Day 1: Giant Panda Breeding Research Base

The tour guide will greet you in the hotel lobby and then drive 1.5 hours to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base - please make sure your devices are fully charged, they are what we call film/battery killers! This is a beautiful park where we will see Giant pandas, red pandas and if we are lucky we may even see baby pandas at the Panda Nursery. We came early in the morning just to see them while they were having breakfast and playing!

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Dujiangyan Irrigation System

After spending the morning at the Panda Center, we will drive 0.5 hours to Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, one of the World Heritage Sites. We will start our trip from Irrigation Park, it is a beautiful park where we will see old bridges, temples, local people and if we are lucky we can even see snowy mountains in the distance. In order to enjoy the quiet time in nature, we came here early!

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Day 2: Leshan Giant Buddha

After being picked up at the hotel, drive 2.5 hours to reach the Big Buddha.

Duration: 50 minutes

Leshan

After visiting the Buddha, drive 40 minutes to a leisurely old town. Take a walk around the town, where traditional ways of life have survived modernization. Along the way we visited traditional workshops, such as a blacksmith shop, a bamboo workshop, a barber shop, etc. Have tea, chat and share stories with lovely locals in an old teahouse, then go to a century-old courtyard house whose owner is very proud and loves to share the story of the house.

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Jiajiang County

It was a short drive up the mountain. The tea farmers will take us to tea gardens where we will learn a lot about tea, from how to pick the best tea buds or buds, to weather conditions and tea leaves from different regions. Try picking tea from the tea tree! After visiting the tea family and learning about the making process of various teas, let's sit down in front of the farmhouse and enjoy tea - more stories to share and learn about tea, also in tea Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir! Remember to bring your tea from the farm. We should use it next time we have a cooking class.

Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Day3: Cooking class and trip to local spice market

Meet your guide in the hotel lobby, who will take you to explore the dazzling local spice markets and assign you challenges to acquire some special ingredients and spices for the cooking class that follows. After lunch we head to a hidden gem - a traditional Sichuan courtyard restaurant where ingredients and spices gathered from the market are quickly put to use. Another break will be held in the courtyard, where guests will be entertained with the traditional Sichuan tea bowl. After learning Sichuan tea culture, you will be guided by professional chefs in cooking. Follow your chef's instructions to process the food step-by-step until it's ready. This cooking class will show you how to make Szechuan style noodles, fried rice noodles, steamed beef and horseradish, and you'll even learn to cook your own spicy chili oil.

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes