The ancient and modern city of Chengdu is the capital of China's southwestern province, Sichuan.
With its stunning variety of topography ranging from fertile plains to stark peaks and the foothills of the Himalayan massif, its ancient towns, hidden valleys, gorges, Tibetan areas, limestone cliffs and protected ecosystems, its long history and heritage shines out in temples, pagodas and archaeological sites.
Chengdu is popular with tourists as the gateway to the province as well as for all it has to offer in terms of visitor comforts.
Your Chengdu City Centre hotel is convenient for all the city's sights and for transportation across the province.
Ecotourists will love Chengdu and its surroundings for the large number of protected areas including the Jiuzhaigou Valley, Siguniang Scenic Park, the scenery around Luodai Ancient Town, Bi Feng Xia Ecological Park, the river views from Huang Long Xi old town and Stone Elephant Lake Ecological area.
Anren is another ancient town well worth exploring and, for a longer three day trip, Moxi and other towns on the Tibetan border close to the Hailugo Glacier Park make an unforgettable journey.
Everywhere along your trip you will find friendly teahouses where you can relax, digest the day's experiences, drink fragrant teas and watch the locals playing mah-jong, go or chess.
Continuing the ecological theme, close to Chengdu is every visitor's favourite attraction, the Giant Panda Breeding Base, known world-wide for its work with the endangered species.
On average 60 of the giant bears are housed here, together with their offspring, perhaps the cuddliest baby animals on the planet and surely the most famous.
During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the world waited with bated breath to see if the base had been destroyed - fortunately only minor damage and no permanent loss of pandas was reported, although several had gone walkabout in search of different varieties of bamboo.
Visitors who arrive before 09:30 will catch panda breakfast time, when the bears are the most active.
Later in the day, like most sensible creatures, they sleep a lot! For history buffs, again a few kilometres from the city, the Jinsha-Sanxingdui excavation site is the most important new find in China for the last 30 years.
Revealing a totally new culture from the late Shang/early Western Zhou period 3,000 years ago, it seems the myriad gold, jade, bronze and pottery artefacts were shovelled into the giant pits covered in earth and forgotten.
Since their discovery, treasures from the find have been exhibited in the world's major museums including the British Museum.
A selection is now on display at the on-site museum, and it must be said that many find them disturbing in the austerity and force of their design.
Copies of the forbidding gilded bronze heads with their huge slanting eyes and malevolent expressions can be purchased in the city's antiques markets.
A charming reminder of the Chengdu peoples' traditional love of poetry is the complex of little pavilions and temples built around the original 'thatched cottage' home of famous local Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu.
The cottage is no longer there, but the peace, quiet and Ming/Qing Dynasty structures set amongst the pretty gardens are the epitome of the cultural aspect of the city.
The fine temples of Wenshu and Wuhou with their ancient Buddha images and the city's Tibetan Quarter with its peoples dressed in traditional clothes and living the Tibetan life are other aspects of the city's impressive heritage.
Small shops and Tibetan Buddhist pagodas with their plethora of deities and painted designs charm and fascinate, giving at least the flavour of their unique religion and culture, still being destroyed by order of Beijing.
With its stunning variety of topography ranging from fertile plains to stark peaks and the foothills of the Himalayan massif, its ancient towns, hidden valleys, gorges, Tibetan areas, limestone cliffs and protected ecosystems, its long history and heritage shines out in temples, pagodas and archaeological sites.
Chengdu is popular with tourists as the gateway to the province as well as for all it has to offer in terms of visitor comforts.
Your Chengdu City Centre hotel is convenient for all the city's sights and for transportation across the province.
Ecotourists will love Chengdu and its surroundings for the large number of protected areas including the Jiuzhaigou Valley, Siguniang Scenic Park, the scenery around Luodai Ancient Town, Bi Feng Xia Ecological Park, the river views from Huang Long Xi old town and Stone Elephant Lake Ecological area.
Anren is another ancient town well worth exploring and, for a longer three day trip, Moxi and other towns on the Tibetan border close to the Hailugo Glacier Park make an unforgettable journey.
Everywhere along your trip you will find friendly teahouses where you can relax, digest the day's experiences, drink fragrant teas and watch the locals playing mah-jong, go or chess.
Continuing the ecological theme, close to Chengdu is every visitor's favourite attraction, the Giant Panda Breeding Base, known world-wide for its work with the endangered species.
On average 60 of the giant bears are housed here, together with their offspring, perhaps the cuddliest baby animals on the planet and surely the most famous.
During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the world waited with bated breath to see if the base had been destroyed - fortunately only minor damage and no permanent loss of pandas was reported, although several had gone walkabout in search of different varieties of bamboo.
Visitors who arrive before 09:30 will catch panda breakfast time, when the bears are the most active.
Later in the day, like most sensible creatures, they sleep a lot! For history buffs, again a few kilometres from the city, the Jinsha-Sanxingdui excavation site is the most important new find in China for the last 30 years.
Revealing a totally new culture from the late Shang/early Western Zhou period 3,000 years ago, it seems the myriad gold, jade, bronze and pottery artefacts were shovelled into the giant pits covered in earth and forgotten.
Since their discovery, treasures from the find have been exhibited in the world's major museums including the British Museum.
A selection is now on display at the on-site museum, and it must be said that many find them disturbing in the austerity and force of their design.
Copies of the forbidding gilded bronze heads with their huge slanting eyes and malevolent expressions can be purchased in the city's antiques markets.
A charming reminder of the Chengdu peoples' traditional love of poetry is the complex of little pavilions and temples built around the original 'thatched cottage' home of famous local Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu.
The cottage is no longer there, but the peace, quiet and Ming/Qing Dynasty structures set amongst the pretty gardens are the epitome of the cultural aspect of the city.
The fine temples of Wenshu and Wuhou with their ancient Buddha images and the city's Tibetan Quarter with its peoples dressed in traditional clothes and living the Tibetan life are other aspects of the city's impressive heritage.
Small shops and Tibetan Buddhist pagodas with their plethora of deities and painted designs charm and fascinate, giving at least the flavour of their unique religion and culture, still being destroyed by order of Beijing.
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