phiota

Was planning on going to Chengdu next month (main city I've heard of in central china before coming to China to live/work) for vacation with wife but have only been getting luke warm feedback from chinese friends. Do you think it is a worthwhile place to visit?

jspira

I really enjoyed my visit. The Panda preserve is really worth the majority of a day alone.

The restaurants are great too.

And the new Ritz-Carlton hotel is the perfect place to stay.

This might give you an idea of what one can do in the city:

What’s Doing in Chengdu

SanDiego1K

Chengdu was memorable. We went to both the panda reserve about a 2 hour drive from town as well as the one in town. We thought to the Sanxindui Museum was awesome. And we enjoyed the Chinese folklore program including the amazing mask changing where there is simply no perception of it happening and yet the person has a different face.

I didn't like hot pot. It stunk up my clothes and hair. But otherwise, I enjoyed everything we did.

It's best to hire a car and driver. The city houses 14 MM and has many dramatic buildings. The airport is one of the most modern I've seen.

porphyra

I enjoyed Chengdu a lot too. There is something about the laid back vibe of the city that really was appealing to me. Tea houses abound while you lazily spend your afternoon going through a mound of sunflower seeds.

I agree with SanDiego1k in that I could only do so much of the Sichuan hotpot. It was a bit over the top for me with the spices and the Sichuan peppercorn. However, the general Sichuan food was not too bad.

I spent almost a day at the Panda reserve and then we took a bus and spent another day at Leshan to see the Giant Buddha and the vast complex around it. I highly recommend it. It wasn't too crowded and the Buddha is truly remarkable.

In the evening/night you can always venture down to Jinli Street. A little touristy but tons of shopping, food and tea houses featuring Sichuan Opera late into the night.

BuildingMyBento

I find the city to be rather compact and small for China, and after three visits, nothing in the city stands out as being memorable, save for one temple selling "potato juice."

Don't care about hot pot/pandas, but visiting Leshan was alright. For another trip to Sichuan, I'd choose Jiuzhaigou.

Taiwaned

Chengdu is a nice city. is is a city worth making a special trip for? No not really. However if you like panda bears then the conservatory is well worth it. I wasn't a panda guy but my wife loved it. Having a baby panda on your lap as it sucks on honey covered bamboo and your wife with a goofy smile for the rest of the trip was well worth it.

Dujiangyan Irrigation System was something I really enjoyed. Just working out the engineering involved was very neat but if that isn't your thing then it wouldn't be worth it.

We also went to Jiuzaiguo (Nine Villages) and while the mass of humanity that also went to see the fall colors was overwhelming, we have no regrets.

Enjoying Chengdu would be dependant on your likes and interests.

paul00

Jiuzhaigou National Park (as well as the nearby Huanglong Scenic Area) are some of the most beautiful places of natural scenery in China (if you want to go when it's not so busy, consider visiting outside the peak summer months and major Chinese holidays). Leshan Giant Buddha is worth seeing; Emei Shan is an important Buddhist mountain. Qing Cheng Mountain is an important Taoist mountain.

There are also many great resorts/hotels situated in the area. Just a few months ago, Six Senses opened a new spa resort at Qing Cheng Mountain (http://www.sixsenses.com/resorts/qin...in/destination). Anantara has a resort at Emei Mountain which opened a year ago (http://emei.anantara.com). Intercontinental has resorts in Jiuzhaigou, Sancha Lake and Heilong Lake. And, of course, many chains have luxury hotels in Chengdu (Ritz-Carlton, St Regis, Shangri-la, Intercontinental, Kempinski, Sofitel). The Swire Group (which operates the Upper House in HKG and the Opposite House in PEK) has just opened a new boutique hotel, the Temple House, in CTU (http://www.thetemplehousehotel.com).

sinoflyer

Chengdu is one of my favorite cities in mainland China, mainly because of the food, teahouses, and general laid-back attitude. One notable thing about Chengdu is that it is rarely sunny there. I agree that the city itself doesn't have many tourist-worthy places, but there are many things in the surrounding areas that make a one-week visit far too short.

* Leshan Giant Buddha (2 hrs by long distance bus)
* Panda Research Base (taxi, city bus--long ride)
* Jiuzhaigou (air, bus is far too long)
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if interested in Chinese culture/history
* Emeishan (2 hrs long distance bus, plus hiking and overnight)
* Zigong salt museum (3 hrs long distance bus)
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within the city:
* People's Park (teahouses, people watching, public dancing, ear-pickers)
* Jinli Street (kitschy tourist old street, but some interesting restaurants if you take the time to explore)

alanwar

San Diego, I assume you mean that one should hire a car and driver for the whole day and have that person take you around. Is this how you went to the panda preserve outside of town ? How did you go about finding one ? Do you have an idea of how much it would cost ? Thank you for any advice.

MSPeconomist

Temple House looks gorgeous, but from the address, it doesn't seem to be located at the airport. A boutique hotel in an airport terminal would be amazing.

moondog

Did you seriously think he meant to imply that it was at the airport?

MSPeconomist

To me,

CTU means at or near airport

Chengdu means city

This holds especially when other hotels are mentioned in the post as Chengdu while this one specifically says CTU. Some airports do contain rather good hotels (CDG, DTW, DFW, MUC while others have good hotels very close such as Radisson Blu at MOA/MSP, a castle hotel near FRA, some would say Crowne Plaza at SIN, etc.).

moondog

Using airport codes to refer to cities is a pet peeve of mind in the case of open ended questions (and, I always use city names as a matter of habit), but in the post you quoted, the poster provided other examples (of well known hotels that clearly aren't in airport terminals); this should have clued you in.

sinoflyer

That's the same convention I follow, and I wish everyone would do the same. But I also remember when I was 20-something and wanted to show off my knowledge of city/airport codes, so I used them in everything. Although I would find it annoying when I see people do that now, I try to remind myself of where I came from and not assume "Chengdu Shuangliu Airport" when I see CTU.

paul00

Oops, I meant to say that Temple House has just opened in Chengdu, rather than CTU airport... I was using abbreviations for Hong Kong and Beijing, which is probably why I slipped in CTU instead of Chengdu. Hope the confusion has been cleared up!