Chengdu Things to Do Tips by bellatrix

Wenshu Temple Wenshu Temple Review

Wenshu Monastery (Wenshu Yuan) is Chengdu's oldest and largest temple and is usually bursting with life and atmosphere. It has layers of temples inside, and I sometimes felt we were walking through a 3D mandala design! The temple was very fragrant with incense and the shrines were lovely. There is a HUGE tea house at the back of the complex which is a great place to do some people watching and a good vegetarian restaurant.

Address: Just off Renmin Zhong Lu on Wenshu Yuan Jie

Directions: Bus No.16 passes through the center of town to Renmin Zhong Lu.

Baihuatan Park

Baihuatan Park is a nice place to take a stroll through the manicured grounds. There were little ponds and pagodas and a bonsai garden, and of course a teahouse!

Directions: Southwest of Chengdu

Qinyang Gong Taoist temple Qingyang Gong Daoist Temple Review

I would recommend a visit to Qinyang Gong, a Taoist temple, to walk around and admire the beautiful and colorful temples. Have some delicious tea and eat at the teahouse. Drinking tea seems to be Chengdu's favorite pasttime! Every temple or park has a teahouse, where people sit around in bamboo chairs, drink jasmine or green tea, and chat or play mah-jong. I would imagine that there are groups of friends who meet up every afternoon to while away the day!

Directions: The intersection of First Ring Road West (Xi Yi Huan Lu) and Qing Yang Zheng Street. Zongbei District.

Panda Reserve Pandas Review

The Reserve is cool because the conditions are more humane than a zoo; the pandas aren't kept in cages, they are kept in wooded areas very much like their natural habitat, with ditches and walls around each area to prevent them getting out. It was so neat walking around this place, with pandas munching on bamboo and lying around in the shade. Just before leaving we went to the panda nursery, where a mama and two baby pandas are kept. They were playing with eachother, it was so adorable! I got some great photos of them.

Address: Xiongmao Dadao, Northern Suburb

Directions: The park is ten kilometers from downtown Chengdu and can be reached by taxi, tour, or bus (numbers 60, 18, or 10) to the zoo and then taxi (¥8).

Other Contact: limingxi@mail.sc.cninfo.net

Phone: 351-6748

Sichuanese Opera Sichuan Opera/Other Performances Review

It was fabulous! It was pretty low-key as operas go, and the music was punctuated with loud cymbals and the oboe and Chinese violin.. and the singing itself was sometimes so loud and shrill as to be a bit scary, actually... but I thoroughly enjoyed it! The depth of emotion portrayed in the expressions and the voices, the beauty of the language and the humor in the story, the realness of it all.... I wanted it to go on forever! The other travelers I went with didn't like it as much and actually went to sleep during the performance... I think it wasn't what they were expecting. I have heard the style of music before and so didn't find it grating as I'm guessing they did. I really found myself wishing that I spoke Mandarin so that I could catch the subtleties of the story and hear the puns! I wanted to know what they were laughing at! Having a translator was great, but obviously so much was missed! But it was great!!

Directions: Talk to your hostel coordinator; they will be able to hook you up with performance information. Happens at two venues: Chengdu Theater on Minzhong Lu and the Jin Jiang Theater on Huaxingzheng Lu.