5 Days Chengdu Highlights and Dujiangyan Panda Base Volunteer Tour

Jinsha Site Museum

Jinli Ancient Street

After breakfast, we will visit Jinsha Site Museum to learn the history of Chengdu 3,000 years ago. Jinsha Site Museum is a museum built on ruins to protect, study and display Jinsha culture of Chinese Shang and Zhou Dynasty (1600 BC - 221BC) and ancient civilization. It is mainly composed of Relic Hall, Exhibition Hall, Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Center, and garden district. Among them, Relic Hall was constructed on the site where large scale of ritual activities were held in the ancient time. It’s the most completely preserved sacrifice remains in China with the biggest number of relics. When you are touring in it, don’t miss the golden band with Sun and Magic Birds which is now the logo of Chengdu.

And then, we will visit Wenshu Temple built in Sui Dynasty. It’s the most frequented temple in Chengdu. The temple was constructed in the style of traditional western Sichuan buildings and conserves many precious cultural relics and ten thousands of Buddhist scriptures and literature. Every day, there are many people coming for worship of Buddhas and praying. It’s said that one of the Buddha statues in the temple is in charge of helping people realize their dreams. Pray to this Buddha sincerely, your dream will come true within three weeks.

Afternoon, when you have had your lunch, you will spend some leisure time and rest in Renmin Park. It’s a time-honored park built in 1911 located in the central downtown. Wandering in this park, you will see why Chengdu is famous for its relaxing life throughout China. The park is filled with citizens practicing Tai Chi, appreciating flowers, taking photos, playing majiang, etc. Parallel of outdoor tea houses crowded with guests drinking teas and chatting with friends constitutes a special picture of the park. Sit down, order a pot of Chinese tea, make a casual chat with your friends and watch locals boating on the lake, your exhaustion will be eliminated.

In the late afternoon, we will reach Jinli Ancient Street. Jinli is a commercial pedestrian street built with the architectural style of the traditional old town in western Sichuan Province from Qing Dynasty. Along the street are numerous stores selling special local products like Shu Embroidery, lacquer products, folk handicrafts, curios, or calligraphies and paintings of celebrities. Here you will experience colorful traditional folk cultures. When night approaches and lamps are lighten up, the street will be decorated with beautiful light, making it more attractive. It’s a good time for you to take some great pictures.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Giant Panda in Winter

Dujiangyan Panda Base Volunteer

In this special day, you will get a rare chance to have an intimate contact with giant pandas in Dujiangyan Panda Base as a volunteer.

In the early morning, your tour guide will pick you up from your hotel and drive 64km away to the Dujiangyan Panda Base. In the base, you will get a uniform, gloves, and a volunteer’s card. Your guide will introduce you to the professional panda keepers who can speak simple English. Your guide will be there all the time to help you to translate and take memorable photos with the adorable pandas.

During your work, you need to clean panda enclosures. Panda keepers need to supply fresh bamboos to these national treasures three times each day. The pandas usually eat only 30% of the bamboo, wasting 70% of it. You will need to sweep out the leftovers, replace it with fresh bamboo, and clean out the feces. Besides, you also need to feed pandas, offering them panda cakes, apples, and carrots four times a day. The panda keepers will show you how to feed a panda with your own hands at close proximity.

In the noontime, you will have lunch and take a rest in the base. You will also see a special documentary (40 minutes) about how the shy pandas mate, give birth, grow up, and are returned to the wild.

In the afternoon, you will continue your work to do more cleaning and feeding, and learn to make panda’s cakes. The bamboo you supplied in the morning will have become dry by the afternoon. You should remove and replace it with fresh bamboo and then feed the pandas with some more panda cakes and apples. Having fed the pandas with panda cakes, aren’t you curious as to how they are made? It is time to make some panda cakes with your own hands. The ingredients will be prepared in advance. Get creative about the shapes of the cakes.

At about 4:00pm, your volunteer work will end and you will receive a certificate for this unforgettable day. Say goodbye to the pandas you take care of and drive back to the hotel in Dujiangyan.

Stay overnight in Dujiangyan

Dujiangyan Irrigation System

Qingcheng Mountain

In the morning after breakfast, we will go to see the world famous Dujiangyan Irrigation System during which you can have a short break on the vehicle. Dujiangyan is a great engineering paralleled to the Great Wall in the civilization history of China. It is the only oldest grand water conservancy engineering in the world so far that piloted the water without a dam. Yu Zui, Feishayan and Baoping Estuary are three projects inseparably interconnected, addressing problems of automatic bypass flow, desilting, and water inlet control of the river in a scientific way. In over two thousand years, the ancient weirs have lead surging Minjiang River into the vast Chengdu plain, creating a rich and beautiful “heavenly state”where people control the water. Climbing on the Yulei Pavilion, you will have a bird’s eye view of the whole Dujiangyan project.

In the afternoon, we will climb Qingcheng Mountain, right in the behind of Dujiangyan. Known as “the most tranquil place”since ancient times, Mount Qingcheng was the origin of Taoism of China with thousand stairs leading to tranquility. The ancestral mountain and ancestral hall in Tianshi Path has gathered the essence of Taoist culture. In 2000, Qingcheng Mountain was identified as World Cultural Heritage and the first batch of national 5A scenic area. With mountains in four sides, the hills, brooks, valleys and temples are hidden in the lush woods. You will obtain inner peace and embrace the nature in this tranquil mountain. After sightseeing, drive back to Chengdu, and take a good rest.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Today is free for you to have a rest in hotel or explore Chengdu at your leisure until we will transfer you to the airport or train station for your next destination.