Chengdu rewards a slower trip than Beijing or Xi'an. The sights are fewer and closer together, most of them cluster in Qingyang district west of the centre, and the city's real attraction — sitting in a teahouse for three hours — has no entry queue at all.
Every entry below was cross-checked against at least two independent sources, several of them the sites' own official websites or Sichuan provincial and district government records.
The list#
| Sight | Chinese | Address | Transport |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giant Panda Breeding Base | 成都大熊猫繁育研究基地 | 成都市成华区熊猫大道1375号 | No metro — see below |
| Wuhou Shrine | 武侯祠 | 成都市武侯区武侯祠大街231号 | Lines 3 and 5, Gaoshengqiao (exit D) |
| Du Fu Thatched Cottage | 杜甫草堂 | 成都市青羊区青华路37号 | Line 4, Caotang Beilu |
| Sichuan Museum | 四川博物院 | 成都市青羊区青华路251号 | Line 4 |
| Jinsha Site Museum | 金沙遗址博物馆 | 成都市青羊区金沙遗址路2号 | Line 7, Jinsha Site Museum (exit C); Line 2, Yipin Tianxia (exit B) |
| Qingyang Palace | 青羊宫 | 成都市青羊区一环路西二段9号 | Line 2, Zhongyida Shengyiyuan, then about 800 m |
| Kuanzhai Alleys | 宽窄巷子 | 成都市青羊区长顺上街127号 | Line 2, Tonghuimen (exit A) |
| People's Park & Heming Teahouse | 人民公园 / 鹤鸣茶社 | 成都市青羊区少城路12号 | Line 2, People's Park (exit A or B) |
The panda base has no metro station#
This catches people out, because the base is famous enough that visitors assume a direct line. There is not one. The base's own transport page gives two routes, both metro-then-bus:
- Line 3 to Zoo station, exit D, then bus 655 to the panda base stop.
- Line 3 to Junqu Zongyiyuan station, exit B, then bus 409 to the west gate.
Taxis and DiDi are the simpler answer, and the base also runs a shuttle service linking it to Wuhou Shrine by way of Wenshu Monastery, Kuanzhai Alleys and People's Park.
Go early. The pandas are active around the morning feed and considerably less so afterwards — this is one of the few places in China where arriving at opening genuinely changes what you see rather than just how crowded it is.
How to group the rest#
The Qingyang cluster. Du Fu's Thatched Cottage and the Sichuan Museum face each other on Qinghua Road, and Qingyang Palace and the Jinsha Site Museum are a short hop further out. That is a full day on Lines 2, 4 and 7 with almost no walking between transfers.
The centre. Kuanzhai Alleys and People's Park are two stops apart on Line 2 and belong to the same afternoon. The alleys are heavily commercial and worth an hour; the park is where you should spend the rest of it.
Wuhou Shrine and Jinli. The shrine commemorates Zhuge Liang and the Three Kingdoms, and the reconstructed Jinli street runs alongside it. South of the centre, easy on Lines 3 or 5.
The two day trips#
Dujiangyan, the third-century irrigation system still in use and a UNESCO site, and Sanxingdui, the bronze-mask museum whose finds rewrote the region's early history, are both full days out and neither is on the Chengdu metro. Sanxingdui is not even in Chengdu — it is in Guanghan, in Deyang prefecture. Both are reached by suburban or intercity rail and then a local connection. I have not listed street addresses for either, because I could not confirm them to the standard the table holds to.
Chengdu also does something the other cities do not — massage and ear cleaning, including an honest account of the risk. For how long to stay, the food and getting around, see the Chengdu travel guide and how to get around Chengdu.