Du Fu is generally considered the greatest poet of the Tang dynasty, and in 759, in the middle of the An Lushan rebellion, he moved to Chengdu and built a thatched house on the western edge of the city. He lived here for about four years, and a remarkable number of his best-known poems were written during that period. The site has been preserved and rebuilt repeatedly since the Song dynasty, and today it is a large garden museum.
What is on the site
The centrepiece is the reconstructed thatched cottage, a simple timber house with a shaggy thatch roof, standing beside a small waterway and bamboo. Around it are the halls, pavilions and steles that later generations added: a hall of the great poets displaying portraits and calligraphy, a memorial hall with a statue of Du Fu, a stele corridor with carved poems, and a small museum showing editions of his work, portraits and objects from the Tang period. The garden itself is the reason many people return - ponds, bamboo groves, plum and osmanthus trees, and stone paths, all maintained to a high standard.
Why it matters
Du Fu wrote about war, displacement, poverty and the small daily details of family life, which makes his work unusually accessible for a poet of the eighth century. The cottage is the place where much of that work was produced, and reading a single poem - the one about his thatched roof being blown off in an autumn storm is the obvious choice - before you walk in transforms the visit.
Practical information
The site is in the northwest of the city on Caotang Road, served by Metro Line 4 at Caotang Road station. It opens daily from around 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with shorter hours in winter, and admission is about 50 yuan. Allow two hours at a relaxed pace; the grounds are large and shaded, which makes it a good afternoon visit in summer.
Combining it
Qingyang Palace and the Songxianqiao antiques market are both within a twenty-minute walk, and the Sichuan Museum is a short taxi ride west. The three together make a full, unhurried day on the west side of the city.
