Sichuan Leisure & Chongqing Highlights
Travel to Chengdu's Panda Base to see and learn how pandas eat, live and even give birth. Continue on to the Leshan Giant Buddha, reach the salt city to learn some salt history, getting a full day sightseeing in Chongqing that includes Buddhist Temples and splendid landscape around.
Highlights of this tour
Welcome to Chengdu, the hometown of Giant Pandas! Clear the customs and retrieve your baggage by yourself upon arrival, be greeted by our tour guide in the Arrival Hall who is holding a sign on which says your name. A comfortable vehicle (non-smoking) with an experienced driver will transfer you directly to your hotel. Your guide will help you check in. The rest of today is yours to enjoy the leisurely life pace of this city on your own.
After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel. Today, you’ll first visit the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, where you can explore the daily life of the cute pandas, and get close to the lovely creatures.
After lunch, followed a trip to Wenshu Temple. Built in Sui Dynasty (605-617BC), it is the largest and best-preserved Buddhist temple in Chengdu. Enjoy the tranquility of Buddhist monks chanting inside the temple or just walk around the well-manicured grounds.
Then, head to Renmin Park to sip a cup of traditional Chinese tea and absorb the special atmosphere of Chengdu. Enjoy hot pot for dinner to taste the very local Sichuan flavor (Optional Activity).
Your last activity for today is the Jinli Old Street where you will experience Chengdu local culture, taste some featured snacks and get yourself some handcrafts.
In the morning, after a two-hour drive from Chengdu, head to Leshan Giant Buddha, the largest carved statue of Buddha in the world. Sitting at the confluence of three rivers, the Giant Buddha was carved on the cliff of Lingyun Mountain, used to suppress the flood. Enjoy spectacular view of the huge statue as you walking down through the narrow staircases to the foot of the Buddha.
After visiting the Giant Buddha, move on to Zigong City. In this afternoon, visit Zigong Colored Lantern Museum in the Colored Lantern Park. Zigong Colored Lantern Museum sits on a spacious, gentle slope of the South Hill. It is the ONLY museum focused on the collection and conservation of China’s historic paper lanterns.
(Note: The 20th Zigong International Dinosaur Festival and Economic Trade Fair Event is in mid-Jan. to Mar. of 2014 in the Colored Lantern Park. You’ll have a wonderful night in the “Best Lantern Event of the World”!)
After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel. On this day, you’ll visit three must-see of Zigong City - Zigong Salt Industry History Museum, Shenhai Well and Zigong Dinosaur Museum. After the city tour in Zigong, drive to Dazu County in Chongqing. Overnight in Dazu County.
Zigong Salt Industry History Museum, situated in the Western Shaan Xi Guild Hall, is an icon and a cultural symbol of Zigong. It is considered to be a gem of Chinese architecture as well as a cultural relic of Sichuan history of salt industry.
Dug in 1835 with a shaft 1,001.42m long, Shenhai Well was the world’s first manually sunk well over a kilometer deep. It’s laid out exactly like what it used to: a typical Qing-style salt well of the early 19th century. It is by far China’s only salt well operated with the traditional technique, producing both brine and natural gas.
Zigong Dinosaur Museum is the first specialized museum of dinosaurs in China. It has been rated “World’s Best Dinosaur Museum” by the National Geographic Magazine for it has collected and exhibited the largest number of Jurassic-dinosaur fossils. There is the reversion of Emei Dinosaur which is about 10 meters high in the exhibition hall.
The only stop of today is a visit to the two major sites of Dazu Rock Carvings – Beishan (North Mountain) Grottoes and Baoding Grottoes. In 1999, China declared a World Heritage only approved, which is the world’s cultural heritage “Dazu Rock Carvings”. This is our heritage like stone carves in the Mogao Caves in 1987 after the second selected. Dazu steep cliff on the preservation of a unique series of rock carvings, the time spans from the ninth century to the 13th century.
In the afternoon, drive to Chongqing downtown for night.
On this day, the tour first goes to the Eling Park to have a birds-eye-view of the whole city. It is one of the old private gardens in Chongqing, built in late Qing Dynasty around 1909 AD.
Then, followed a trip to Ciqikou Old Town. It was Chongqing's old harbor and was once the home of many of Chongqing's rich merchants, where you can still see lots of Ming and Qing dynasty architecture, local shops, tea houses, local Sichuan street performance and so on.
The last stop of the day is the famous Three Gorges Museum - the largest monographic museum. The exterior of the museum has cambered walls and vitreous dome, representing the history & culture of Three Gorges Project and its origins.
After the tour, transfer to the airport or port for your departure flight or Yangtze Three Gorges cruise. (Note: the cruise boarding time changes based on the ships, season, water level, weather, etc.)
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“WONDERFUL 25 DAYS IN CHINA - PRIVATE TOUR”
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