By air
Chengdu Tianfu (TFU) or Shuangliu (CTU), ~50 km and ~16 km
East Asia · China
Chengdu, China
Pandas, teahouses and fiery food
Getting there
Best time to visit
March to June and September to November — mild
Don't miss
The Panda Base
Jinli Ancient Street
Wenshu Monastery
The Leshan Giant Buddha
Things to do
The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base
Sichuan opera's face-changing
A day at the Leshan Giant Buddha
Where to eat
Sources: Photo: FISU · CC BY 3.0
What to pack
Layers, an appetite for spice
A quieter corner
The People's Park teahouse, among the mahjong players
Questions travellers ask
Which Chengdu airport is closer to the city?
Shuangliu (CTU), about 16 km away. Chengdu Tianfu (TFU) is around 50 km out.
Where can I see pandas in Chengdu?
At the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, known simply as the Panda Base.
How spicy is the food in Chengdu?
Fiery, so bring an appetite for spice. Start with hot pot, mapo tofu and dan dan noodles.
Where can I experience Chengdu's teahouse culture?
At the People's Park teahouse, among the mahjong players.
About Chengdu
- Inland
Where it is
Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in south-west China, lies on the fertile Chengdu Plain at the western edge of the Sichuan Basin, with the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau rising to the west.
History
Chengdu has kept its name for more than two thousand years, and it was the capital of the Shu Han kingdom in the Three Kingdoms period of the 3rd century. The Tang poet Du Fu lived here in a thatched cottage in the 8th century, and the city grew into the great trading and farming centre of south-west China.
People
Chengdu's people speak Sichuanese, a south-western form of Mandarin, and the city is known in China for its teahouse culture and games of mahjong. Its cooking, built on Sichuan pepper, chilli and fermented bean paste, made Chengdu a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
Known for
- Giant pandas at the Chengdu Research Base
- Sichuan hotpot and mapo tofu
- Teahouses in the People's Park
- The face-changing of Sichuan opera
- The Leshan Giant Buddha nearby
Did you know?
The Dujiangyan irrigation system near Chengdu, built in the 3rd century BC, still waters the Chengdu Plain without a dam and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.