Also going to Chongqing next week and Guilin in two weeks.
Definitely going to try as many chili oil noodle dishes as possible.
The panda sanctuary is amazing. I’d put that one at the top of the list. You’ll wanna show up early for it, and make sure you use the line for foreigners instead of wasting time in the normal line only to find out you’re in the wrong place.
After that, the museums in Chengdu are amazing and worth checking out. I can definitely recommend the Chengdu Museum and the Jinsha Site Museum, but there may be other cool ones like the Science and Technology Museum. I think you need WeChat to make an appointment most places so see if you can get a local to help you if you don’t have WeChat already.
Go to a hotpot place also. The food in Chengdu is phenomenal and you should definitely try as much as you can. I think Chuanxi Bazi was one of the places I went to that was especially awesome, but there are tons, including some that are exclusively vegetarian.
Also almost forgot the Anshun Bridge is really cool and there’s a really great nightlife street alongside it full of bars and clubs with lives bands and lots of other stuff going on.
Wide Street, Narrow street (not sure how it's called in Chinese)
people's park
You can go to the Taoist temple mountain past doujangyan
Check out a Buddhist temple and see if you can find a kitty praying.
There is amazing food in Chengdu. You can go on a food tour, experience the best dumplings in China or some absolutely banger Mapu Tofu (it will turn your mouth numb)
There is the largest building in the world, near a statue of chairman Mao. I didn't go there though (I don't really care about the building)
Wangping street is fun but there is nightlife spots all over
The panda research base is also amazing
See if you can use the People's Bicycles (Alipay rentals hehe) to get around, they are so convenient and very inexpensive.
Eat hot pot, go to the panda park, and walk around the city at night
Woah! My parents are from chongqing and I haven't been back since before covid. I agree with the other commenter about seeing pandas. My ass would want to see the subway system as it looks amazing but that's probably just me lmao.
I haven't really been to chengdu so can't comment on specific places but one thing i will say is FOOD. Ofc hotpot, but also try like 羊肉米粉(lamb noodles? i guess it translates to) and you have to try 重庆小面(chongqing little noddles? the direction translation is a bit goofy but idk how else to translate it lol). It's really hot there so try not to die of like heat stroke or anything and lastly just have fun!
