3-Day Sichuan Private Tour to Dujiangyan Leshan Buddha Tea Plantation and Sichuan Cooking

Atttractions: Panda Base, Dujiangyan Irrigation Project

Meal: Not Included

Accomodation: Ovenight in Chengdu

Our guide will greet you at your hotel lobby and a 1.5 hours drive to Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Here is the world famous scientific research and breeding base, public education base and educational tourism base. The base covers an area of 1000 mu. As the "Giant Panda ex situ Ecological Protection Demonstration Project", it is famous for protecting and breeding endangered wild animals unique to China such as giant pandas and red pandas.

After spend morning time at Panda Centre, we will drive for 0.5 hours to one of the World Heritage sites – Dujiangyan irrigation project. Dujiangyan is the only grand water conservancy project in the world today, which has a long history and is characterized by no dam diversion. It makes full use of the local geographical conditions of high northwest and low southeast, according to the special topography, water veins and water potential at the mouth of the river, take advantage of the potential to guide, no dam water diversion, self-flow irrigation, so that dikes, water distribution, flood discharge, sand discharge and flow control are interdependent, a total system, to ensure the full play of the comprehensive benefits of flood control, irrigation, water transportation and social water use. Its greatest point is that the weir has been built for more than 2250 years, and it is playing more and more benefits.

Atttractions: Giant Buddha, Laid-back Old Town, Tea Plantation Field

Meal: Not Included

Accomodation: Overnight in Chengdu

After greeting at your hotel a 2.5 hours drive takes us to Giant Buddha, also known as Lingyun Giant Buddha, is near the confluence of the Dadu, Qingyi and Minjiang rivers. The giant Buddha is the seated statue of Maitreya Buddha, with a height of 71 meters, which is the largest cliff stone statue in China. The Big Buddha is a statue of Maitreya, graceful and magnanimous, and is praised by the poet as "a mountain is a Buddha, and a Buddha is a mountain."

After visiting Buddha，there will be 40 mins drive to a laid-back old town. Take a stroll around the town, where the traditional way of life is still being continued by the modernization process. Along the way, we will visit traditional workshops such as blacksmiths, bamboo weaving workshops and barber shops. Drink tea, chat and share stories with lovely locals in the old teahouse, then move on to a century-old courtyard house where the owner is very proud and loves to share the stories of the house.

A short drive takes us up to the mountain. The tea farmer will take us to the tea field. Here we will learn a lot about tea from how to pick the best tea buds. Try picking tea leaves from tea plants! After visiting the tea merchant's home and learning about the making process of various teas, we sat down in front of the farmhouse to taste tea - to share more stories about tea and learn more about tea, just as there are Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir in wine! Be sure to bring tea from the farm. We should use them in our next cooking class.

Atttractions: Local Spice Market, Cooking Class

Meal: Not Included

Accomodation: No

After meeting your guide in the hotel lobby, he will take you on a tour of the dazzling local spice market and challenge you to obtain some special ingredients and spices that will be used later in the cooking class. After a fun experience at the local spice market, you'll walk through the alleys and sample real local cuisine for lunch.

After lunch, we will head to a secluded traditional Sichuan courtyard restaurant, where your ingredients and spices gathered from the market will soon come in handy. After a short rest in the courtyard, we will follow the traditional custom of serving Sichuan covered bowl tea. After learning about Sichuan tea culture, a professional chef will guide you in preparing the food. You will process the food step by step as instructed by the chef until it is ready. Cooking classes will teach you how to make Sichuan-flavored noodles, steamed beef with rice noodles and spicy loulan root, and you'll even learn to cook your own spicy oil.