Chengdu is one of Asia’s great layover cities — everything worth seeing clusters inside two relaxed days, and the airport express makes the maths easy.
Day 1 Morning: Pandas
Land, drop bags, and reach the Panda Base for the 7:30 opening. By 10am you’ll have hundreds of photos and still make it back for lunch.
Day 1 Afternoon: Old Chengdu
Wenshu Monastery’s garden teahouse for a slow hour, then the Kuanzhai Alleys — wide and narrow Qing-era lanes of teahouses and craft shops. Dinner: your first hotpot (split pot, sesame-oil dip). Night: Sichuan opera face-changing show — the masks switch faster than the eye can follow.
Day 2: The Good Life
Morning: People’s Park — tea, ear cleaning, tai chi and the marriage market board. Lunch: mapo tofu and dan dan noodles at a neighborhood Sichuan restaurant. Afternoon: Taikoo Li’s designer courtyards beside the 1,500-year-old Daci Temple, then Jinli Street’s lanterns for your last stroll. Night: skewers and beer on a rooftop.
Layover Logistics
Direct metro line from both airports to downtown. Visas: China’s 240-hour transit-visa-free policy covers most nationalities — check eligibility before flying.
Longer Stay?
Add Leshan Buddha and Dujiangyan. The AI trip planner expands any layover into a full Sichuan route, and private car charter handles the panda-run and airport transfers.
Make it two days: see China tour routes for combining Chengdu with Leshan and Dujiangyan, and grab a travel eSIM before departure so maps work from the airport express onward.