Southwest China Travel: 8 Days Chengdu & Chongqing Highlights Tour

D1 Chengdu Arrival

Pick up service can be arranged at Chengdu train station or Chengdu airport, our Chengdu local guide will meet you at the exit with a welcome sign "Chengdu Private Tour". Transfer to your hotel in Chengdu, the rest day is free on your own to explore the city or take rest in your hotel.

D2 Chengdu

After breakfast, you will have chance to visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, which is about 10 km from Chengdu downtown. This beautifully laid out park is the home of about 80 giant pandas and some other rare animals, such as red panda, black-necked crane, white crane ect. Walking along the excellently designed walkways, you could have a good angle through the open enclosures of giant pandas.

Next, head to visit the Jinsha Site Runis, which is the museum established in the Jinsha ruins site, and is also a museum to show categories of ancient Shu culture in Sichuan area during Shang and Zhou dynasty.

In the afternoon, take the chance to visit the Wenshu Monastery. It is the best-preserved Buddhist temple in Chengdu. It is the home of the Buddhist Association of Sichuan Province and Chengdu City

The last stop for the tour is Jinli Ancient Street. It is “The First Street of Shu Kingdom”, and it’s a famous snack street in Chengdu. The ambiance was like stepping back into the past, well presented and historically brilliant. Evening stroll is extreme beautiful, and picturesque with the lanterns lit up and the street performances are also wonderful. 

After the tour, you will be taken back to your hotel in Chengdu.

D3 Chengdu

After breakfast, drive about 2 hours to visit the famous UNESCO site around Chengdu-Leshan Giant Buddha. Sitting on the confluence of three rivers in Leshan, the 71-meter-high Leshan Giant Buddha is the largest Maitreya Buddha statue carved out of a cliff in the world. Ancient wisdom and regilious faith of Buddhism created the giant and magnificent cultural treasure, and now is world-known as an amazing UNESCO Natural & Cultural Heritage property in Leshan, nearby Chengdu.

In the afternoon, you will visit the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. It is the great technological achievement of ancient China. For more than 2,300 years of irrigation, Dujiangyan has benefited the local people just as it prevents Min River basin from annual flooding

After the tour, you will be taken back to your hotel in Chengdu.

D4 Chengdu--Jiuzhaigou

After breakfast, our guide will take you to experience real life in Chengdu at Renmin Park where you can see how locals spend thier leisure time, strolling in the park, you will see local people drinking tea, playing mahjong or cards, dancing, singing, and playing music.

After the tour, transfer to Chengdu airport to catch your flight to Jiuzhaigou Huanglong Airport. It takes around 1 hour from Chengdu. Once you arrive, our local guide and driver will take you to your hotel in Jiuzhaigou.

D5 Jiuzhaigou

After breakfast, our guide will take you to explore the fairyland and national treasure. Take full day excursion into Jiuzhaigou Valley with your guide accompanying. Firstly, we would suggest you get on the shuttle bus to Mirror Lake which looks peaceful in the morning and it is perfectly as a mirror with all water stillness. After that, get on the shuttle bus again and go directly to Arrow Bamboo Lake. From there, you can hike down the scenery line along with Panda Sea, Wuhua Flower Sea, and Nuorilang Waterfall. Footpath is available to all the places and you will be astonished by the natural gallery.

In the afternoon, Continue your hiking tour in the afternoon and feel relaxed without pushing at all. You can stop wherever you find beautiful views. Along the hiking route, you will find out another side of Jiuzhaigou valley, lovely and charming. The Shuzheng Valley, Rhinoceros Lake, Shu Zheng Lake, Sparkling Lake and Reed Sea will show you an unforgettable afternoon.

After the tour, you will be taken back to your hotel in Jiuzhaigou.

D6 Jiuzhaigou--Chongqing

After breakfast, our guide will take you to visit the Huanglong National Park. Huanglong Scenic Area consists of Huanglong Valley and Mouni Valley and is famous for its natural beauty. Huanglong Valley is surrounded by snow-capped mountains and houses thousands of colorful mineral pools. Huanglong was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

Visitors can walk the entire valley up to Multi-colored Pond, which takes around 1.5 to 2 hours. However, considering the high altitude of the area and the length of the walk, which is mostly uphill, we recommend you take the cable car up. Be warned that the cable car only takes visitors to a higher platform, which offers great views of the park, but you still need to walk about 2.5 km or one hour from there to the Multi-colored Pond. That said, the walk from the cable car station to the Multi-colored Pond is relatively easy, since most of the path is on a fairly level boardwalk.

After the tour, transfer to Jiuzhaigou Huanglong Airport to catch your flight to Chongqing. You will be picked up from Chongqing airport and taken to your hotel by our guide once you arrive.

D7 Chongqing

After breakfast, our guide will take you to visit the Ciqikou Old Town that is praised as the “epitome of Chongqing”. Take your leisure walk on the polished paved paths to admire its over 1,800-year-old historical culture dated from Song Dynasty, appreciate its well-kept tiled-roof folk dwellings of hundreds of years old, watch the well-inherited folk artistic skills, and imagine and once busy transshipping scene shown at the ancient port there.

Next, head to visit the Three Gorges Museum, the vast collection of more than 280 thousand pieces of precious historical relics will let you have an amazing understanding of the great Yangtze River and formation of the magnificent Three Gorges, and also tell you the gradual thriving of Chongqing from 3,000 years ago, to its war defense in 20s century, and developmental path to be one of the 4 prosperous municipalities in China.

In the afternnon, you will have chance to experience the Chongqing Rail Transit Line2 from Huanghuayuan Metro Station to Liziba Metro Station to look at the city’s prototype from a different angle. Then, get off to have the never-seen magic of the train going through a 11-storey block of flats, existing only in the fantastically structured Chongqing built against mountains.

The last stop for the day is Hongya Cave, the must-see highlight to appreciate the layers of featured Ba and Shu regional wooden tilted houses overlapped leaning the mountain up to 11 storeys, which looks quite glittery lit by the orange lights from nightfall. And continue to get up to the 11 level with vehicles and roads alongside to catch the sparkling nightscape of Jialing River and the nearby buildings with beautiful neon.

After the tour, you will be taken back to your hotel in Chongqing.

D8 Chongqing Departure

After breakfast, our guide will take you to visit the Dazu Rock Caving, it was first built from 650AD on the steep hillsides and has been listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site due to its large scales, delicate carvings, rich themes, complete preservation, and bright reflection of the social daily life as well as the harmonious coexistence of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in China from 9th-13th centuries.

After the tour, transfer to Chongqing train station or Chongqing airport for your next destination.

Price Per Person in US Dollars