Bifengxia Panda Valley | Leshan Giant Buddha

In the morning, your guide and driver from Sichuan Adventure will pick you up at your hotel, and then you guys drive for about 2.5 hours to Bifengxia Valley Park in the suburb of Ya’an city. While breathing the fresh air of the park, you’ll have the chance to enjoy the beautiful landscape of Bifengxia valley. Of course, it will be a great pleasure to visit the lovely giant pandas at the panda sanctuary inside the park.

In the afternoon, you may take a walk at the nearby Shangli Ancient Town. Shangli Ancient Town is a market town on the Old Tea Horse Road, which is one of the first towns Tibetan traders would encounter on their journeys. It is peculiar for its beautiful stone bridges and for being one of the main places where tea was fermented and pressed into bricks, to be made suitable for the long and arduous journey to Tibet. Set amongst forested hills, with traditional wooden buildings and a river cutting through the town, it is extremely picturesque.

In the evening, drive back to downtown Ya’an and have dinner. Stay overnight in Ya’an.

Meals included: lunch, dinner
Overnight: Ya’an.

After breakfast, drive to Leshan and visit Leshan Giant Buddha. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to drive from Ya’an to Leshan.

Leshan Giant Buddha was carved from the cliff at the confluence of three rivers. By standing close to him, you could feel the grandeur of this 71-meter-tall statue. From the year AD713 to 803, the ancient Chinese spent 90 years building this huge project hoping that it would protect them from the floods in the summer.

You may either walk around the beautiful park where you can hike from the big head to the feet of the giant Buddha or take a boat to enjoy a whole view of the large statue on the river, as in front of the giant Buddha is the confluence of three rivers which meet here in Leshan before finally flowing into the Yangtze River.

Due to the limited time, there won’t be enough time for both hiking the Buddha and taking a cruise. Normally, the hiking takes about 2-3 hours, and there is always a long queue, sometimes you have to wait for 1.5-2 hours to start your hiking. We recommend you to take a boat to get the whole view of this amazing statue.

Have lunch at a local popular restaurant.

After lunch, drive from Leshan to Huanglongxi Ancient Town. You can take a short rest during the 1 hour and 40 minutes’ drive.

With a history of more than 1,700 years, Huanglongxi Ancient Town is a good place to learn about the local people’s life on Chengdu Plain in the past, when the town was very prosperous along the ancient Silk Road, through which the silk and tea products from Chengdu Plain were transported to Myanmar, India, and Tibet.

After visiting, your guide and driver will send you back to your hotel.