Chengdu – pandas, hotpot and the world’s largest Buddha statue of Le Shan
Summary
Chengdu is far from the highlight of Sichaun province, but it will naturally be one of the transit spots you pass through on your way to some of the wonderful natural landscapes surrounding it. Make sure though to give yourself at least a day in Chengdu to see the pandas (giant and red versions) at the Giant panda Breeding Research Base; for a half day trip to the UNESCO world heritage listed Giant Buddha in Le Shan (1200 years old carved into the confluence of 3 rivers) and to generally spend either an afternoon in one of the traditional tea houses or an evening eating the super spicy Sichaun hotpot
It’s punchy, but doable to do all this in a day. Makes most sense to get to the Panda Base when it opens at 8am for the morning feed (they are often asleep in the afternoon) and then try to get a tour to the Buddha leaving from Chendgu at around 11am (its 2hours to the site, half an hour or so getting a boat up to it, and potentially quite a bit more time if you want to walk around it – the queues at weekends and holidays will be very slow moving)
Last tip, do make sure to try the Sichaun hotpot, the province’s world-renowned dish. But be warned that it packs a put-the-toilet-roll-in-the-fridge-the-night-before punch. We tried Long Sen Yuan Hotpot which was great and a good location. You’ll have had spicy food before, but its something about the combo of the spice (which is strong), plus the temperature of the broth, plus the numbing effect of the pepper corns that really does make this quite the experience – “enjoy”!
highlights
#1 Taking a boat trip to the confluence of 3 rivers for the UNESCO world heritage listed Giant Buddha in Le Shan. 1200 years old and 70m / 220ft tall, with finger nails bigger than a human
#2 Spending the evening sampling the world-renowned Sichaun hotpot
#3 Seeing the pandas in the giant breeding ground. The red pandas were especially cute
Some broad tips for travelling in China
- China is vast – both in terms of its sheer land area, population, economy, but also its history and culture. You could spend a lifetime travelling China and still only scrape the surface. Very much like a continent on its own and, in recommending a book to read or movie to watch, it’s a bit like recommending a book to read on “Europe”. However, I did find that the book Wild Swans by Jung Chang, gave me good context on modern Chinese history. The book tells the true story of 3 generations of women living in China from 1909 to modern day and I’d highly recommend
- The Chinese people – it’s often difficult to interact with locals in China – there are certainly strong cultural differences that go deeper than you would experience in most other parts of the world, but the main problem is of course the language. Get out google translate for simultaneous translation. You’ll be surprised how keen the locals will be to speak to you, and just how interesting you may find their stories
- Frustrations – travelling in China can often be difficult . . . scream-out-loud, pull-all-your-hair-out, call everyone a c**t, never-ever-going-back style difficult. The language barrier, the often radically different way of doing things, the combo of an often world leading digital country mixed in with archaically manual processes can all make it feel at times like a challenge rather than a joy. I lived in China for 2 years and experienced a lot of these frustrations. My advice is simply to go with it, its all part of the adventure, and above all don’t lose your temper. Shouting at someone or generally showing frustration will just be viewed by the Chinese as embarrassing and, at worst, a loss of face for them, which means you’ve got very little chance of them helping you. Patience, politeness and a smile will often see them wanting to help you. They’re not trying to be difficult . . . most of the time 🙂
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Close Animal Encounters
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone