6-Day Chengdu Wellness Tour: TCM, Hot Springs & Pandas

Arrival — met in Chengdu
Your guide meets you at arrivals and takes you to a central hotel; the transfer from Tianfu airport runs about forty to sixty minutes and rather less from the older Shuangliu field. Chengdu is a basin city, humid and often grey, sitting at 500 metres with the mountains that ring it usually hidden in cloud. It has a reputation in China for being the place where work is taken least seriously, and the first evening is designed to prove the point. If your flight arrives late, the teahouse visit moves to another day and dinner is taken at the hotel; tell us your arrival time when you book.

Evening — Heming Teahouse
Heming Teahouse has stood in the People's Park since 1923 and is the most famous of the city's several hundred old teahouses. You sit in a bamboo armchair at a low table under the trees, order a covered-bowl tea - jasmine, or a local green - and are given a thermos so that you can top it up yourself for as long as you stay. Around you, the park does what it does every afternoon: men playing cards and mahjong, retired teachers arguing, someone having their ears cleaned with long tuning forks by a professional, walkers circling the lake. You can try the ear cleaning if you like; it is an old Chengdu trade and entirely painless, and there is no medical claim attached to it beyond a certain amount of noise.

Dinner — a gentle introduction to Sichuan food
Sichuan cooking does not have to be hot, and this evening your guide will order accordingly: camphor-and-tea-smoked duck, sweet water noodles, steamed river fish with ginger, cold chicken in sesame and soy, dan hong gao from a street cart, and a clear soup. Leave the mapo tofu and the hotpot for later in the trip if you want them; tonight is about settling in. Over dinner your guide will talk through the week - the wellness day, the TCM appointment, the pandas and the hot springs - and take note of anything you want to change. Nothing on the table will be aggressively spiced unless you ask for it, and if you do, the kitchen will bring a separate dish rather than altering the rest of the meal.

Meals
Dinner

Accommodation
In Chengdu.

Morning — Qingcheng Mountain
Start with a cable car ride to Yunhai Peak, then walk the 1,000-Step Staircase to the summit for panoramic views over mist-shrouded valleys. Visit Qingyang Palace, one of China's oldest Taoist temples and a cradle of the Qingcheng Taoist tradition, and join a brief Taoist ritual or meditation session at Mingfeng Pavilion.

Afternoon — Caves, Cloud Path & Taoist Culture
Explore Moonlight Cave and Golden Turtle Pool, secluded limestone caves and pools long associated with mystical lore, then walk the Cloud Path through bamboo forests often shrouded in cloud and past Sword Gate, a narrow cliff-side pass with stunning vistas. At the Qingcheng Taoist Culture Center, learn about Taoist philosophy and try calligraphy or a tea ceremony.

Dinner — Chengdu Vegetarian Hot Pot
Savor a spicy yet plant-based hot pot at Jade Garden Vegetarian Restaurant, featuring mushrooms, tofu, and mock meats — a lighter, wellness-minded take on Sichuan's famous dish.

Evening — at your leisure
The evening is free to relax after a day in the mountains.

Morning — at a licensed Chengdu clinic
Your appointment is at a licensed traditional Chinese medicine clinic in the city, with a practitioner who holds a national registration. The consultation takes an hour: the pulse at three positions on each wrist, the tongue, and a long conversation about sleep, appetite, digestion, energy and how you react to cold, heat and humidity - a line of questioning that makes particular sense in Chengdu, where the dampness of the basin is part of everyday life. Out of it comes a body-constitution assessment, described to you rather than diagnosed, with the practitioner explaining the working terms of the tradition and how they are used in practice.

Late morning — one treatment session
You then have one session chosen when you booked: tuina, which is a firm clothed massage worked along the meridians; acupuncture; moxibustion; or cupping. Sixty to ninety minutes. It is a single session for relaxation and experience, not a course of treatment, and no result should be expected from it beyond feeling looser afterwards. If you are pregnant or take anticoagulant medication, tell us in advance. Nothing said in the room replaces the advice of your own doctor, and no change to any prescribed medicine will be suggested. You will be asked to say if the pressure is too much, and it is entirely normal to ask for less; a good practitioner checks with you repeatedly and adjusts.

Lunch
A mild Sichuan lunch on the road out of the city, at the restaurant your guide uses for the mountain: steamed fish with ginger and spring onion, chicken soup with Chinese yam, seasonal greens, wood ear fungus and rice. Tell us in advance if you would rather eat entirely vegetarian, and the kitchen will replace the fish and the chicken with tofu and mushroom dishes without any fuss. If the day is warm, ask for the cold noodles as well; the Chengdu version is dressed with sesame and vinegar rather than chilli oil. The driver will wait at the door rather than in a car park, so lunch can start as soon as you arrive.

Afternoon — Mount Qingcheng and the hot spring
Qingcheng Mountain, an hour west of Chengdu and about 1,260 metres at its wooded summit, is where the Daoist tradition traces the founding of its organised church to Zhang Daoling in the second century. It is a place of shaded stone paths, small temples, bamboo and, above all, quiet - UNESCO listed it together with the Dujiangyan irrigation system in 2000. You do not have to climb: the vehicle drives to the lower complex at Jianfu Temple and the walking from there is short and level, or can be skipped altogether. The reward at the foot of the mountain is a hot spring fed by the geothermal water of the Longmen range, with a set of outdoor herbal pools, a warm mineral bath and quieter indoor soaking rooms. Between ninety minutes and two hours here, at your own pace.

Evening — back in Chengdu
Return to the city in the evening, which takes about an hour, and eat lightly near the hotel. Ask for a bowl of Qingcheng-style vegetarian noodles - the mountain's Daoist kitchens have made a speciality of them for centuries - or a clear chicken soup with a plate of steamed greens, then take an early night. After a long soak in warm water most people sleep well, and tomorrow is a slow day by design. If you would rather not go out again, the hotel will deliver a bowl of noodles and a plate of steamed greens to the room, which is the sensible choice after an afternoon in the water.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Chengdu.

Morning — Giant Panda Base
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, established in 1987, is a world-renowned conservation center on the city's outskirts dedicated to the care and study of China's beloved giant pandas. Your group can observe pandas at close range — from cubs to adults — and learn how keepers feed them and prepare bamboo and panda cakes. Bring your camera for an intimate encounter with these adorable creatures.

Afternoon — Dujiangyan Irrigation System
About a 40-minute drive away, the Dujiangyan Irrigation System is an ancient engineering marvel built around 256 BC by the Qin statesman Li Bing and his son. As the world's oldest non-dam irrigation works, it still regulates the Min River and sustains the Chengdu Plain today — a testament to over 2,200 years of ingenuity. Your guide will explain how its fish-mouth levee and channeling design turned flood-prone land into a fertile heartland.

Evening — At Your Leisure
The evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure — you may rest at the hotel or explore the nearby surroundings on your own.

Morning — Sichuan Cooking Class
Participate in an intensive Sichuan cooking class led by a professional chef trained in Chengdu's renowned kitchens. Your team will learn to prepare classics such as Kung Pao Chicken, Mapo Tofu, and Dan Dan Noodles, mastering the balance of mala (numbing and spicy) flavors that define Sichuan cuisine. The collaborative act of prepping ingredients, timing dishes, and plating the final meal builds natural teamwork and communication.

Afternoon — Sichuan Cuisine Museum
Visit the Sichuan Cuisine Museum in Pixian, the world's only 'edible museum,' where more than 6,000 artifacts trace over 4,000 years of culinary history. Interactive exhibits demonstrate traditional fermentation, pickling, and cooking methods, including the centuries-old craft of making Pixian doubanjiang (broad bean chili paste), a cornerstone of Sichuan flavor. This context shows how regional cuisine reflects broader cultural values and business practices.

Evening — Traditional Tea Ceremony
Experience a Gongfu tea ceremony at a historic teahouse, a ritual style that originated in Fujian and Taiwan and is widely practiced across Sichuan. A tea master guides your team to appreciate tea through sight, aroma, and taste, while your guide explains how the ceremony embodies respect, patience, and attention to detail — principles equally relevant to leadership and team dynamics.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Accommodation Options
4-Star: Crowne Plaza Chengdu | DoubleTree by Hilton Chengdu | Novotel Chengdu MixC.
5-Star: The Temple House Chengdu | Shangri-La Chengdu | Waldorf Astoria Chengdu.

Morning — a second session, or not
You have the option of a second treatment session this morning - tuina, a herbal foot soak, or another hour of the same work you had earlier in the week - and it is booked for those who want it and cancelled without charge for those who would rather have a slow morning in the hotel. Guests who take it usually find the second session easier than the first, because by now the practitioner knows what you carry in your shoulders and your back and can work more directly. The clinic is a fifteen-minute drive from most central hotels, and the session can be moved to the previous evening if your flight leaves early.

Late morning — Wangjiang Tower Park
Wangjiang Tower Park sits on the south bank of the Jin river and is named for the four-storey pavilion at its centre, built in memory of Xue Tao, the Tang-dynasty poet and courtesan who lived in Chengdu in the ninth century and is said to have made her own writing paper, tinted pink with the flowers of the riverbank. It is also one of the best collections of bamboo in China: more than a hundred and fifty species planted along the paths, from pencil-thin hedge bamboo to groves thick enough to shut out the city. The walk is level, shaded and short, and the park teahouse is a good place to sit for half an hour with a last cup of jasmine tea.

Lunch
A final Sichuan meal, ordered mild: chicken soup, steamed fish, cold sesame noodles, stir-fried greens and rice. If you have time, the local dessert to try before you leave is tang you yuan - three kinds of glutinous rice balls in a sweet soup, served hot. If you have an afternoon flight the meal can be moved forward and the park visit dropped; if you are leaving in the evening there is time for both. The kitchen also does a sweet fermented-rice soup with glutinous rice balls, which makes a better last dish than it sounds and is eaten all over Sichuan in the colder months.

Afternoon — departure
Transfer to Chengdu Tianfu airport, Shuangliu airport or Chengdu East railway station, allowing at least two and a half hours before an international flight. Please give us your departure details when you book and we will schedule the morning around them - including moving the treatment session to the previous day if that suits you better. A porter service at the airport is available and inexpensive, and your guide will walk you to the check-in counter rather than leaving you at the kerb; at the railway stations thirty minutes is normally enough. If you are continuing to another city in China rather than flying home, the domestic terminal is much quicker and ninety minutes is usually sufficient.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation
Day ends on departure - no hotel night included.