Book these before anything else
- Terracotta Army — ¥120, released at 00:00 Beijing time 7 days ahead, real-name. Since March 2024 there is an official overseas platform in 24 languages, so you can do this yourself.
- Shaanxi History Museum — free, released 5 days ahead at 17:00, capped around 6,000 a day, and gone in seconds. Official booking needs a mainland Chinese mobile number, which blocks most foreigners outright. Book through Trip.com, Klook or a guide, and take an afternoon slot — the success rate is noticeably better and the halls are thinner.
- Chengdu Panda Base — 7 days ahead, and the first morning slot is both the only reliable time to see pandas outdoors in summer and the first to sell out.
Xi'an, two days
### Day 1 — The warriors
Terracotta Army in the morning. The ¥120 ticket covers Pits 1, 2 and 3 plus the Lishan Garden mausoleum site and the shuttle between them — two separate places on one ticket, which people often miss. Walk-up is explicitly allowed if you didn't book, subject to remaining quota, so a missed booking is not fatal.
Afternoon: Huaqing Palace (¥120) sits on the way back, with hot springs and the site of the 1936 Xi'an Incident.
### Day 2 — The city
Shaanxi History Museum if you got a slot. It is genuinely one of the best museums in China and the reason the booking is brutal.
Then the City Wall — ¥54, a complete 13.74 km loop you can cycle. Bike rental is about ¥45 for two hours (¥90 tandem) plus a deposit, and the full circuit takes 1.5–2 hours at a relaxed pace, so the standard rental is just enough; overtime is charged. The surface is uneven brick. If you only want the feel of it, walk a kilometre from South Gate instead.
Evening in the Muslim Quarter — free to walk, and it's a food street rather than a sight. Eat roujiamo, biangbiang noodles and persimmon cakes. Prices are quoted to tourists optimistically; agree before you order.
Big Wild Goose Pagoda is ¥50 for the temple grounds, plus ¥30 to climb.
### If you have a third day
Mount Hua. 30 minutes by high-speed train from Xi'an North to Huashan North, then a shuttle. Admission is ¥160 in peak season, cable cars about ¥80 one way, and a combined ticket around ¥300. Book the cable-car time slot, not just the entry. The famous plank walk charges its own fee on site.
Chengdu, three days
### Day 1 — Pandas, then tea
Panda Base at opening. Pandas are active early and asleep by midday; this is not a preference, it's the whole visit. ¥55, plus ¥10 for the internal bus — the site is large.
Afternoon at People's Park, and specifically the Heming Teahouse: an open-air lakeside teahouse founded in 1923, in the middle of a working city park. A gaiwan of jasmine tea is about ¥15 with free refills, you take any free table, and you can stay for hours. Ear cleaners work the tables. It is the single most Chengdu thing there is, and it is not a tourist attraction with a gate.
Evening: Sichuan opera, for the face-changing. Shufeng Yayun is the main purpose-built venue, around ¥200–330 depending on seat class, about 90 minutes, usually starting around 20:00. Seat class determines how close you sit to the face-changing, which is the bit you came for.
### Day 2 — The Buddha
Leshan Giant Buddha, about two hours away. ¥80 for the scenic area.
The thing to know is the queue. The descent beside the Buddha is the Nine Bends Plank Road, a 278-step zigzag cut into the cliff that narrows to single file. On weekends and holidays the wait just to start down can be hours. The boat that views the Buddha from the river is a separate ticket, takes about 20 minutes, and gets you the full frontal view with no queue at all — many people do the boat and skip the stairs entirely.
### Day 3 — The city, slowly
Wuhou Shrine (¥50) for the Three Kingdoms, which rewards knowing even the outline of that story, then walk straight into Jinli next door — free, rebuilt Qing-style, and best after dark when the lanterns and snack stalls are going.
Kuanzhai Alley is three restored lanes of courtyard buildings, also free, busier and more polished than Jinli. Du Fu Thatched Cottage (¥50) is a bamboo-and-pond garden built around the Tang poet's exile home — the English labelling is thin, so come for the garden.
Eat hotpot. That is the other reason to be in Chengdu.
Two reality checks
- Jiuzhaigou is not a day trip from Chengdu. It is roughly 400 km away; even with the fast rail link to Huanglong-Jiuzhai station you are still about 93 km from the gate. Entry is ¥190 plus a ¥90 compulsory shuttle in peak season, booking is compulsory against your passport with a strict daily cap, and seeing the main valleys takes 6–8 hours inside the park. Give it two nights or skip it.
- Mount Emei is an overnight too. The Golden Summit is at 3,079 m and the draw is sunrise above the cloud sea, which means sleeping on or near the mountain. Entry is ¥160 in peak season, with the cable car separate and the bottleneck.
Getting there
Xi'an North connects to Beijing in about 4.5–6 hours by high-speed rail and to Chengdu East in about 3. Chengdu has two airports: Tianfu (TFU) for long-haul, about 50 km out and 26–30 minutes from Chengdu East by train, and the older Shuangliu (CTU), much closer in.