What to see in Chengdu
Pandas, old lanes & the slowest city in China

Picture this: around 8.30 am you're standing at the nursery enclosure, watching a roly-poly cub hug a stalk of bamboo and chew it like there's all the time in the world; another tumbles off a branch, gets up, and carries on as if nothing happened. This is the base at its liveliest, because it's morning feeding time. The base cares for both giant pandas and red pandas across a wide, leafy bamboo park, and you can see most of it in 2.5 to 4 hours. The key is to arrive early — by afternoon the pandas are usually drowsy and tucked away in the shade.

Kuanzhai Xiangzi is three parallel lanes — the Wide Alley (宽巷子), the Narrow Alley (窄巷子) and the Well Alley (井巷子) — that once housed Manchu bannermen in the Qing dynasty. Today they're restored into a walkable quarter where the grey brickwork still looks old, but the interiors are full of teahouses, Sichuan snack shops, dessert spots and souvenir stalls. It's pleasant by day, but the atmosphere peaks after dark, when the red lanterns come on, the crowds build, and the smell of hotpot drifts from every corner. An hour or two of wandering is about right.

If the Wide & Narrow Alleys are a Qing-dynasty quarter, Jinli is a Three-Kingdoms-themed lane that sits right next to Wuhou Shrine — walk out of the shrine and you're in it. The stone-paved street is lined with wooden, old-style shopfronts selling skewered Sichuan snacks, regional sweets, tea and Three-Kingdoms souvenirs. At night, red lanterns strung the full length of the lane light it up, and it becomes one of the city's favourite photo stops; a small bar street waits at the far end. Jinli is touristy and prices run higher than outside, but the atmosphere makes it worth a stroll.

For anyone who grew up on the Three Kingdoms, this is a legendary place. Wuhou Shrine honours Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮), the brilliant chancellor of the Shu Han kingdom, and shares its grounds with the tomb of Liu Bei (刘备), Shu's founding emperor. You walk past memorial halls, statues of ministers and generals, and old stone steles — and the part everyone photographs is the red-walled corridor that runs between rows of bamboo, so quiet and shaded you forget you're in the middle of a city. Allow 1.5 to 2 hours, then walk straight into Jinli next door.

Here's a park that isn't just somewhere to exercise — it's the city's living room. The heart of it is Heming Teahouse (鹤鸣茶社), open for nearly a century: sit on a bamboo chair by the pond, order tea from ¥18 a cup, and refill your hot water all afternoon. A man with metal tongs may wander over and offer to clean your ears (a Chengdu tradition). In one corner is the marriage market (相亲角), where parents post their children's profiles hoping to find them a match; elsewhere there's a martyrs' monument and a boating lake. Come here and you'll understand why people call Chengdu the most relaxed city in China.

Tianfu Square is the spot every distance in Chengdu is measured against — a broad central plaza with a statue of Chairman Mao standing over it. Ringing the square are the Sichuan Science & Technology Museum and the Chengdu Museum, the latter free to enter and genuinely well curated. In the evening there are musical fountains. Most usefully, it's a major metro interchange (Line 1 meets Line 2), which makes it a natural launch pad for the day; from here it's about a 10-minute walk to People's Park.

In a city racing to build towers, Wenshu Monastery stays a calm pocket that seems to float above the clock — the oldest and best-preserved Zen Buddhist temple in Chengdu. There are several prayer halls, bamboo gardens, and the thing locals love most: a teahouse in the grounds where you can sit quietly under the trees all afternoon. The surrounding streets are full of vegetarian restaurants and traditional snacks. Entry is free; allow 1 to 1.5 hours. Come mid-morning, then linger over tea.

In 2001, construction workers in Chengdu stumbled on the remains of a roughly 3,000-year-old civilisation — and that discovery became the Jinsha Site Museum, built right over the working excavation. The highlight is the Sun Bird gold disc (太阳神鸟), now a national emblem of Chinese cultural heritage, displayed alongside gold masks, ivory and a wealth of jade objects. It belongs to the same ancient culture as Sanxingdui (the museum of mysterious bronze masks, out of town). Anyone interested in ancient history shouldn't miss it. Allow 2 to 3 hours.

The Leshan Giant Buddha is the largest stone-carved Buddha in the world, 71 metres tall, cut into a cliff face during the Tang dynasty (begun in 713 CE and over 90 years in the making). It sits at the meeting point of three rivers — carved, the story goes, to calm the dangerous currents. The scale is staggering: a single toenail is bigger than a standing person. There are two ways to see it: descend the 九曲栈道 cliff stairway to the feet (long queues in peak season), or take a river boat for a full head-to-toe view with no queue at all. Half a day is enough, and it pairs with Mount Emei on the same rail line.

Two World Heritage Sites close enough to combine in one trip. Mount Qingcheng (青城山) is the birthplace of organised Taoism — a green mountain laced with Taoist pavilions and forest trails, split into the front mountain (前山, easy walking, more temples) and the rear mountain (后山, serious hiking). Dujiangyan (都江堰) is a 2,200-year-old irrigation system that still works today — ancient engineering that turned the Chengdu plain fertile, centred on the "Fish Mouth" (鱼嘴) levee that splits the river and the Anlan rope bridge. High-speed rail from Chengdu takes only about 30 minutes; allow half a day to a full day.

If you have a spare day or two, Mount Emei rewards it best — one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains and a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed together with the Leshan Giant Buddha). The high point is the Golden Summit (金顶) at 3,099 metres, crowned by a gilded statue of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra; on a clear day you may catch a sea of clouds. On the way up live wild Tibetan macaques (watch your bags!), Baoguo Temple, and hot springs. You ascend by bus and cable car. High-speed rail from Chengdu takes about 1.5 hours.