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Dear friends, good afternoon, I’m new here. Do you have any suggestion on how a foreign family with a 3-year old kid spend the weekend in or near Chengdu? Please recommend some good places you went, and how to go?
Thanks!
For actually, it is not so convenient to travel around Chengdu without a local friend. Therefore, I’d like to recommend a professional and considerate travel agency mainly providing tailor made tours for foreigners. I participated one of their events with my friends and it was great. Maybe you can try, they have contact information on their website: http://www.scexpeditions.com/.
Good luck!
A few things I’ve done recently with family/almost 1.5yr old are things like:
– Bifengxia, an awesome zoo in a gorge out in Ya’an, we drove there and did it in a single day but it’s easy enough to get a bus there and spend the night. It’s actually pretty cheap, for 4 adults and baby it was 600rmb for tickets which included tons of free stuff (not just entrance), like some popcorn and ride tickets and stuff all in. There are squirrel monkeys that the feeder person let us play with/feed once the Chinese group had left (she said something about not letting locals do that due to fear of lawsuits or something), which was awesome..and there are tons of free roaming birds (not like, chickens, I mean big beautiful amazing looking birds), lemurs you can play with, and it’s overall just an awesome big enjoyable walk which our baby absolutely loved. Oh, you can also feed lions/tigers/bears through holes in a little bus ride window, that’s also included in the fee. Driving was about 1.5 hours each way I think, maybe 2.
– Happy Valley or Huayang’s Ocean World Park, both good little destinations to take your baby but it’s very busy on most weekends, much better if you can go during the week. Still nice places to hang out with tons of activities/things for babies to see and enjoy. Happy Valley is on 3rd ring north in Chengdu, Ocean World or whatever it’s called is in the south just past the hi-tech zone, on the main road south out of town. Taxi works for both.
– Qingcheng Mountain, we take our baby up to the hot springs (Howard Johnson) occasionally. Can bus or drive if you’ve a vehicle, I think there’s even a high speed train of sorts now but I don’t know, it’s only about an hour out of town.
– The kids play area at the beach in Global Center is pretty big, lots of waterslides if your baby likes that type of stuff (mine LOVES waterslides :D).. it may be a little expensive though I think it’s like 180/pp entry fee?
We also take our baby to those little kids play areas in most major malls, can buy a year card or pay like 60rmb/entry, just a good place for kids to run around and play..just be cautious if you see other kids sneezing or coughing or whatever and be prepared to make a quick escape!
I second Bi Feng Xia. Don’t forget the Panda Center and Shangli? old town. Been there a ton of times (lived in ya’an). We’re planning to stay there this summer for a week or so.
You could stay in the Old Town, or at the tourist hotel next to the zoo and panda reserve, or in Ya’an itself. Small town with a river running through it. Great food and generally cheaper overall than CD. Buses run there, 2 hours. Definitely could make it a weekend. One day at the zoo and one day with the Pandas, hanging out or sleeping at Shangli Old Town.
Thx for the Huayang Ocean World tip Rick. Drove by it the other week, didn’t even know it was there.
Yeah the old towns are fun, there’s also one near the east of Chengdu called Luodai I think it is, oddly enough they had a mickey/mini mouse there, and we saw a group of about 15 from African (couldn’t identify which country) in traditional tribal garb for some reason, I don’t know if they were tourists or had some sort of show planned, just kinda hanging out and milling around..
Also, consider the dinosaur museum in Zigong.
Definitely also check out the local parks.
You can find more suggestions here http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/chengdukidsoutdoors/info
especially in the ‘links’ section (including a map) and the ‘files’ section (with descriptions of places and how to get there).Enjoy!
Luodai also has a replica of the greatwall (I think it’s LuoDai, if not it’s somewhere close).
The train to DuJiangYan and QingChenShan departs from the N. train station, and several other stops along the way (XiPu, HongGuangZhen, maybe even PiXian?) Super convenient
@squirrel suit
Yep, it’s luodai with the replica of the great wall..we didn’t go, but met tons of ‘tour guide touters’ trying to drag us there. 😀
Dan Village Dragon Kiln: located 60km away from downtown Chengdu, the history traces back to 150 years ago, used to be the official pottery factory for Qing Dynasty. In Sichuan people like pickled vegetable very much, and it is said that 90% percent of the pickled cabbage jars are produced here. Nowadays this Dragon Kiln has been not only a factory to produce the pottery items, but a place let the local students experience the traditional culture.
The students will be led by the expert to experience pottery art making and plate painting, and also if time permitted, they may take away their pieces.
Dan village is not far from Chengdu, it is only about 40km away from downton Chengdu. And we only drive about 1 hour to get there. In this village, there is a pottery cave which is more than 100 years old. And so far now the locals still make pottery here. This place is perfect place for the families to take the kids to experience the hand made pottery art and enjoy the view of countryside.
If you have any questions, you can let me know.
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