Jiayang Steam Train Ride (Plus Panda & Buddha)

In the morning, your guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel and head for Chengdu Panda Base, which is located about 10 kilometres (about 6 miles) north of downtown Chengdu, you will get there in about 40 minutes.

When arriving at Chengdu Panda Base, you will walk around to the different enclosures and nursery houses, and learn more details about giant pandas’ behaviours, diet, breeding, etc. You might also have the chance to see the adorable panda cubs (less than 1.5 years old), and the red pandas, which often spend their day up in the trees and their favourite food is also bamboo.

After you finish visiting Chengdu Panda Base, head to Leshan, which is about 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of Chengdu. with a 2.5 hours drive. Have lunch at a nice local restaurant in Leshan.

After lunch, you’ll take a boat to see the Leshan Giant Buddha. On the boat, you will be able to see the magnificent 71-meter-tall big statue. Leshan is situated at the confluence of three rivers and there used to frequent floods here in summer. In the 8th century, the locals spent 90 years (AD 713-803) in total finishing this huge project, hoping that the Buddha would protect them from the floods. With a history of 0ver 1,200 years, the Giant Buddha was carved on the cliff in the Tang Dynasty. It’s the world’s largest Buddha statue in the sitting position.

Distance: 192 kilometers / 120 miles
Meals provided: lunch + dinner
Overnight: Leshan

After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you from your hotel and drive to Qianwei County of Leshan to see the beautiful countryside and the authentic local life at the Luocheng Old Town. On the way, you will see the beautiful fertile countryside of Sichuan province, including villages, farmland, rivers and small mountains.

After arriving take a slow walk in the town, and if you like, you may also sit down at a tea-house and enjoy a cup of tea, just as the locals do. This town has not been commercialized, and you will see the old houses and streets where the local people have their shops, teahouses and restaurants.

Have lunch in the town, and then drive to the Jiayang Steam Train attraction, and take the steam train for a short distance. The train is still used by the locals when they want to go to other villages. There used to be coal mines in this area, and now there is a museum about the history of coal mines. You can still see the old-style houses built with the help of the Soviet Union in the 1950s.

Drive back to Chengdu after the visit.

Distance: 192 kilometers / 120 miles
Meals provided: breakfast, lunch