu does it: jasmine tea in People's Park while locals play cards, get their ears cleaned (optional, unforgettable) and argue politics. Then the old city — Kuanzhai Alleys' Qing-dynasty lanes and, later, our five-stop night food safari through backstreet restaurants and night markets: dan dan noodles, mapo tofu, sweet rice balls, rabbit with pepper, and one thing we won't spoil here. All spice levels personally calibrated.
Slow start, airport drop
A free morning for the hotel's courtyard, last-minute souvenirs (we'll tell you the honest shops), or an optional visit to the Chengdu Research Panda Base before your transfer to the airport. If you're flying on under the 240-hour visa-free transit, we'll make sure your paperwork and timing are checked at breakfast, not at the gate.
What's included
Included
- 3 nights in a 4★ boutique hotel (central Chengdu)
- Private English-speaking guide & car, days 1–4
- Airport transfers
- Dujiangyan Panda Keeper program fee
- Sichuan opera premium seats
- Food safari — all 5 stops
- All breakfasts, welcome dinner, day-2 lunch
- eSIM with data, Alipay setup on your phone
- Point-and-show travel card in Chinese
Not included
- International flights
- China visa or entry permit fees
- Travel insurance (we'll remind you, kindly)
- Personal purchases & drinks beyond listed
- Optional People's Park ear cleaning (¥30-ish, cash)