For this trip I decided to make Chengdu my base for the week and take daytrips out to see pandas from there – and all making use of public transport rather than having a friend take me or booking a driver/guide. It’s all really definitely possible, but for me it definitely felt easy because I’m relatively experienced in travelling around in China. So lets chat where I heading to see pandas on this trip – I took these daytrips on 3 consecutive days:
Dujiangyan Panda Base
This marks my 4th visit to the Dujiangyan Panda Base and having this on my itinerary was an easy choice because of the close proximity from Chengdu itself. Initially I planned to go to both the Dujiangyan Base and Panda Valley, but as someone who takes a lot of pictures and loves to stand and watch pandas, it was hard to tear myself away from all the cubies that Dujiangyan Base had to offer! In the end I actually booked another train back to Chengdu so that I could stay longer watching the pandas … !
Anyway, to get to Dujiangyan the train leaves from Xipu station, which is in the outskirts of west-Chengdu. It is on the Chengdu metro system, but my train ended up being a bit earlier than the metro would have gotten me there, so I took a Didi to get to Xipu. My train was at 7:36AM, I took my Didi around 6:50AM and arrived at the train station at 7:20AM (cost 48RMB) which was plenty of time as it’s a very small station and only had a few platforms. I chose Qingchengshan as my final destination, this is after the main Dujiangyan station and is a bit closer to both of the panda bases in Dujiangyan. The journey took 25 minutes and while the train was busy, it wasn’t full. I had a second class seat booked, it wasn’t any extra to book a seat vs booking a standing ticket (10RMB) – note, a conductor does come around and check seats that are expected to be empty, so if you have a standing ticket, you really do need to stand and not just take an empty seat. After the main Dujiangyan stop a young guy sat at the table I was at and was keen to chat to me, asking where I was from and where I was going – I think he was thinking I had missed my stop as foreigners probably don’t travel by train to Qingchengshan that often. Leaving the station I headed towards the taxi sign, but really that took me more towards the bus stops, so I opted to head back to the front of the station to catch my Didi – it took maybe 5 minutes or so to arrive, and while I waited it did look like a fight was breaking out across the street at the entrance to the Qingchengshan scenic area, luckily they didn’t spill across the road to where I was! The Didi cost 12.92RMB and took 12 minutes to the entrance of Dujiangyan base, I arrived at 8:30AM at the base.
On return, I had originally booked the 4:28PM departure from Qingchengshan but decided to change this to the 6:06PM train because I needed to watch the 4PM feeding of the pandas! The cost of a new ticket was the same as the original, but because it’s an affordable trip, I didn’t so much mind just buying the new ticket. The base closes at 5PM, so this gave me plenty of time to get to the train station. With the Didi back to the station I had to wait a little longer, probably because it was more peak time, and it cost 14RMB with the journey still under 15 minutes. I got to the station just before 5:30PM, so plenty of time and I had a look in the convenience store there while I waited.
Once I got back to Chengdu I took the metro back to Chunxilu – it’s a straight route from Xipu and took just over 30minutes.
Ya’an Bifengxia Panda Base
I travelled to Ya’an by train on my last trip, and I remember saying as we were arriving back in Chengdu that visiting Ya’an Bifengxia Base would be doable as a daytrip from Chengdu. With this in mind, and knowing the possibility of seeing the Belgian-born cubs there, I was set on my second daytrip being there!
For this train I picked Chengdu East Railway as my departure station, but the South Railway Station was also an option. I chose East as I could get there by one metro line from close to my hotel. It was another early start – my train departure was at 6:59AM. This time the metro would work for me to get there in perfect time, so I headed out from the hotel at 6AM to walk to Chunxilu station, which took around 10 minutes at a brisk pace, and caught the first metro of the day to the train station. Getting from the metro section to the train section was a little tricky, there seemed to be signs pointing in opposite directions both going to the trains, but eventually I figured it out, this was mostly because it’s a huge transport hub and there were multiple ways that would have worked. I got through the security check and into the main waiting room of the station by 6:40AM, so perfect timing for my train. Even though it was early, it was very busy in the station.
The train took 1 hour 20 minutes and to be honest the journey flew by – I’m used to taking the bus for an hour to work, so this was kind of just like a regular commute to me. And the train wasn’t too busy at all. This journey cost 62RMB. On arrival at Ya’an I headed towards the taxi stand – not the one I’d been to on my last trip which definitely wasn’t the taxi stand XD And while I walked there I ordered a Didi and it was basically there immediately, there were plenty of taxis around and drivers looking for passengers, so it would be easy to pick up a taxi here. The journey from the station to the Bifengxia Tourist Centre cost me 51RMB and took about 25 minutes.
My return train was at 5PM (getting into Chengdu South 1 hour and 13 minutes later, costing 54RMB) – for this I left the base around 3:20PM to get the internal bus back to the tourist centre, and got a Didi just before 4PM. I didn’t have to wait too long and the journey was also around 25 minutes. Unfortunately this is where my only bad experience has been in Sichuan with taxi fares, the driver waved me out of the taxi towards the station before finalising the journey, as it was charged on the meter, he could basically enter whatever price he wanted to Didi, so I ended up paying 96RMB for this journey. At the end of the day, it’s still a cheap journey and would have cost at least 2 or 3 times the price for the same journey in the UK, but it was still almost double what I’d paid in the morning. I got to the station at 4:25PM with plenty of time to spare. It’s a large station and there is a convenience store both outside and inside, and plenty of toilets inside. I got some snacks at the store and ate while waiting for my train, which was of course on time and I was back in Chengdu not too late either.
Chongqing Zoo
My final daytrip from Chengdu, and I won’t lie, I was happy for this to be my last long day – tiredness was definitely catching up with me by this point! It was another early start and I left the hotel again at 6AM to head to the Chunxilu metro station to take the metro to Chengdu East Railway station again. The train departed at 7:08AM and the journey lasted 1 hour 26 minutes, getting me into Chongqing West just after 8:30AM. The train was very comfortable with plenty of leg room in second class; the ticket cost 142RMB. It’s another big train station at Chongqing West, so it took a while to make my way from the train to the metro section. The journey on the metro and monorail took around 30 minutes from Chongqing West to the Zoo, and I arrived at 9:15AM which I was pretty happy with. While I was on the train I set up my Alipay app to add the Chongqing area to my transport QR code, so I could just scan it to use the metro system. I travelled across the city a bit after visiting the Zoo before making my way back to the train station.
I loved the metro station at Chongqing Zoo, it was all about the pandas from floor to ceiling! It was super cute and I was sad I couldn’t hang around until it was quiet to get some better pictures because it was pretty busy both in the morning when I arrived and in the afternoon when I was leaving – but think that’s a consequence of going on a Saturday!
After leaving the zoo I had time for one thing before needing to make my way for my return train – so I hopped on the metro and headed for the Liziba Station, which is more commonly known as the station where the train goes through the building! The train here was pretty busy, a predictor of how busy it would be when getting off. You leave in what appears to be a very residential area, then follow signs to the viewing platform which took me down a number of flights of stairs and by some touristy shop fronts, eventually I made it to the street. The are is well manned by police/traffic officers as I suspect a lot of accidents were happening while people were trying to get pictures here. I crossed the road and weaved through the street vendors and people waiting for the next metro train to arrive and got myself a spot for my pictures. It was really fun to see, but having watched a few Insta reels/Youtube videos, it maybe wasn’t quite how I expected it, beyond the level of busyness, that I definitely expected. But glad I’ve done it now and wouldn’t need to come again on a future Chongqing trip.
On the return journey to Chengdu I departed from the Shapingba station taking the 6:57PM train, which arrived back into Chengdu East at 7:59PM; this journey cost 157RMB. Shapingba was smaller than Chongqing West, I got there with plenty of time on the metro, again it took a while to get from the metro to the train section of the station. The station was in a modern area, but inside the station itself it was quite dated and there was just seating and toilets inside, no convenience store. The train was pretty busy, but it was only an hour and once I started a few Duolingo lessons the journey passed quickly. And then back in Chengdu and onto the metro to head back to the hotel for another early night.