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Private journey · 3 days / 2 nights

Sanxingdui & the Ancient Shu Kingdom

Three thousand years ago, a bronze civilization unlike anything else in China was burying gods with gold masks an hour from Chengdu. Discovered in 1986, it rewrote the textbooks. This is three days with those faces — plus the city that grew above them.

US$420 / person New Sanxingdui Museum (2023) Jinsha ruins + old Chengdu Max 6 · private

Day by day

Day 1

Arrival, then the younger sister site: Jinsha

Your driver meets you at the airport with your eSIM installed and Alipay working before you leave the car park. Afternoon: the Jinsha Site Museum — where the Sanxingdui story continued for another 500 years. The sun-bird gold foil here is the emblem of Chengdu itself, and the museum's ivory-filled sacrificial hall is beautifully explained. Evening: dinner in a 1990s-era local restaurant, the kind with plastic stools and perfect mapo tofu.

Dinner included · hotel in central Chengdu
Day 2

Sanxingdui — the day of the bronze faces

One hour north, the new Sanxingdui Museum is one of the best-designed museums in Asia. Your guide is trained on the excavation itself: why the sacrificial pits were filled in a single event (probably), what the 2.6-metre bronze standing figure was holding (we'll show you the leading theories — it's contested), and why the protruding-eye masks may record a legend of a first king. The gold masks, the bronze sacred tree, the tusk-and-jade layers — you'll have the full day, including the restoration lab viewing gallery. Evening back in Chengdu: Sichuan opera, because face-changing masks and bronze masks belong in the same trip.

Breakfast, lunch, opera-night snacks included
Day 3

Teahouse morning, museum-grade farewell

A slow People's Park teahouse morning — Chengdu's living answer to the civilization you just met. Then the Sichuan Museum's Shu bronze gallery for the pieces that stayed home, and your airport transfer with plenty of buffer. Traveling on under the 240-hour visa-free transit? We check your onward-flight paperwork at breakfast, not at the gate.

Breakfast included

What's included

Included

  • 2 nights in a 4★ boutique hotel (central Chengdu)
  • Private English-speaking guide & car, days 1–3
  • Airport transfers
  • Sanxingdui Museum tickets + restoration-lab gallery
  • Jinsha Site Museum + Sichuan Museum entry
  • Sichuan opera premium seats
  • All breakfasts, 2 lunches, welcome dinner
  • 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 bronze-casting workshop (¥280, can be arranged)
Honest notes: Sanxingdui is indoors — this works year-round, and it's the perfect rain-or-heat backup plan. Mondays: the Sichuan Museum closes, Jinsha doesn't. The new museum books out on Chinese public holidays; we reserve as soon as you confirm. Read our Chengdu first-timers guide for the practical basics, or the 240-hour visa-free guide if you're transiting.