10 Best Places to Visit in Chengdu for First-time Visitors

Chengdu is home to many giant pandas. When coming to Chengdu, you should not miss these cuties and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is the right place to go. There are more than 100 pandas of different ages living in the artificial environment as livable as their native living environment. You would never find so many pandas in other places. If lucky, you can also see the newly born panda babies in their delivery room. Except watching the adorable pandas, you would learn much more about this rare animal as there’s panda’s hospital and research center. You’d better go there in the morning when the pandas are more active eating bamboos and playing with each other. 

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding Tickets Booking
 Recommended Tour:  Chengdu Day Tour to Panda Base

Wide and Narrow Alley, or Kuanzhai Xiangzi, is one of top places to visit in Chengdu. You can find a rich variety of local dishes here; these numb and spicy food are quite popular, which is also the most attractive thing of this historical alleys. In this upgraded ancient block with many ancient buildings, tourists can also admire folk handicrafts, experience the slow life style of local people and learn some local customs.

 Recommended Tour:   5 Days Chengdu Tour with Wide and Narrow Alley from $749

As an archaistic commercial street, Jinli is one of the most popular places to visit in Chengdu. Here you can watch the handicraftsmen doing their works, like clay figurines and sugar paintings; and hang out in the shops, tea houses, cafes, bars, inns in the style of Three Kingdoms Period (220 - 280 AD). It’s also a nice place for first-time visitors to try the distinctive Sichuan foods. At dusk when the lights are on, it is charming for taking photos as well.

In memory of Zhuge Liang, the great politician, strategist and prime minister in Three Kingdoms Period, Wuhou Temple in Chengdu is the top one among his memorial shrines around China. Next to the Jinli Street, it’s a must-visit in Chengdu, which is in an ancient architectural style of northern China, kind of strange in a southwestern city. There is also the mausoleum of his lord, Liu Bei, the emperor of Shu Kingdom inside. You can appreciate the inscriptions of later generations and the garden with the ancient pavilion, potted landscapes and tall bamboos.

 Recommended Tour:   3 Days Chengdu Tour with Jinli Street and Wuhou Temple from $269

Dujiangyan Irrigation System is also one of famed places to visit in Chengdu, about 60km (37 miles) away from downtown. This historical site is the oldest and only existing irrigation system with no dam worldwide, having been in use since it was built to control floods and irrigate farmlands more than 2,200 years ago. It’s a marvel as well as a grand achievement at that time, showing Chinese wisdom.

Dujiangyan Irrigation System Tickets Booking

You can have a great time in Mount Qingcheng, to enjoy the secluded mountain views with lush high peaks, ever-green forests, clear lake and waterfalls, etc. As it is close to Dujiangyan Irrigation System, you may visit the two places together. Mt. Qingcheng is famous for its peaceful environment and as the birthplace of Taoism. There are quite a few Taoist temples hidden in the mountain, waiting for you to explore the profound Taoist culture. You may also do as the pilgrims do, to pray for blessings from gods shrined in the temples. If you like climbing hills, Mt. Qingcheng cannot be missed absolutely.

Mount Qingcheng Tickets Booking
 Recommended Tour:  One Day Chengdu Tour to Dujiangyan & Mount Qingcheng from $179

As a special century-old shopping street, Chunxi Road is popular out of places to visit in Chengdu. You can find it’s very bustling with a wide varieties of brands, daily uses and other goods in these old malls; and you can also eat almost all the Sichuan foods in the restaurants and bars. Come and experience Chengdu people’s life here!

Sanxingdui is an archeological site of a primitive civilization with largest scale, longest existing period and richest relics in southwestern China. Sanxingdui Museum was built to house and display those unearthed relics, including large amounts of bronzes, gold wares, jades, ivory objects, etc., which are all in an strange style that people hadn’t know before the discovery. You would learn much about the ancient culture in Sichuan 2,000-5,000 years ago in depth here.

Du Fu was the well-known poet in Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD), and his poems depict the rise and decline of the great dynasty. Thatched Cottage of Du Fu is his residence in Chengdu when he escaped the wars and chaos in central plain. During his four years living here, he wrote over 240 poems. The cottage has been repaired over and over again from one dynasty to another. The site now is one of greatest places to visit in Chengdu, telling you the unusual life of the great poet with beautiful classic garden design.

People's Park, founded in 1911, is the first park in Chengdu. It is a leisure place to experience the slow life of local people, who come here to drink tea, chat, do exercise and paly Mahjong, etc. There’re also gardens of plum blossoms, Chinese flowering crabapples, large rockeries, and so on, which are all visit-worthy. You can relax yourself like the locals, to taste a cup of tea, read a book, or just be absent of your mind in warm sunshine. What a comfortable and easy life it is!

 Recommended Tour:  2 Days Independent Tour in Chengdu