6 Days Chengdu Leshan Emeishan Dujiangyan Panda Volunteer Tour

Leshan Giant Buddha

Baoguo Temple

150 kilometers away, Leshan is in the south of Chengdu, the home to world-famous Leshan Giant Buddha. Today we will drive to Leshan to see this world architectural wonder. In the morning after breakfast, your guide will pick you up in the hotel and drive for 1 hour 50 min to visit the biggest sitting Buddha sculpture in the Lingyun Temple. Sitting at the confluence of three rivers, The grand Buddha was completed in 803 AD of Tang Dynasty after 90 year's construction and enjoys the fame of the biggest sitting stone sculpture in the world, about 71- meter in height. It was carved on the cliff of Lingyun Mountain in order to suppress the flood. Tour guide will take you to walk along the path built on the cliff face of the hill from the top of Buddha’s head to his toes, or you can choose taking a sightseeing boat from the pier to the water surface in front of Giant Buddha to watch the huge Buddha from the river.

After visiting the Buddha, move on to Mt. Emei and check in hotel, near Baoguo Temple. After a short break, go to visit Baoguo Temple, the biggest temple of Emeishan.

Stay overnight in Mt. Emei

Emei Mountain

Golden Summit at Emei Mountain

Get up early in the morning, and take the sightseeing bus to Leidongping. You will hike to Jieyin Palace and then take the cable car up to the Golden Summit (altitude: 3077m). At the highest peak of the mountain, you will be amazed by the awe-inspiring view of Huazhang Temple and witness the breathtaking sea of clouds if it is sunny. In the Golden Summit, you will also see Wanfoding, the main peak of Mount Emei at 3099 meters. It not only makes Emei Mountain the highest nature scenic spot among the Four Most Sacred Buddhist Mountians, but also the highest World Natural and Cultural Heritage Site in China.

In the afternoon, you'll take a cable car down to Jieyin Palace, then walk 15-20 minutes to Leidongping for the sightseeing bus to Wannian Temple Parking Lot. Take a cable car up to Wannian Temple at the middle of the mountain; appreciate the most beautiful landscape of Mt. Emei in Qingyin Pavilion as you hike from Wannian Temple to Wuxiangang Parking Lot.

After tour, be transferred back to your hotel in Chengdu downtown.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Giant Panda in Winter

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 in Chengdu and then drive to the Dujiangyan Panda Base about 77km away. 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 your hotel.

Stay overnight in Dujiangyan

Notice:
1. Volunteer activities charge for 700 RMB per day. You need to book it in advance and pay down payment for the tour.
2. The age limit for the volunteering program is 12 years and above.
3. Your latest health check report should be provided.
4. Please do not make noises or sudden movements that might startle the pandas.
5. It is advisable that you do not wear any strong smelling perfumes, deodorants, or creams as pandas are sensitive to smell.

Dujiangyan Irrigation Project

Dujiangyan Irrigation Project

In the morning after breakfast, we will go to see the world famous Dujiangyan Irrigation PSystem 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 thousands 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.

After the tour, drive back to Chengdu

Renmin Park

Jinli Street

In the morning, 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. Strolling in the temple, quaint buildings and diffuse incense can make you forget you are in a hustling downtown and obtain inner peace. 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.

And finally we will reach Jinli Ancient Street. Known as “the First Street in Shu Kingdom”, Jinli is one of the busiest streets in the history of Xishu, and now it is a commercial pedestrian street built with the architectural style of the traditional old town in western Sichuan Province in 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.

Now your tour ends. You will be escorted by our tour guide to airport for your flight to next destination or home.