Day 1 Arrive in Chengdu

Upon your arrival at the Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, your Chengdu local driver will be waiting for you with your name sign at the baggage area. You will be transferred to your hotel.

Day 2 Giant Panda Volunteer Program / Giant Panda Breeding Center

Option 1: Giant Panda Volunteer Program






7:30: Pick up from your hotel. Your personal tour guide and driver will pick you up at 7:30 from your hotel and drive directly to the Dujiangyan Panda Base.

Note: Please let us know beforehand if you want to start earlier or later.

8:30 - 9:00: Registration for volunteering

Arriving at the Panda Base, your tour guide will help you to register and sign a safety agreement with the Giant Panda Volunteer Service Center. After signing up and registration, your volunteer experience will commence.

Firstly you will receive a uniform, a pair of gloves and other equipment. Then, the base staff will provide instructions about the work, which your tour guide will assist in translating. You will be properly trained.

Cleaning pandas’ home: 9:00 - 10:00 a.m

The first activity will be cleaning the panda’s enclosures. You need to help the staff to clean-up the pandas’ faeces and replace their bamboo. All the leftover bamboo needs to be cleared. You can observe how pandas live.

Wandering around the panda base: 10:00 a.m - 11:00 a.m

After an hour’s work, you will have a break, during which you can wander around and observe the cute pandas eating bamboo. Your tour guide will guide you through the whole base and help identity the different kinds of pandas. Some of them are celebrities bonding relationships between China and other countries.

Feed pandas: 11:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m

You may know that pandas eat a lot. Besides bamboo, they like to eat cakes, apples and  carrots. You will come into close contact with them as you feed them with specially made panda cakes.

Lunch time: 12:00 p.m - 13:00 p.m

The panda base will provide lunch for you. There is usually rice, meat dishes, vegetable dishes, porridge, and other Chinese food. In case you are not in mood for typical Chinese food, please bring your own lunch.

After lunch, you may rest a little and get ready for the afternoon activities.

Panda documentary: 13:00 - 14:00 p.m

You will watch some documentaries on how pandas evolved and efforts to protect them.

Clean the enclosure and feed the pandas again: 14:00 - 14:50

The morning’s bamboo will have dried out and needs to be cleared away and replenished with fresh bamboo. You can also feed the pandas some fruit and vegetables.

Make panda cakes: 14:50 - 15:30

When you feed the pandas with panda cakes, you will be curious about how they were made. Now you will have the chance to make panda cakes with your own hands. You can make them into various shapes.

Receive a certificate for your work and get back to hotel: 15:30 - 16:30 p.m

Your volunteering experience will end here and the panda base will issue you a certificate recognizing your love and work for the pandas. You will be transferred back to your hotel.













Option 2: Panda Breeding Center, Fruit Picking






07:30 a.m: Your driver and guide will meet you at the hotel lobby and take you to the visit the Giant Panda Breeding Center. Seeing the cute pandas playing with each other on the grass, leisurely chewing on bamboo or even playfully chasing their keeper is a lot of fun. There are, in addition, many other rare animals on the verge of extinction housed in the center. Children can learn a lot during this trip.

12:00- 13:00: Hunt for lunch and taste the authentic Sichuan dishes.

14:00 - 16:30: You will go to a local Orchard for Fruit Picking. The favorable climate and location bestowed Chengdu city with a variety of fruits. Whenever you visit Chengdu, there are several seasonal fruits available. To taste the freshest fruits, we will take you to a local orchard.

17:30: You will be transferred to hotel for rest.

Day 3 Chengdu Cooking Class, Wuhou Temple, Jinli Street

08:10 a.m: Your Chengdu guide and driver will meet you at the hotel lobby and take you to explore the elegant Chengdu city.

08:30 - 12:30: Visiting Chengdu, you must taste Sichuan cuisine. However, have you ever wondered how did people make such delicious dish? What was their secret? After this morning, you will know everything! Your guide will take you to visit the back-alley market to see all kinds of ingredients and seasonings. You will understand how important the chilli and Sichuan pepper are for Sichuan people. Get acquainted with all these ingredients, you will head for a quiet private yard and get your hands dirty. You will have a professional chef to instruct you and help you to cook. After the cooking, you will enjoy what you’ve made and get a recipe for the dishes! Through this cooking class, you will learn about the rich culinary culture of Sichuan cuisine and have an idea why it has gained so much fame.

13:00 - 15:00: Visit the Wuhou Temple. Wuhou refers to Zhuge Liang, a great strategist during the Three Kingdoms Period. He directed a lot of famous battles against the Wei Nation and helped his lord Liu Bei to build Shu State. According to Chinese customs, after his death, every governor or official that had earned great respect during his/her life would receive  an exclusive temple built in remembrance to them. He and his lord Liu Bei each had a separate temple near to each other. The two temples were later combined into the Wuhou temple, which makes this temple the only one to host two masters.

15:10 - 16:30: Jinli Street is actually adjacent to, and part of the Wuhou Temple that presents the history, culture and customs of the Three Kingdoms Period. It’s said that this used to be one the oldest and best commercialized streets in Sichuan. In fact, it was already quite famous in Qin and Han Dynasties. Nowadays, the Jinli Street has all the things you need to experience in Chengdu. You may sip a cup of tea in a private Tea house, or ask a few friends to kill time in a bar, or enjoy a Sichuan Opera in a old-style theater, or taste the local snacks while admire the exquisitely made artifacts. There are also some theme activities in Jinli Street. If you visit at a right time, you may encounter performances like traditional Chinese weddings, folk music, operas, and folk costumes. In other times like Lantern Festival, Dragon-boat Festival or Middle-Autumn Festivals, you can join some theme activities here.




17:00: Get back to hotel and end this day tour.






    

Day 4 Dujiangyan Irrigation System, Mt. Qingcheng

09:00: Be ready to start your second day tour in this amazing land.

10:10 - 12:00: Following a one hour drive you will arrive at the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. Praised as the “Originator of the Culture of Irrigation Work”, the Dujiangyan Irrigation System is located in the west of Dujiangyan City, next to the Min River. It is also the oldest (around 256BC) and the only existing majestic irrigation system in the world still on duty, representing a great technological achievement of ancient China.

12:00 - 13:00: Enjoy lunch at a nice local restaurant.

13:20 - 16:00: Stop at Mt. Qingcheng. It is one of the birthplaces of Taoism (an indigenous religion in China) with more than 20 Taoist temples, exuding an intense atmosphere of religious culture. Towering 1,260 meters above sea level, Mount Qingcheng is a place with serene and peaceful atmosphere--the graceful pavilions, melodious birds, tall graceful trees, quiet streams and meandering paths, all forming an harmonious environment.




17:00: Return to your Chengdu hotel.






    

Day 5 People's Park, Cuisine Museum, Kuanzhai Alley, Sichuan Opera

09:00: Your guide will take you to dive into the local people’s life and see what’s their life look like.

09:20-10:30: Your first stop will be the Chengdu People’s Park. Like the most parks, people like to socialize here. Every morning, there are people practice Tai Chi or other exercise here. Some people, mostly grandpas, like to use a big water brush to practice their Chinese Characters on the ground. Some like play cards or Chinese chess. Some people, especially the old ladies like to dance with the loud music. Some people like just sit in one of the tea house and watch people come and go. While some people like to get their ear cleaned by the professional ear cleaners that use special tools. You may also surprised to find there are parents anxiously seeking spouse for their aging children. They will put up their children’s personal information on a sheet of paper and at the same time state clearly their requirements about the spouse they are looking for. There are also some snack stands you might want to check out. We recommend you try a caramel animal on a stick. It’s very sweet and it looks artistic. You may also try the Sandaopao, a kind of glutinous rice ball that covered in sweet syrup. Boating on the lake is a fun thing to do as too.

11:20-12:30: Your next stop will be the Sichuan Cuisine Museum. Located in Pidu District, about 33km northwest of Chengdu city, Sichuan Cuisine Museum is one of the most famous museum that themed with culinary culture in China. It’s also the only interactive food museum in China. The whole complex is in Han Dynasty architectural style and decorated with rosewood screens and Sichuan embroidery. You will find different kinds of books, pictures, recipes, food ingredients, utensils. You may also taste the sample food for free.

12:30 - 13:30: All the visiting in the Sichuan Cuisine Museum may make you hungry. During this time, your guide will take you to enjoy the most authentic Sichuan dishes.

14:20 -16:00: You will visit the Kuanzhai Alley. Kuanzhai Alley, aka Wide & Narrow Alleys, is composed of Kuan Alley (Wide Alley), Zhai Alley (Zhai Alley) and Jing Alley. This area used to be the residential area for Manchu imperials in Chengdu. This explains why all the buildings are in Qing Dynasty quadrangle courtyard style. In recent years, many restaurants, cafes, entertainment rooms were settled here, making this a new relaxing spot.

16:30: You will be dropped off at the hotel for rest.




18:00: Your driver alone will take you to a local theater and enjoy the Sichuan Opera. As the essence of Chinese Western folk culture, Sichuan Opera enjoys an international fame with its Face Changing Show, Fire Spitting Show, and Hands Shadow Show. Face Changing is a feature of Sichuan Opera to express the emotional changes of the role so that the audiences can know their change of moods. While the Fire Spitting indicates that the role (usually the evil or demon) is in extreme anger. After the show, you will get back to your hotel.






   

Day 6 Leshan Giant Buddha, Jiajiang Tianfu Tea Plantation

07:30: Pick up from hotel and leave for Leshan city.

09:20 - 12:00: Visit the Giant Buddha. Located on the corner of the Min River, Qingyi River and Dadu River, this Buddha is the largest sitting inscribed Buddha in China with height of 71 meters. It was built in Tang Dynasty and took 90 years to complete. It’s quite a masterpiece. You can climb down the narrow wooden stairs to the very bottom of the Buddha and have a close look at its toes and hands. If you want a full view, we suggest you take a local cruise from the other side of the river bank and take some photos.

12:00 - 13:00: Have lunch nearby the Buddha and prepare for the afternoon tour.

14:00 - 16:00: On the way back to Chengdu city, you will pass a small Tea Plantation. It’s quite small, but very serene and a good spot to relax. You will walk through the tea plants and learn how to pick fresh tea leaves under the guidance of local people. After that, you will stop by one of the farmer’s house and learn about their lives. It’ll be fun to get to know local people.




17:00: This day tour ends here, your guide will take you back to Chengdu hotel.






    

Day 7 Departure Chengdu

Your Chengdu driver will pick you up 4 hours before your flight and take you to the Chengdu airport.