Sichuan and Chongqing Itinerary: 10 Days
Chengdu, the Leshan Buddha, Mount Emei, Jiuzhaigou and Chongqing in ten days — with the altitude and booking constraints that decide whether the northern loop is worth adding.
Sichuan is the province people add to a China trip when they want to slow down, and Chongqing is the city they skip because it is next door and sounds like more of the same.
It is not. Chengdu is flat, green, tea-drinking and unhurried. Chongqing is built vertically on a peninsula between two rivers, with a metro that runs through a residential tower block and a street grid where the same address can be on the sixth floor and the ground floor simultaneously. Ninety minutes of high-speed rail separates them and they have almost nothing in common.
Ten days covers both properly, plus one excursion. Here is how the pieces fit, and where the fourteen-day version goes.
The shape
| Days | Where | Getting there |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Chengdu | Arrive TFU or CTU |
| 4–5 | Leshan and Mount Emei | ~1 h HSR from Chengdu East |
| 6–7 | Chengdu again, or Dujiangyan | — |
| 8–10 | Chongqing | ~1–1.5 h HSR |
Two intercity moves. That is the correct density for ten days.
Arrival airports. Chengdu has Tianfu (TFU) to the south and Shuangliu (CTU) closer to the city. They are a long way apart. Check your ticket. Chongqing Jiangbei (CKG) handles the other end and has international routes, so an open-jaw into Chengdu and out of Chongqing works well.
A warning about Tibet. Chengdu is the main gateway to Lhasa, the flights are cheap and frequent, and it will be suggested to you. If you are entering China on a 240-hour visa-free transit permit, Tibet is outside the permitted area — as are Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. Sichuan and Chongqing are both inside it. Adding Tibet to this trip requires a tourist visa plus a separate Tibet Travel Permit, and it is not a bolt-on.
Days 1–3: Chengdu
Day 1: arrive and do nothing much
Chengdu rewards low-intensity days more than any other major Chinese city. Start as you mean to continue.
Stay near Chunxi Road, Tianfu Square or the Wuhou district. All are on the metro, and Chengdu East station connects to Lines 2 and 7.
In the evening: Jinli or Kuanzhai Alley. Both are restored commercial lanes, both are busy, and both are pleasant enough for a first night when you do not want to think.
Day 2: pandas, early
Full detail on booking and timing is in the Panda Base guide.
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is about 10 km north of the centre. Adult admission generally runs around ¥55–60, with online booking in advance the normal way in — especially for the first entry slot.
Go at opening. This is not a preference, it is the whole visit. Pandas are fed and active in the cool of the early morning and asleep in a heap by 11:00. Arrive at 10:30 and you will photograph a lot of motionless fur.
If you are jet-lagged eastbound, this is the one morning that works in your favour.
Two to three hours is enough. Afternoon: People's Park and the Heming Teahouse, where you sit in a bamboo chair with a lidded cup of green tea for as long as you like and someone will offer to clean your ears. Do it or do not, but sit for a couple of hours. This is Chengdu's actual attraction.
Evening: hotpot. If chilli is a problem, ask for a yuanyang pot — split, half clear broth, completely standard and nobody will think anything of it.
Day 3: the city proper
Wuhou Shrine for the Three Kingdoms history, Du Fu's Thatched Cottage for the poetry, Wenshu Monastery for the working Buddhist temple with an excellent vegetarian canteen.
Or the Sichuan Provincial Museum and the Jinsha Site Museum, which covers the Bronze Age Shu culture. Jinsha is genuinely surprising if your idea of early Chinese civilisation stops at the Yellow River.
Evening: Sichuan opera at Shufeng Yayun if the face-changing act appeals. It is a tourist show and it is also a real tradition.
Days 4–5: Leshan and Emei
Leshan
The Leshan Giant Buddha is a 71-metre eighth-century figure carved into the cliff at the confluence of three rivers. It is the largest pre-modern stone Buddha in the world and the photographs do not convey the scale.
About an hour from Chengdu East to Leshan by high-speed rail, then a local transfer.
Two ways to see it: the stairway down the side of the cliff, which puts you at the Buddha's feet and involves a queue that can run to two hours on busy days, or the boat from the river, which gives you the full frontal view in twenty minutes with no queue.
Do the boat if time is tight. Do the stairs if it is a weekday out of season.
Mount Emei
Emei Shan is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains, rising to 3,099 m at the Golden Summit. Leshan to Emei is about 30 minutes by rail or an hour by road.
The full pilgrimage walk takes two to three days. Most visitors take the bus partway and the cable car to the summit, which is a long day from a base in Emei town.
What to know:
- The summit at 3,099 m is a significant altitude jump from Chengdu at around 500 m. Cold at the top year-round; freezing in winter.
- The mountain has a well-earned reputation for aggressive macaques on the walking routes. Do not carry visible food or plastic bags, do not make eye contact, and do not try to take a close photograph.
- The summit is often in cloud. The "sea of clouds" view is a matter of luck.
If a full mountain day does not appeal, Baoguo Temple at the foot and the lower walking trails give you the atmosphere without the altitude.
Days 6–7: back to Chengdu, or west
Two options, and they suit different people.
Option A: Dujiangyan and Mount Qingcheng. About an hour northwest of Chengdu by rail. Dujiangyan is a 2,000-year-old irrigation system still in use — an engineering site rather than a scenic one, and more interesting than that description suggests. Mount Qingcheng is a Taoist mountain with an easy forested walk and far fewer people than Emei. A comfortable two days, or one long one.
Option B: two slow days in Chengdu. Teahouses, markets, food, a second panda morning if you liked the first. Nobody regrets this.
Option C, for the fourteen-day version: Jiuzhaigou. See below.
Days 8–10: Chongqing
Chengdu East to Chongqing North takes roughly 1 to 1.5 hours on high-speed rail, with frequent departures.
Chongqing is the strangest large city in China and the reason to come is the topography. It is built on hills above the junction of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, and the vertical arrangement means street level is a negotiable concept.
Day 8: the riverfront. Hongyadong, a stilt-house complex built into the cliff, lit up at night into something that looks like a film set. Ciqikou old town upriver. The Yangtze cableway across the river, which is public transport that happens to be a viewing platform.
The Liziba monorail station, where Line 2 passes through the middle of a residential building, is a two-minute novelty that people travel across the city for. Go if you are nearby.
Day 9: Dazu Rock Carvings. About two hours southwest. Tens of thousands of ninth-to-thirteenth-century Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian carvings across several hillsides, and among the best late-period religious sculpture in China. Baodingshan is the main site and needs three hours on its own. A full day trip, and the highlight of most people's Chongqing stay.
Day 10: eat and leave. Chongqing hotpot is the origin of the form and it is meaningfully hotter than Chengdu's. Xiaomian noodles for breakfast. Then Jiangbei airport, which is well connected internationally.
The fourteen-day version: adding Jiuzhaigou
Jiuzhaigou is a valley of terraced turquoise lakes and travertine waterfalls in northern Sichuan. It is the most photographed landscape in the province and it is a serious commitment.
- Getting there: about eight to ten hours by road from Chengdu, or a short flight to Jiuzhai Huanglong Airport, which sits at around 3,400 m — high enough that some people feel it immediately on landing.
- Altitude: the valley runs roughly 2,000 to 3,100 m. The airport is higher than the park.
- Access: visitor numbers are capped and entry requires advance booking. Ticket rules and capacity limits have changed several times since the 2017 earthquake and the subsequent restoration. Check current conditions before you commit.
- Season: October is the peak for autumn colour and the crowds match. Winter closes parts of the park. Summer is green and wet.
Add four days: two to get there and back, two in the valley. Do not attempt it as a three-day round trip from Chengdu.
Huanglong, a separate travertine terrace site, is near the same airport at around 3,100 to 3,600 m. It is spectacular and it is high. If you add Jiuzhaigou, consider whether you also want Huanglong, and give yourself an acclimatisation day if so.
When to go
March to June and September to November are the comfortable windows.
Summer in the Sichuan basin is hot and humid, and Chongqing in July and August is one of the hottest major cities in China — historically one of the "furnace cities," and it earns it. The mountains are the escape.
Winter in Chengdu is grey and damp rather than cold. The Sichuan basin traps cloud, and you can go a week without seeing the sun. Emei and Jiuzhaigou get snow.
Avoid the first week of October. Golden Week fills Jiuzhaigou, Emei and the Panda Base to capacity.
Practical notes
Rail booking opens about 15 days ahead on 12306 and is real-name against your passport. The Chengdu–Chongqing corridor is high-frequency, but Chengdu–Leshan and Chengdu–Emei sell out on weekends.
Chengdu East is not Chengdu South. Chengdu has several stations and the high-speed departures are split across them. Check which one your ticket names.
Spice. Sichuan pepper produces numbness rather than heat, and the two combined take some adjustment. "微辣" (wei la, mildly spicy) is still spicy by most standards. "不要辣" (bu yao la, no chilli) is the phrase you want if you mean it, and it is worth having on your phone in characters.
Altitude applies to Emei's summit, to Jiuzhaigou, and to anything further west. Chengdu itself is around 500 m and unremarkable.
Official sources
- China Railway 12306, English site: https://www.12306.cn/en/
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding: https://www.panda.org.cn/
- Jiuzhaigou National Park official information: https://www.jiuzhai.com/
- National Immigration Administration, visa-free transit: https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147463/c183412/content.html
Ticket prices, park capacity rules and transport times change. Confirm for your dates.
Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.