Best Discovery of Hometown of Dinosaurs and Colorful Lanterns
Zigong reputed as the hometown of Dinosaurs, colored lanterns, salt and delicious food is a popular destination for a short trip! This 2 days classic tour is best to take you to savor all bests of the soul of Zigong City by car driving from Chengdu. You will of course successfully go to explore the mysterious Jurassic kingdom and say hello to those giant beats from remote prehistoric period once you arrive there. And also no missing the jubilant Zigong Lantern Festival with dazzling lanterns igniting your leisure night walk. Besides, you are going to learn the history and technology of well salt making industry in Zigong by visiting the famous salt museum and the real well more than one thousand meter deep. Before returning Chengdu, you will also enjoy some pleasant hour roaming in the quiet antique Xianshi Old Town for some nice admiration of ancient streets, wooden houses, old temples, belting river and surrounding lush hills!
Highlights of this tour
This morning, your guide and driver will meet you at your hotel and then drive you for about 3 hours to Zigong City, the hometown of colored lanterns and dinosaurs. First, visit Zigong Dinosaur Museum that is one of the three great dinosaur museums in the world together with the two in America and Canada and has the richest fossil collection of almost all known dinosaur types of Jurassic Period during 205-135 million years ago. Walk among the display halls to see various types of dinosaur fossils and feel like being the remote Jurassic era. You will not miss the excavation site of Dashanpu dinosaur fossil group to see the electrifying tens of meters tall one-to-one skeleton of the dinosaur fossil. Also, you will have a very close look at the most primitive and completed fossil of stegosaurus, best preserved fossil of carnivorous dinosaur, primitive sinteryx with feather, and more worthy fossils of pterosaur, dinosaur eggs, etc. to realize your dream of Jurassic Period!
After that, go to Colored Lantern Park to enjoy the annual Zigong Lantern Festival which is the largest-scaled lantern show nationwide. Immerse yourself into the wonderful gorgeous wonderland with numerous lanterns made by paper, silk, ceramics, glass, bamboo, etc. into diverse amazing shapes, like figures, towers, pavilion, garden, flowers, animals, and so on. The large park are perfectly ignited with red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, golden, silver, and more colors to make you indulge into your roaming hours.
After the visiting, be escorted to your hotel in Zigong and have a good sleep!
(Note: Zigong Lantern Festival is held from middle January to middle March every year and is especially crowded during Chinese Spring Festival during Lunar January 1st and 15th. The best time to enjoy is at night when all colorful lights of different shapes are turned on.)
After breakfast, discover the well salt history of Zigong as the “Capital of Salt”. First go to Zigong Salt Making Industry History Museum. Walk into the Ming and Qing styled guild hall to learn the influential salt history of Zigong with closely look at the authentic business contract, account book, record book of the well drilling by original technique, different types of cultural relics, etc. You will see clearly how ancient people make well salt in Hang Dynasty, make salt by extracting natural gas in Qing Dynasty with vivid imitated situations and know the interesting well salt technology with models exhibition and other demonstration.
Next, go to Shenhai Well to see the real well which is from 1835 and the world first well over 1,000 meters deep. Since the well produces brine and natural gas, it has solved the difficulty of well salt making at that time and then made Zigong prosperous with salt making industry and prompted the popularity of Zigong cuisine in Sichuan and whole China. Here, you will not only find the full set of equipment for well salt making during the old days, but also see the preserved kitchen with salt workers busy making fresh salt around the big round pots to have a clear understand how salt is made.
Then, drive for about 0.5 hour to visit Xianshi Old Town of more than 1,400 years old town. as one of China’s famous historical and cultural towns, Xianshi keeps rich antique flavor along the riverside, with the rare preservation of streets, warehouses, temples, shrine, docks, and abundant old architectures from late Ming and late Qing years. Enjoy your relaxing stroll along the quiet paved ways to appreciate the characteristic buildings with delicate wooden and stone carvings in diverse patterns, local elders buy daily necessities at the old shops, and hear the clear chime from the ancient temple round the corner. You will also walk to the best place at the health center to overlook the whole town with entire black tires display row by row and the various contrasting roofs of square and round.
After the visiting, drive back about 3 hours back to Chengdu. Your guide will send you back to your hotel in Chengdu or the airport/railway station for your flights/train station to your next destination or home. Service ends!
Based in Chengdu, China Discovery is your best partner to help you become an honorable panda keeper. During the past a few years, we have organized panda volunteering tours for hundreds of our clients to volunteer with pandas in Dujiangyan, Bifengxia and Wolong Panda Bases. During the program, volunteers are provided a rare opportunity to get a closer stay with the pandas. It is also a great chance to learn many interesting facts about pandas... Your efforts will ensure the future of giant pandas! Join Us Now!
Do not Miss out Leshan Giant Buddha and Mount Emei in your Chengdu tour. They are only about 2 hours’ driving away from Chengdu downtown, and about 30mins’ driving from each other. As two World Heritage Sites of both nature and culture, Leshan Giant Buddha and Mount Emei give you a chance to experience the long history and tradition of Chinese Buddhism, also enjoy some fascinating landscapes, including by far the tallest and biggest pre-modern Buddha statue in the world, wondrous mountain scenery, sea of clouds and magnificent sunset and sunrise (if you want to spend one night on the mountain), etc. A boat trip to see the panoramic view of the Giant Buddha is available in Leshan.
Generally speaking, you only need 2 days to visit both Leshan Giant Buddha and Mount Emei together, usually traveling from Chengdu to visit the Giant Buddha first for a day, then visit the mountain and return to Chengdu in another day.
There is an old saying that "once you visited Jiuzhaigou, there is no need for you to see any other waterscape". Jiuzhaigou and its neighbor Huanglong grant you a memorable experience of nature wonder of wondrous water world, as the words say.
You will take a 45-minute flight from Chengdu directly to Jiuzhai Huanglong Airport in the early morning. In the afternoon, you’ll go to Huanglong National Park, where densely scatters thousands of travertine color-ponds and flow streams. You’ll marvel at Huanglong Temple and fabulous Five-Color Ponds. In the second day, you will visit three beautiful valleys in Jiuzhaigou National Park. The third day is for you to depart from Jiuzhaigou to Chengdu or other destinations.
Chengdu is famous for Giant Pandas and its idyllic slow pace of daily living.
During this trip, your tour guide will company you to explore the top recommended attractions in Chengdu one by one to experience its authentic culture and history. First of all, take an exciting visit to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Then move to Renmin Park to enjoy a cup of traditional Chinese tea in the Renmin Park; Learn about Buddhism culture in Wenshu Temple; Experience traditional Chengdu life in Jinli Old Street...
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