Chengdu

Introduction

Chengdu 'Take Away'

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Chengdu (成都), the capital of the Sichuan province, is steeped in history dating back thousands of years. In the early 4th century AD, the 9th Kaiming king of the ancient Shu moved his capital to the city's current location from today's nearby Pixian. The name Chengdu was given to the city, meaning "become a capital".

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

• The Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre is easily accessible by tour (around 70 RMB per person including entrance fee) and is bookable in any hostel. You can wander around, seeing pandas munching bamboo and lazing around, you can also have your picture taken with pandas, but this is a rather extortionate amount of money (around 2000 RMB)!

Panda!

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• Chengdu Opera is famous for it's 'changing faces' perfomance, and often also features fire eaters and unusual light arrangements; The shows are almost performed on a daily basis and tickets can be booked through hostels.
• Leshan Buddha the biggest Buddha can be visited on a day trip from Chengdu. It will take you the best part of 3 hours to travel there and the same back but it is well worth the journey. The easiest way to do this trip is to head to the south bus station in Chengdu. inside buy a ticket to Leshan (costing about 44 Yuan each way) this is a straight highway bus taking you direct to Leshan this part of the journey is about 2 hours and leaves the south bus station every half hour. After you arrive in Leshan you need to get the number 13 bus that stops infront of the station by the water fountain this will cost you 1 yuan and take you on a nice sceninc tour through the city this takes a little over 30 minutes be careful not to get off at the pier for the boat trip the Buddha itself is further down the road you can't miss it there are signs everywhere. Then get off and enjoy. Reverse for the journey back.
• Sichuan Cooking Lessons the province is famous for its spicy dishes, so if you love to cook this is a must. Classes can be booked through hostels.
• Chengdu Tea Houses China is famous for its tea houses and Chengdu has the best tea houses in China. The tea house in People's Park is the most famous, located on the shore of a lake, amidst green swaying trees.

Further A Field

• Jiuzhai Valley National Park is a 45-minute flight from Chengdu or 10 hours scenic bus ride. In the north of Sichuan, in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Jiuzhai Valley and Huanglong UNESCO World Heritage Sites are said by many to be China's most picturesque sites. Home to the giant panda, Sichuan golden monkey and Sichuan takin among 300+ others, this is one of South West China's most important biodiversity zones.

Events and Festivals

Weather

The best time to visit Chengdu is from March to June and from September to November, however with a warm climate and average temperature of 15 °C-16 °C, Chengdu remains pleasant and relatively dry the year round. Summers can be hot though with temperatures over 30 °C.

Getting There

By Plane

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) is located 16 kilometres from downtown Chengdu and is one of the biggest and fastest growing airports in China. There are dozens of airlines serving both Chinese cities as well as destinations in the eastern part of Asia, like Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Bangkok and South Korea. The only destination further away is Amsterdam, served by KLM.

By Train

There is one train a day to Lhasa, depending on the time of the year. Chengdu is also well connected to Xian, with connections onwards to Beijing. The journey takes around 16 hours overnight.

By Car

By Bus

By Boat

Getting Around

By Car

By Public Transport

By Foot

By Bike

Travel Agents

• Tibet F.I.T. Tianxian North Road 3, Soho 3rd Floor Of Commercial Building, Mobile:13708059757, email: davidliu333@hotmail.com. If looking to arrange travel to Tibet this is a good travel agency with its main office in Lhasa and another office in Chengdu.

Eat

The Sichuan province is well known for its spicy food and you will have lots of delicious options to choose from in Chengdu. The food can be quite spicy, however If you are used to authentic Indian or Thai food, this should not be a problem. The spiciest food in Chengdu is hotpot, basically a big pot of soup and spices simmering in a hole in the middle of your table.

Drink

Sleep

Budget

• Mix Hostel is located at No 23 Ren-Jia-Wan, Xing Hui Xi Lu
• Sim's Cozy Guesthouse is located at No 42 Xizhushi Jie (成都市西珠市街42号)
• The Loft is located at No 4 Tong Ren Lu (同仁路小4号)
• Dragon Town Hostel is located at 26 Kuangxiang Zi (宽巷子26号).

Travellers rating of these accommodations and many others include:

Mid-Range

Upscale

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

There are several Wangba in every area of Chengdu. Just walk a little bit away from a tourist sight and you can find one very quickly. And several hostels now have free wi-fi internet in their rooms for those travelling with laptops.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

You can find a public telephone booth easily here that you can make a call!

Post

China Post (中国邮政) is the official postal service of the People's Republic of China, operated by the State Postal Bureau of the People's Republic of China (website in Chinese only), and has more details about price to send letters, postcards and parcels, both domestically as well as internationally. The Chinese postal service is very good. Remember that in more remote places usually only one post office in a city can handle sending international boxes or letters. Also many times it might be worth having the name of the country you are trying to send to in Chinese characters. Post offices have a striking green logo and can easily be found everywhere in the cities. They are mostly open every day (including weekends!) from 8:00am to 6:00pm, though small offices might have shorter opening times, while the bigger ones in central and touristic areas are sometimes open during evenings as well.