After 2 nights at Shanghai Disneyland, it was time to head on towards the main purpose of my trip – to visit the pandas in Chengdu and the surrounding area! So let’s get started with the second part of my diary on this trip, getting myself from Shanghai to Ya’an, a trip I’ve never made before:
It was an early start for a Sunday morning and I left the Toy Story Hotel at 7AM to catch my flight from Pudong to Chengdu Shuangliu at 9:10AM. Got to the airport in plenty time, dropped off my luggage and made it through security. Slightly stressful when travelling with a lot of electronics as I had to completely empty my bag of laptop, cameras, lenses and power packs! But didn’t get pulled up for anything and then made my way to the gate. I don’t remember exactly which terminal/gate section I was at, but there weren’t really any/many shops to get snacks or drinks, luckily at my gate there was a vending machine so I bought some water then waited for boarding (the vending machines are all paid by QR code, they didn’t take cash). The flight wasn’t full, so it was relatively comfortable. We took off on time and the flight was pretty uneventful lasting around 3 hours. From there I collected my luggage and made my way to the metro station at the airport – this is the first time I’ve used the metro from the airport, so a new experience for me travelling on the Chengdu metro with luggage. The metro took around 45 minutes or so to get to Chengdu South Railway – trains to Ya’an from Chengdu leave from both Chengdu South and West stations, for me South had a better departure time for my arrival in Chengdu, but both routes are equivalent in duration and cost the same (at least when I travelled, 54RMB). There isn’t a huge amount at the station, there are a couple of fast food restaurants outside but inside there was just a small convenience store along with toilets and some seats. I wouldn’t recommend getting there too early, because you also can’t get onto the platform until quite close to departure time. Tickets are connected to your ID/passport so this is what is checked to allow you onto the platform. I think there were 10 minutes from the gates opening to my train departure, and it was a bit of a walk from the gate to the platform, so a little stressful. I also didn’t see any lifts/elevators available, so with luggage it’s not an easy time with the rush of passengers and an escalator. There were a good amount of luggage racks on the train, so had no issues storing my suitcases before finding my seat. The journey was pretty uneventful and lasted just over an hour through the Sichuan countryside, I really enjoyed the mountain views!
On arrival in Ya’an I attempted to get a taxi – the area the train station is in is under a lot of construction and signage wasn’t completely clear, nor was Didi at accurately telling me where I was! I first headed for the taxi signs, which seemed like a taxi rank but taxis were only coming if you called/booked them. Eventually I booked a Didi and hoped I was in the right location – luckily I ended up being just across the road and the driver helped me cross with my luggage! But now that I’ve done it once, I’ll know for next time where to take the pick up from. The trip into the city centre was around 20 minutes and cost 20RMB – I stayed in the Holiday Inn Express, but more on that later in the post. Check-in was a little chaotic – there was a little of a language barrier, but I managed to muddle through and got in fine (after misreading the floor number and walking down the corridor and somehow missing my room number on the door!). Then it was time to relax! I unpacked a little and just lay on the bed enjoying the aircon because it had been a long day, was hot, and now after 4PM.
When I had landed in Chengdu and turned my phone off airplane mode I was greeted by a very concerning message from my friend, who had arrived in Ya’an the day before – ‘YG and TT off show’ it read. This was the whole reason for my trip, to see ‘my’ pandas Yang Guang and Tian Tian who had returned from their 12 years at Edinburgh Zoo and who we knew had been on show because of posts on Chinese social media, and now somehow, they weren’t. Once my friend arrived at the hotel (he had stayed closer to the pandas for his first night) and got through the same check-in chaos, we met for a stroll through Ya’an, for dinner and some strategy planning! We didn’t really wander too far, the only sight I knew of in Ya’an was the bridge – it wasn’t quite what I expected. The buildings in the middle are just a modern mall-type place, but many units were empty, there was a KFC and quite a few game/arcade stores. We walked some of the local streets catching up from the last couple of days and ended up coming across a Dicos (a Chinese fast food chain which I would equate to KFC as it was all chicken) which had some very cute Kung Fu Panda advertising outside and decided to make this our dinner stop. This ended up being really good and they even had Kung Fu Panda themed packaged food and souvenir items you could get. We strolled back to the hotel and got to see the bridge lit up now. Then it was time for a reasonably early night for an exciting next day.
Where to stay
I stayed in the Holiday Inn Express Ya’an – this is very central in the city and right in the middle of things. I only planned to see the pandas, so I didn’t need anything super fancy as I knew I wouldn’t be spending a lot of time in the room but wanted to be near some shops so I’d be able to get any snacks and dinner. The location was convenient and the hotel was comfy. I just booked a standard room and it was a generous size with plenty of space for luggage. The bed was also very comfortable, I had a great nights sleep here. My room overlooked the back carpark of the hotel and further to a mountain – I kept the window open because it was warm, and there was hardly any noise at night. Breakfast was included in the price and had a good selection – there was a mix of Asian and Western options and everything was being refreshed constantly. The restaurant also offers a dinner in the evenings, I didn’t try this, but the duration is limited to 6-7PM.
