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Culinary Chengdu Map

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We’re finalising the Booking Form, Booking Conditions and Payment Methods for this holiday. Please Contact us for details.

• Package Description

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What you'll see

Day 1

Arrival in Chengdu – Starting to unwind

We will greet you at the airport. Lean back in our comfortable limousine and refresh yourself with a cold or hotel towel and a drink while we drive to the special hotel we’ve selected for you, the first boutique hotel in Chengdu – tastefully decorated with traditional furniture (but also with modern near-necessities like broadband internet) in the heart of one of Chengdu's old quarters.. We’re confident that you’ll enjoy yourself.

* For other hotel options, Please see Prices and Options or contact us.

Day 2

A first taste – Experience the traditional lifestyle and time-honoured settings

In the morning, you start with a visit to one of the last remaining open wet markets* in Chengdu. It abounds with the activities, colours, sounds and fragrances of local life. Ask our expert guide what is this and what is that.  Buy whatever snacks you fancy, then eat them when you stop for a breakfast of ‘dou jiang’ (soya bean milk), freshly made noodles and deep-freed ‘twisted dough’ sticks.

After breakfast at the local market, we think a stop at Chengdu’s bamboo park will delight you.  This park is where the locals come to practice martial arts, dance to modern or classical tunes, drink tea, and take their kids for entertainment. The beauty of the bamboos, bending in the wind like the Chinese themselves to cope with life’s vicissitudes, soothe the soul and delight the heart.

For lunch, we have arranged a special vegetarian meal in the Buddhist tradition. The meal is light, healthy and imaginative.

The afternoon is free for you to hang out in one of Chengdu’s parks or to get some shopping in.

We’ve planned dinner at the restaurant which created the memorable banquet described in the Sichuan, Chengdu and Sichuan Cuisine backgrounder (view as or ) . Dinner at this restaurant is in the best of Sichuan traditions. We’ve carefully selected a menu of dishes that will intrigue you with a wide range of flavours and textures, excite your refined taste buds and take your appreciation of Sichuan cuisine to another level.

After dinner, if you feel like unwinding in a fine western bar with good wines or tea or, if you’d like, a cigar, we’ll show you where.

* I wouldn’t miss this experience for the world, but if you’d rather eat breakfast in the hotel, feel free to do so. Breakfast is included every day.  Please see Prices and Options.

Day 3

A day of learning and leisure – Get to know some of the secrets of Sichuan flavours and relax in the modern Chengdu way

Breakfast today is at the hotel.

Then you’re off to the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine, one of China’s most respected culinary institutes where the best chefs are trained. Here you’ll learn how to make three famous Sichuanese dishes yourself: Mapo Doufu (麻婆豆腐), Hui Guo Rou (‘twice-cooked pork’ 回锅肉) and Shui Zhu Yu (‘boiled fish slices in a fiery sauce’ 水煮鱼). Learn step-by-step how to achieve the wonderful flavours, ask the chef any question you like, and sample the dishes to know what they should taste like.   Since the ingredients for these dishes are widely available, you can soon entertain your friends in your home with the best of Sichuan cooking!

No culinary experience in Chengdu would be complete without a hotpot, but we add a twist: for today’s lunch, we’ve selected for you a mushroom hotpot (actually, a hotpot of many different fungi). The mushrooms are boiled in a pot of free-range chicken broth. First you eat the mushrooms and flavour them to your taste by dipping them into different sauces – you like it fiery hot? And you mild and delicate? You are the chef. Then it is customary to drink the broth. At last, we boil freshly made noodles in the remaining broth for a delicious cup of noodles. To round out the meal, there is a special desert.

The early afternoon is free again, either for more shopping or a snooze in the hotel.

Later in the afternoon, we’d like to invite you for a fabulous massage at an institute affiliated with Chengdu’s Chinese Medicine University. Choose from a wide variety of treatments and relax in the hands of true expert masseurs and masseuses.

Then, at dusk, come join us for a pre-dinner drink in one of Chengdu’s loveliest garden restaurants right beside one of the city’s rivers.  Chill in the shade of the trees of this charming place. Any drink you like is on the house.

We stay at this restaurant for dinner because the ambience is like no other in Chengdu.  

Day 4

Of Pandas and Chengdu snacks – See the Giant Pandas up-close and personal, then regale in a Chengdu snack sampling menu

Breakfast is at the hotel again.

Now, you’ve come all the way to Chengdu, so we thought you wouldn’t want to miss a stroll through the city’s Giant Panda breeding centre. It is located in an enchanting park at the fringe of Chengdu and a great opportunity to come face-to-face with these lovely creatures.



To round out the day and your Chengdu culinary experience, we will take you to a tasting menu of the famous Chengdu snacks. These snacks are, in concept, similar to Hong Kong’s Dim Sum, but in my personal opinion, far more varied in flavour.  Try for yourself!

After lunch, we will, unfortunately, need to send you back to the airport because a short break is just that. We hope you will have enjoyed it so much, however, that you will soon be coming back for more.