The third city we've been to during our China trip is Chengdu. This is the capital of the Sichuan Province and we came via the high speed train. It took about 5 hours for the trip. We have booked the train tickets from Trip.com and we exchanged our voucher at Xi'an North train station the day before our departure.
I thought that Chengdu would not be as big but I was wrong. It has a very organised metro line and lots of tall buildings at what I think is their downtown area. For this leg, we decided to splurge with our hotel accommodation. We stayed in a hotel that I did not know was a 5 star one LOL. It was called Dorsett Grand Chengdu and was very near the train station. We were assigned to a room in the 33rd floor and this was our view.
We arrived at around 3pm and just decided to go to People's Park. It was so easy to get to as it is right beside the People's Park station. Entry was free. It was a Saturday afternoon and so it was packed. It was nice to see families with their kids playing and just enjoying the atmosphere. The park was huge.There was a bonsai garden and a fish pond.
I think it is the only park I have seen that has a mini kid's carnival. There were rides like bumper cars and roller coasters. This was the busiest part of the park. Also, we found out about a food cart that sells of sugary lollies that can be customized to different characters.
The kids love it!
Chengdu is known for their spicy food and abundance of hot pot. We are not really adventorous with food but I tried to eat dumplings with a little bit of spice. It was surprisingly not too bad! I would not hesitate to have it again.
The main goal why we headed to Chengdu was to catch a glimpse of how their pandas are being taken cared of. We went to the Panda Research Base and I have written all about it here.
Some tips we have compiled for your upcoming Chengdu trip:
1. The Panda Research Base opens at 7:30am. We got to it at 8am and there was a long line at the entrance already. You can choose to come in really early and buy tickets right there at the entrance.
2. Taxi rates can vary from time of day, taxi companies and etc. We paid 60 RMB going to the panda base on an early morning but only 40 RMB coming back to the hotel after. This was even though there was heavier traffic going back.
3. Souvenir costs are pretty much the same whichever store you go.
4. Heading to or from the Chengdu airport? Easier to take the subway line whichever way.
5. Be specific when ordering food. Some establishments might forget you can't only tolerate a spicy meal.
6. It was a good decision to just pay for a subway ticket everytime we would ride a subway line. Saved us time from searching how or where we can have a permanent subway card refunded. Although it takes time to line up at the ticket counter but we did not mind.
Thank you for reading and 'til next blog!
Some tips we have compiled for your upcoming Chengdu trip:
1. The Panda Research Base opens at 7:30am. We got to it at 8am and there was a long line at the entrance already. You can choose to come in really early and buy tickets right there at the entrance.
2. Taxi rates can vary from time of day, taxi companies and etc. We paid 60 RMB going to the panda base on an early morning but only 40 RMB coming back to the hotel after. This was even though there was heavier traffic going back.
3. Souvenir costs are pretty much the same whichever store you go.
4. Heading to or from the Chengdu airport? Easier to take the subway line whichever way.
5. Be specific when ordering food. Some establishments might forget you can't only tolerate a spicy meal.
6. It was a good decision to just pay for a subway ticket everytime we would ride a subway line. Saved us time from searching how or where we can have a permanent subway card refunded. Although it takes time to line up at the ticket counter but we did not mind.
Thank you for reading and 'til next blog!
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