My original plan was to spend 2 nights in Ya’an and do 2 full days at the Ya’an Bifengxia Base, but because Yang Guang and Tian Tian weren’t on show I didn’t really feel the need to have a second day here. So over an afternoon ice cream, I changed plans and decided to travel on to Dujiangyan that evening together with my friend. In the end, I don’t think it added too much of a cost, if I’d gone back to see the pandas again the next day it would have cost me two taxi rides and the entry ticket, which wasn’t that much less than the cost of a hotel room.

I think it ended up working out for the best and I wasn’t travelling alone. So I booked an extra night in my Dujiangyan hotel and then we picked a train to take back to Chengdu. We left the base around 4PM, and found a taxi at the main visitors centre immediately, then headed back to the hotel. I had to rush-pack my things and then explain via translator app that I wanted to check out even though I was booked for another night, much easier than checking in! We ordered a Didi to take us to the train station and we ended up with plenty of time for our train around 6:25PM. There were small convenience stores both outside and inside the train station, so stocked up on some snacks (which I ate before we even got on the train haha). There were plenty of seats here and the station was nicely air conditioned so it wasn’t a bad place to wait at all – actually there were more seats in this station than there were in the Chengdu South station which was a bit surprising as this stop only has the one line into Chengdu on it. The train lasted an hour and this time went into the Chengdu West station (or Chengduxi as on the ticket). I had planned to take the metro to the Xipu station then get on the Dujiangyan train there, but by now it was 7:30PM and still humid and we were tired so opted to take a taxi straight from the station to our hotel in Dujiangyan. For the extra distance you need to pay fare+a half, e.g. if it’s 100RMB on the meter, you need to pay 150RMB, plus the passenger needs to pay any toll fares. The journey from Chengduxi to Dujiangyan lasted about an hour and honestly, we didn’t really leave city-scape much at all. I remember going through plenty of countryside the first time I was driven from Chengdu to Dujiangyan, but now both places have expanded so much that they’re almost joined. It was dark so the view wasn’t great but there were plenty of things to look at. In the end we probably overpaid for our taxi (which was decorated with panda decals of course!) because we were tired and couldn’t figure out the 50%, but realistically it was an affordable ride and the same distance here in the UK would have been triple or quadruple the price. So we arrived in Dujiangyan around 8:30PM – while on the train I was messaging my Chinese friend who works at CCRCGP (one of the two groups in China who run panda bases, they run Ya’an Bifengxia, Dujiangyan and Wolong Shenshuping; while the other is Chengdu Research Base, who also have Panda Valley) and updated him on my plans. I am so grateful to him, because he then rearranged his own plans to meet us a day earlier than expected and take us for some late dinner. We just had time to leave our bags in the hotel, then my friend took us to a local spot where we had noodles and spicy misc. veg/tofu on skewers in chilli, and some sort of vegetable wrap in chilli (which was so tasty, think that was my favourite). Plus we had a local drink called Dayao, we never quite managed to figure out if it was alcoholic or not, or what the flavour tasted like, but it was really good and I’m planning to get this again on my next visit! Then my friend’s cousin came to join us and the four of us took a stroll around the main centre to see the ‘blue tears’ which are famous in Dujiangyan – at night the water and bridges are all lit up, and the water in person looks quite green, but in photos it’s blue, it’s really quite something to see! Then we headed back to the hotel because we definitely needed an early night.

Dujiangyan schedule

So now I have 5 nights/4.5 days in Dujiangyan – what did I plan to do? Well this is a day more than anticipated, but I had packed a couple of things together in the original schedule so could now space them out (but I made last minute extra-panda visits, so ended up doing it all anyway!). I also planned to use my last day as more of a travel day to Chengdu, so taking a slow morning and an early-afternoon train into Chengdu so I could get to the hotel their around check-in and have an extra afternoon there.

In Dujiangyan there are two panda bases close to the city – the CCRCGP Dujiangyan Base and Chengdu Base’s Panda Valley. I have been to Dujiangyan Base before, but never Panda Valley. The third place in the vicinity to see pandas is out at Wolong. Before planning this trip I had seen Wolong as somewhere very difficult to get to and a bit of a trek to get to, but as I looked into it more and more I decided to give it a try, and when my Chinese friend offered to take me there the plans all slipped into place. Visiting the Wolong Shenshuping Base (the newest base, opened in 2012 as the rebuild following the impact of the 2008 earthquake on the original Wolong base) is a whole day activity. Then there are several tourist sites to see – I’m still to do Mount Qingcheng, but was keen to have a more thorough visit at the Irrigation System and also walk through the Ancient Town. Hopefully I can thoroughly cover my trip over the upcoming posts – first up, of course it will be pandas!

Where to stay

This is the third time I’ve stayed in Dujiangyan, however those previous stays have only been for 1 night each. This time I ended up staying for 5 nights, 1 more than originally planned, and stayed in the Holiday Inn Express Dujiangyan Ancient City – despite having two separate bookings, the hotel staff were great and able to let me stay in the same room for the whole stay. The staff here spoke quite a bit of English and were very friendly and helpful. The room was a standard one and a really good size, I had plenty of space for my suitcases and still room to walk around. It was a little more dated than the Holiday Inn in Ya’an, but still comfy for my stay. The hotel seemed popular with coach tours, I went for breakfast at 7AM on two mornings and it was very busy with tour groups who left around 7:30/7:45AM and piled onto the line of coaches which were on the street (so if you can do a post-8AM breakfast, then it’s much more pleasant). There aren’t a lot of hotel choices in Dujiangyan, so this is a good affordable option that’s really in the middle of things. And even though it was busy with tour groups, it was quiet in the hotel, I never really heard my neighbours, and my room overlooked a very quiet side-street, even with the window open at night I didn’t really hear any noise. Location-wise it was good, pretty much in the middle of the city and easy walking distance to the old town, the newer areas, plenty of food options, and also a train station.

I have previously stayed in another Holiday Inn hotel in Dujiangyan, which doesn’t appear to exist anymore, but one across the river does, so there are a couple of similar options relatively nearby to each other. The other hotel I have previously stayed at also now belongs to the IHG group and has been renamed to become a Crowne Plaza – I stayed in 2018 and it was a very nice hotel, just a bit further out from the main sights to see.