Serica Journeys Day journeys in China
Southwest China · 成都

Chengdu

Pandas at the hour they are actually awake.

Typical day
6–10.5 hours
Party size
1–6 guests
Guiding
English
Pick-up
Chengdu city hotels

Chengdu is the city we know best, and the one where our operating standard makes the largest difference. Giant pandas are most active in the first hours after the base opens; by mid-morning most of them are asleep. The single most common complaint about a Chengdu panda tour is that the pandas were sleeping — and it is almost always a scheduling failure, not bad luck.

So every Chengdu journey we run shares the same morning: pick-up before seven, through the gate as the base opens, straight to the far enclosures by park shuttle, then walking back against the incoming flow. What changes is the afternoon.

Journeys

3 private day journeys in Chengdu.

Prices are quoted per party once we know your dates and numbers. Every itinerary below can be adjusted — they are how we run the day by default, not a fixed menu.

Giant panda, Chengdu
Giant panda, Chengdu
6 hours Private departureEnglish guide

Pandas and a Teahouse Afternoon

Panda base at opening · People's Park · Heming Teahouse

Itinerary
06:50
Pick-up from your hotel. Roughly forty minutes north.
Opening
Through the gate on the first entry of the day.
First hour
Shuttle to the furthest enclosures, then walk back — the reverse of the crowd.
10:30
Leave the base as the coaches arrive.
11:15
People's Park. Heming Teahouse: bamboo chairs, covered-bowl tea, and the ear-cleaner if you are brave.
13:00
Back at your hotel.
Highlights
  • Through the gate as the base opens, while the pandas are still feeding
  • Park shuttle included — we ride to the far enclosures and walk back against the crowd
  • Entry booked in your name against your passport before you arrive
  • An afternoon in a hundred-year-old teahouse: covered-bowl tea, ear cleaning, mahjong
Included
  • Private vehicle and driver
  • English-speaking guide for the full journey
  • Panda base entry, reserved in advance against your passport
  • Park shuttle inside the base
  • Tea at Heming Teahouse
  • Photographs taken by your guide, sent the same day
  • Bottled water
Not included
  • Ear cleaning, if you want it
  • Lunch
  • Gratuities

Know before you go. Entry to the panda base is real-name and capped daily. We need your passport details at least 72 hours ahead. Opening time shifts between summer and winter — we build the pick-up around the opening on your date, not a fixed clock.

Bronze masks, Sanxingdui Museum
Bronze masks, Sanxingdui Museum
10 hours Private departureEnglish guide

Pandas and the Lost Bronze Kingdom

Panda base at opening · Sanxingdui Museum · Hands-on Sichuan lunch

Itinerary
06:50
Pick-up. North to the panda base.
Opening
Through the gate first, shuttle out, walk back.
10:30
Leave for Guanghan, about an hour and fifteen.
12:00
Lunch, with one dish you cook yourself. Recipe card in English to take away.
13:30
Sanxingdui Museum: the sacrificial pits, the gold mask, the bronze tree.
16:00
Return to Chengdu.
17:00
Back at your hotel.
Highlights
  • The same opening-hour panda morning, then a bronze civilisation nobody wrote down
  • Sanxingdui's masks and the eight-metre bronze tree — indoors, and climate controlled
  • A hands-on lunch: cook one Sichuan dish yourself, with an English recipe card to take home
  • Just over an hour between the two sites, not a half day in the vehicle
Included
  • Private vehicle and driver
  • English-speaking guide for the full journey
  • Panda base entry, reserved in advance
  • Park shuttle inside the base
  • Sanxingdui Museum entry and reservation
  • Hands-on lunch and recipe card
  • Photographs taken by your guide, sent the same day
  • Bottled water
Not included
  • Alcohol
  • Gratuities

Know before you go. Sanxingdui is entirely indoors, which makes this the journey we recommend between June and September when the pandas retreat to air-conditioned enclosures and outdoor viewing suffers.

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding
10.5 hours Private departureEnglish guide

Pandas and the Waterworks That Still Work

Panda base at opening · Dujiangyan irrigation system · Qingcheng foothills

Itinerary
06:50
Pick-up. North to the panda base.
Opening
Through the gate first, shuttle out, walk back.
10:30
Leave for Dujiangyan, about an hour.
11:45
Lunch in the old town.
13:00
The irrigation system: Fish Mouth, Flying Sand Weir, Bottle-Neck Channel, and why it has outlived every aqueduct built in the same century.
15:30
Return to Chengdu.
17:20
Back at your hotel.
Highlights
  • The panda morning, then an engineering work from 256 BC still irrigating the plain today
  • No dam, no wall — a river split three ways and left to sort itself out
  • Cooler than the city in high summer, and green
  • Suspension bridge over the diversion channel, if heights are not an issue
Included
  • Private vehicle and driver
  • English-speaking guide for the full journey
  • Panda base entry, reserved in advance
  • Park shuttle inside the base
  • Dujiangyan entry
  • Lunch
  • Photographs taken by your guide, sent the same day
  • Bottled water
Not included
  • Cable car and shuttle inside the Dujiangyan site
  • Gratuities

Know before you go. Dujiangyan involves a good deal of walking on uneven ground and a suspension bridge crossing. There is a level alternative route if you would rather not cross.

Other cities
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Hangzhou
Guilin & Yangshuo
Chongqing