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Plan Chengdu in three steps
You do not need a perfect itinerary. You need a trip shape, three bookings, and your phone set up before you land. Everything else can be decided over breakfast.
Step one
Choose your trip shape
Pick the plan that matches your dates and appetite. Each itinerary includes a day-by-day route, costs, and a rainy-day backup.
Three days, first trip
Pandas, a teahouse, one old street, one hotpot. The route most first-timers should start with.
See the planFive days, food and culture
More meals, a market walk, a cooking class, and enough slack to recover between bowls of noodles.
See the planA weekend or layover
A compact plan for 24–48 hours, built around the Panda Base and a single central neighborhood.
See the planStep two
Lock the three bookings
These are the only reservations that reliably change the quality of a Chengdu trip. Everything else can wait.
01
Choose the hotel area
Chunxi Road or Tianfu Square for convenience; Wenshu for local food and budget rooms.
02
Reserve the panda morning
Go at opening. Book tickets in advance and plan to arrive before 8am.
03
Plan the airport transfer
Check whether you land at Tianfu or Shuangliu, then choose metro or DiDi.
Step three
Set up the practical basics
Five pages, about twenty minutes. Do this before you fly and the first day stops being a logistics exercise.