Chengdu Excursion Advice
 

I've seen a day tour which combines the Leshan Buddha and Panda Camp visit and another overnight tour that combines Leshan Buddha and Emeishan. I was wondering if its possible to combine the 3 on an overnight tour?

Do you need a guide?

If not, what we did was hire a taxi for the day.

Then you can spend as much time as you want at each location.

Depends what you mean by overnight. Regardless of whether you use private transport or public or group tour, the shortest time period you can accomplish this in is two full days: Day 1 first part of morning go to Giant Panda Breeding Center for 2-3 hours, then down to Leshan in middle of day, arriving for Leshan mid-afternoon to rest of day. Overnight in Leshan town or at base of Emei Mountain. Day 2 Emei Shan for full day, returning to Chengdu evening of Day 2. Note that this will only allow you to tackle a selected part of Emei Shan so you'll have to decide in advance what you want to do there. Fuller coverage of Emei Shan would require you to stay a second overnight (basic accommodations on mountain) and then continue exploration part or most of Day 3 before returning to Chengdu.

Bullet train service between Chengdu, Leshan, Emei is undergoing testing right now and may be operational for visits late in 2014 and beyond. This would be a big improvement over the slow and infrequent standard train and the road options that are currently available. No firm service start date released yet, though. And it will still not change the overall time requirements of combining these three sites.

Sounds very rushed for Emeishan. Might as well do a day-trip to Dujianyan and Qingchengshan instead. More time at the sites and less on travel.

Any advice for a private guide to tour tea houses in Chengdu? Or a food walk? Thanks!

And how much would a taxi for a day run?

I might drop the panda tour since I'm arriving earlier and was able to score tickets as part of a deal with the hotel. So that leaves with Leshan and an overnight in Emeishan. Can anyone give me a good itinerary? Must visit temples in Emeishan?

Drop the panda tour. I visited Emeishan this summer, the hotel I stayed at had a nice buddhist temple within walking proximity. I don't know the name. It was a bit off the tourist path It would be best to ask for any temples that aren't on the hiking path either from a guide or hotel manager.

I wouldn't recommend Emeishan if you want to see temples as A) they tend to be overflowing with tourists B) commercialized with restaurants etc.

Also for a 100 CNY tip, the hotel manager snuck me onto the Emeishan hiking trail. He just took me on to some local route that branched right onto the Emeishan trail. The tickets to access the mountain (which you don't need to keep/no one checks) I think costs 180CNY a person, so I saved a bit of money being a party of 4.

Thanks! I already booked a hotel, and I'm not even sure if the location is good or not. Anyway I guess going to the Golden Summit is a must.

Just may I stress, if you can go early in the day time! Its best viewed with as few people as possible. Bring warm clothes, the temperature difference between Chengdu and Emeishan (especially this time a year) will be quite noticeable.

Recommendations needed
 

Hi,

I will be going to Chengdu mid Jan next year for 3 days . Can anyone give some recommendation on what can be done?
Any tips on hiring a guide or is everything nearly possible to be done on your own?
Am interested in the Panda Sanctuary, Leeshan Buddha at least.
Any other interesting things to do in Chengdu itself?

I am currently booked into the Renaissance Chengdu and do prefer to make this my base for this short trip.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!