Visiting Chengdu Visa-Free: Transit & 30-Day Entry Explained
How China's 240-hour visa-free transit and 30-day visa-free entry work for a trip to Chengdu, and what each one lets you do.
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Plan your Chengdu trip with clear, honest answers
No fluff — just the practical things foreign visitors actually need to know about pandas, food, payments, visas and day trips from Chengdu.
Chengdu Panda Base: Tickets, Timing & Seeing Pandas Active
Everything a foreign visitor needs to see the Giant Panda Base: how the sold-out tickets work, when to go for active pandas, and how to actually get in.
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Chengdu Food Guide: Hotpot, Spice & What to Order
A plain-English guide to eating well in Chengdu — how hotpot works, what the spice really means, and the Sichuan classics to order (including mild ones).
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Getting Around Chengdu: Metro, Didi, Airports & Payment
How to move around Chengdu as a foreign visitor — the metro, Didi ride-hailing, the two airports, and how to pay for everything without a Chinese bank account.
Read moreBest Day Trips from Chengdu: Leshan, Dujiangyan & More
The best day trips from Chengdu for foreign visitors — the Leshan Giant Buddha, Dujiangyan and Mount Qingcheng, the Dujiangyan panda base, and the bigger Mount Emei trip.
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Chengdu Tea Houses & Sichuan Opera Face-Changing
Two pillars of relaxed Chengdu culture — the tea-house ritual in People's Park and the Sichuan Opera face-changing show — and how to experience both as a visitor.
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Jinsha & Sanxingdui: Chengdu's Ancient Shu Civilization
The gold Sun and Immortal Birds ornament and the uncanny bronze masks of the ancient Shu kingdom — where to see them, and why they're unlike anything else in Chinese history.
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Chengdu's Best Museums: Free, Fascinating & Good for Rainy Days
Sichuan Museum, the Jinsha and Sanxingdui ancient-Shu sites, and other worthwhile stops — most of them free, English-captioned, and a smart plan B when the weather turns.
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