Chongqing & Chengdu

Arrive at Jiangbei (CKG) & settle in

DiDi or Metro Line 10/3 into town and check in. Tonight is gentle on purpose — shake off the flight, enjoy the room, let the worst heat of the day pass.

InterContinental Raffles City 来福士洲际 复制 Hotel ↗ — inside the "spaceship" skybridge over the rivers. (Alt: Niccolo 尼依格罗 at Jiefangbei, or Regent 丽晶 on the Jialing.)

Hongyadong at dusk → first nine-grid hotpot

Walk to the stilt-house cliff complex as its golden lanterns flick on; cross Qiansimen Bridge for the full-facade photo. Then your first proper Chongqing hotpot — beef-tallow broth, the nine-grid pot, sesame-oil-and-garlic dip.

Hongyadong 洪崖洞 复制 Map ↗

Working monastery → Qing-dynasty guild hall

Start at Arhat Temple — 524 individual clay arhats, incense and chanting, glass towers pressing in on all sides. Walk to Huguang Guild Hall, the grandest surviving guild compound in China; time it for the 11:20 "Drunk in Bayu" face-changing & shadow-puppet show on a historic stage.

Arhat Temple 罗汉寺复制Map ↗ Huguang Guild Hall 湖广会馆复制Map ↗

Lunch + the Three Gorges Museum (air-conditioned)

A bowl of Chongqing xiaomian for lunch, then escape the heat inside the Three Gorges Museum on Renmin Square — Bronze-Age Ba-Yu vessels, the human story of the great dam relocation, and WWII-capital history. (Free; reserve a slot 1–3 days ahead. Open Sun; closed Mon.)

Three Gorges Museum 三峡博物馆复制Map ↗

Yangtze cableway at dusk → Bayi street-food crawl

Ride the last cross-river ropeway as the skyline lights up (board the quieter south side, ride toward the city). Then graze your way down Bayi Road Food Street: suānlàfěn, máoxuèwàng, skewers, sugar-roasted sweet potato. End with a cooling bowl of bīngfěn.

Yangtze Cableway 长江索道复制Map ↗ Bayi Food Street 八一路好吃街复制Map ↗

Bullet train to Wulong → Three Natural Bridges

Take an early train to Wulong (~40–120 min). Walk the gorge floor beneath three colossal stone arches — the Three Natural Bridges, where Transformers and Curse of the Golden Flower were filmed, with a recreated Ming postal station between them.

Three Natural Bridges 天生三桥复制Tickets ↗

Longshuixia slot gorge — natural cool

Descend into the Longshuixia Fissure Gorge: a misty slot canyon ~18–22°C even in July, with waterfalls and cyan pools. A packable rain shell beats an umbrella in the spray. (Furong Cave, a 16°C cavern, is the optional add if you want more underground cool.)

Longshuixia Gorge 龙水峡地缝复制

Up to Fairy Mountain — overnight on the grassland

Climb to Xiannü (Fairy) Mountain, a 1,900 m plateau locals call "Oriental Switzerland" — meadows, horse ranches, fir forest, drifting mist. After furnace-Chongqing, the cool evening air is the whole point. Overnight at a mountain resort and actually sleep under a blanket.

Fairy Mountain 仙女山复制Stays ↗

Misty meadow morning

No alarm. A slow breakfast, a walk across the grassland (or the little open-air train), maybe a horseback hour while the air is still cool — then the train back down to Chongqing by mid-afternoon.

Hotel cool-down

Back to your river-view base. Pool, spa, a nap, or an iced bowl of liángxiā — bank some energy for the evening, which is Chongqing at its most cinematic.

Nan Shan "One Tree" skyline + spring-water chicken

Arrive at the One Tree Viewing Deck by 6:30pm for the golden-hour-to-neon transition over the whole peninsula — the definitive "circuit-board city" panorama. Dinner on the mountain: quánshuǐjī, Nanshan's famous spring-water chicken.

One Tree Deck 南山一棵树复制Map ↗ Spring-water chicken 泉水鸡复制

Dazu Rock Carvings — Baodingshan

A short bullet train to Dazu South, then the Baoding Mountain grottoes: 800 years of serene, story-rich cliff sculpture in a wooded, shaded valley — the reclining Buddha, the Wheel of Life, hundreds of figures. A UNESCO site that rewards slow, quiet looking. Hire the audio guide.

Dazu Rock Carvings 大足石刻复制Tickets ↗

Country lunch & train back

A relaxed local lunch near the carvings before the train back to the city — the morning start means you beat both the worst heat and the tour buses.

A quieter old-town farewell

For your last Chongqing evening, skip the crush of Ciqikou for the lived-in lanes of Longmenhao Old Street on the south bank — old consulates, hillside stairs, river reflections — then a final riverside drink looking back at the skyline you've now seen from every angle.

Longmenhao Old Street 龙门浩老街复制Map ↗

Bullet train to Chengdu & check in

A late-morning G-train (Chongqing North/West → Chengdu East, ~62–90 min) and you've swapped a vertical neon city for a flat, green, easy-going one. Check into The Temple House, wrapped around a 1,300-year-old temple in the heart of Taikoo Li.

The Temple House 博舍复制Hotel ↗ (Alt: Niccolo, Ritz-Carlton, or St. Regis — all central.)

Heming Teahouse → Kuanzhai Alley

Ease into Chengdu's famous slowness. Take a bamboo chair at Heming Teahouse in People's Park, order a gàiwǎn of jasmine, and surrender to a 20-minute ear-cleaning while mahjong tiles clack around you. Drift over to the Wide & Narrow Alleys for snacks (tángyóu guǒzi!).

Heming Teahouse 鹤鸣茶社复制Map ↗ Kuanzhai Alley 宽窄巷子复制Map ↗

Taikoo Li glow + the climbing panda

Step out your door into Taikoo Li as it lights up — Daci Temple glowing, the giant IFS climbing panda peeking over the mall, a rooftop drink. An easy first Chengdu dinner of chuàn-chuàn skewers nearby.

Taikoo Li / IFS 太古里 / 国金中心复制Map ↗

Chengdu Panda Base — at opening

Be at the gate when it opens. In July the pandas are only active early — by 10:30 they're asleep and it's hot and packed. Head straight to the nursery and sub-adult yards, ride the internal shuttle, give it 3 unhurried hours, and leave before the crush.

Chengdu Panda Base 大熊猫繁育研究基地复制Tickets ↗

Cool-down, then Wuhou Shrine & Jinli

Back to the hotel through the worst heat. Late afternoon, the Wuhou Shrine — China's great Three Kingdoms memorial and its red-walled bamboo corridor — flowing straight into Jinli street for an early-evening snack graze (rabbit head, if you dare).

Wuhou Shrine 武侯祠复制Map ↗ Jinli Street 锦里复制Map ↗

Sichuan opera — the face-changing show

The night's headliner: Shufeng Yayun, the gold-standard teahouse theatre for biànliǎn (face-changing), fire-spitting, hand-shadow and rolling-lantern acrobatics — tea served at your table. Sit close; the masks change inches away.

Shufeng Yayun 蜀风雅韵复制Tickets ↗

Cook your own Sichuan classics

A hands-on morning at the Sichuan Cuisine Museum: walk the doubanjiang fermentation urns, grind your own peppercorns, then cook real mapo tofu and kung pao chicken at a wok station — and eat what you make. The best way to understand what you've been tasting all week.

Sichuan Cuisine Museum 川菜博物馆复制Class ↗

Du Fu's Thatched Cottage

Late afternoon in the deep bamboo shade of the Du Fu Thatched Cottage — gardens, ponds and pavilions around the home of China's greatest poet. One of the city's most peaceful corners; bring nowhere to be.

Du Fu Thatched Cottage 杜甫草堂复制Map ↗

An easy night out

Industrial-cool at East Music Park (东郊记忆) for coffee, vinyl and maybe live music — or simply back to Taikoo Li for a relaxed dinner. A deliberately open evening after a hands-on day.

Dujiangyan Panda Valley — the calm base

An intercity train to Dujiangyan and the forest-set Panda Valley: a handful of pandas in big, semi-wild mountain enclosures, a fraction of the city crowds, noticeably cooler air. This is the unhurried panda morning.

Panda Valley 熊猫谷复制Tickets ↗

The 2,300-year-old waterworks

Lunch riverside, then the Dujiangyan Irrigation System — Li Bing's 256 BC engineering that still tames the Min River and made Sichuan "the land of abundance." Walk the weirs and the swaying bridges with mountains behind.

Dujiangyan 都江堰复制Tickets ↗

Qingcheng Mountain — birthplace of Taoism

A short hop to Mt. Qingcheng, lush and shaded and cooler than the city, threaded with ancient Taoist temples and old-growth forest. A cable car saves the legs; the calm does the rest. Evening train home.

Mt. Qingcheng 青城山复制Map ↗

Leshan Giant Buddha — at the feet of a giant

First train to Leshan (~1 hr) and straight to the gate. Walk the cliff staircase down past the 71-metre Tang-dynasty Buddha carved into the rock — then take the river boat for the only full-body view. A weekday start keeps the notorious stair-queue short.

Leshan Giant Buddha 乐山大佛复制Tickets ↗

Bowl-chicken lunch, then to Mt. Emei

A Leshan lunch (bōbō-jī cold skewers, dòuhuā) before the short train to Emeishan. Check into a hotel by Baoguo Temple — and yes, a hot spring soak tonight after a big day.

Baoguo Temple at dusk

Wander Baoguo and Fuhu temples as the pilgrims light evening incense and the monks chant — the atmospheric prelude to tomorrow's summit. Early night; the mountain starts at dawn.

Baoguo Temple 报国寺复制Map ↗

Up to the Golden Summit (3,079 m)

Eco-bus to Leidongping, then the cable car to the Golden Summit — the vast golden Samantabhadra rising out of the mist, often above a sea of clouds. After a week of furnace heat, you'll want that fleece. Pure, cool, sacred air.

Golden Summit 峨眉山金顶复制Tickets ↗

Down the mountain & train back

Descend at your own pace, a last temple or two, then the afternoon train back to Chengdu — one full night's buffer before flying out tomorrow.

The farewell feast

Your last dinner should be the big one — a refined Sichuan tasting menu to close the loop on everything you've eaten. Yu Zhi Lan (two Michelin stars) if your concierge secured it weeks ago; otherwise the Michelin-listed Ma's Kitchen in Taikoo Li, or the Temple House's own Green-Star Mi Xun.

Yu Zhi Lan 玉芝兰复制2★ Ma's Kitchen 马旺子复制

A final teahouse morning

Depending on your flight: one more gàiwǎn of tea, a last bowl of dàndàn noodles or sweet-water noodles, and a slow wander around Taikoo Li for gifts (vacuum-packed fūqī fèipiàn & chili crisp travel well).

Out via Tianfu (TFU)

The airport metro express or a DiDi to Tianfu International. Twelve days, two great food cities, a dozen pandas, three sacred mountains, and not a single rushed photo-and-leave. 一路平安 — safe travels home.