Discover Chengdu: Culture, Pandas and Parks

The places featured here offer a range of highlights—from Three Kingdoms and poet-related history to cultural heritage, education, conservation and park landscapes.

Culture between Jinli and Du Fu

The historic Jinli Street is part of the Wuhou Shrine Museum complex and is shaped by the culture of the Three Kingdoms and Sichuan’s traditional folk culture. An annual event at the Wuhou Shrine Museum is the Chengdu Temple Fair. It features traditional lanterns, folk performances and food from various regions. Check the current dates of the fair before your trip.

Du Fu Thatched Cottage has developed into a cultural site that combines the character of the poet’s former residence with the layout of a memorial shrine. The Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum complex includes the memorial buildings at the original site of the Thatched Cottage, Caotang Temple and Plum Garden. The Caotang Academy at the museum officially opened in April 2021. Another literary highlight is the “Du Fu Thousand Poem Stele” project: it drew on the historical tradition of inscribing more than 1,400 of Du Fu’s poems on stone, and was completed and opened to the public in December 2018.

Panda education and landscaped green spaces

The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding covers an ecologically landscaped park of more than 3,500 mu, with visitor paths and viewing points that support conservation and education work. The base also includes the Giant Panda Museum, a facility for public education, exhibitions, collections, conservation and scientific research.

The base’s youth education program is designed and delivered jointly by education teams, researchers and panda keepers. Its approach focuses on hands-on learning, interaction and exploration; confirm availability before your trip. The “Panda Lecture” activity teaches visitors about pandas through on-site lessons, questions and answers, interactive learning, panda models and short science films. While the youth education program emphasizes its educational approach, the Panda Lecture lists specific teaching activities. As the details may change, check the current program before your trip.

Huanhuaxi Park is the core area of the Huanhuaxi Historical and Cultural Scenic Area. Covering 444.8 mu, it is the largest open urban park within Chengdu’s Second Ring Road. The area figures offer a concrete comparison of scale: at more than 3,500 mu, the panda base’s park is larger than Huanhuaxi Park. The descriptions also differ: at the panda base, visitor paths and viewing points support conservation and education work, while Huanhuaxi is described primarily as an open urban park.

Cultural heritage at the Jinsha Site Museum

The commemorative sculpture for Chinese cultural heritage is on the main route from the south gate of the Jinsha Site Museum to the exhibition hall. Visitors walking from south to north must pass it. The sculpture is inspired by the “Sun Bird” gold ornament excavated at the site, regarded as a representative example of Shang- and Zhou-era gold craftsmanship. The Ebony Forest is also part of the Jinsha Site Museum’s landscape design: it consists of more than 60 ebony pieces sourced from the Jinsha area and the Chengdu region.

The attractions have distinct thematic focuses: Jinli is associated with Three Kingdoms culture and Sichuan folk culture, the Du Fu site with commemorating the poet and his poems, and Jinsha with cultural heritage and gold craftsmanship. The panda base combines a landscaped natural setting with education and conservation work; Huanhuaxi represents an open urban park.

Discover more destinations: Mianyang, Garzê, Luzhou, Neijiang, Dazhou, Zigong, Yibin, Bazhong

For the broader travel overview: Sichuan.