6-Day Sichuan Giant Panda Conservation & Environmental Science Study Tour

Afternoon — Jinli Ancient Street
Explore Jinli Ancient Street, a pedestrian thoroughfare that recreates the atmosphere of traditional Sichuan streets with wooden architecture, red lanterns, and bustling craft shops. Your team participates in a scavenger hunt that encourages interaction with local artisans, sampling street food, and working together to solve cultural puzzles — setting the tone for collaborative learning throughout the retreat.

Evening — Welcome Sichuan Hotpot Dinner
Enjoy a welcome dinner at a restaurant specializing in Sichuan hotpot, where your team cooks fresh ingredients at the table in bubbling broth. This interactive meal naturally encourages conversation, cooperation, and shared discovery as you navigate the array of meats, vegetables, and dipping sauces that characterize Sichuan cuisine.

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

Meals
Welcome dinner.

Morning — Dujiangyan Panda Base Volunteering
Travel to the Dujiangyan Panda Base for an unforgettable volunteer experience. After orientation and donning work uniforms, your team splits into groups to assist keepers with daily tasks: cutting and weighing bamboo, cleaning enclosures, and preparing supplemental foods such as panda cakes. The hands-on work offers not only a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with pandas but also lessons in cooperation and attention to detail.

Afternoon — Conservation in Action
Continue volunteer activities by observing panda behavior and assisting with enrichment that stimulates the animals mentally and physically. Your team learns about the challenges of wildlife conservation in modern China and how the panda has become a symbol of international cooperation and environmental stewardship.

Evening — Debrief & Sichuan Dinner
Return to Chengdu for a debrief session in which your team reflects on the day's experiences, drawing connections between conservation work and business challenges such as sustainability, long-term thinking, and teamwork. Dinner features Sichuan cuisine at a restaurant that emphasizes farm-to-table ingredients and traditional cooking methods.

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

Meals
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included today.

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 — Dujiangyan Irrigation System
Discover the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, a 2,200-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site built to tame the Min River. Its ingenious channels, embankments, and spillways, made with nothing more than bamboo, stones, and skilled labor, still control flooding and water the fields of the Sichuan plain. Walk across the Anlan Cable Bridge to appreciate the scale of this enduring engineering marvel.

Afternoon — Qingcheng Mountain
Hike Qingcheng Mountain, a Taoist sanctuary shrouded in misty forests and long revered as a birthplace of Taoism. Visit the Tianshi Cave, associated with the origins of the Taoist tradition, and savor Taoist vegetarian dishes at a hillside temple. The serene paths and forested slopes make an ideal setting for quiet reflection.

Evening — At Your Leisure
The evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure back in Chengdu.

Morning — Wuhou Memorial Temple and Jinli Ancient Street
Located in the southern part of Chengdu, the Wuhou Memorial Temple was built in honor of Zhuge Liang, the Martial Marquis of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period. Among the Wuhou memorial temples across China, the one in Chengdu holds the greatest significance, being the only one dedicated to both King Liu Bei and his esteemed prime minister Zhuge Liang, whose loyalty and strategy are celebrated as a model of Chinese statesmanship. Leaving the temple, you will begin exploring Jinli Ancient Street, a modern commercial pedestrian street integrated with buildings originally constructed during the Qing Dynasty. Along the way you will find exquisite lacquerware, folk handicrafts, Shu Embroidery and calligraphy, along with puppet theater performances and craftsmen selling paper-cuts and clay figurines, all of which offer a glimpse of the authentic local way of life.

Afternoon — Kuanzhai Lane and Shu Brocade
In the afternoon, your destination is Kuanzhai Lane, known as China's Lane, which blends the architectural features of northern Chinese courtyard houses with those of traditional dwellings in western Sichuan across three parallel alleys: Kuan Lane, Zhai Lane and Jing Lane. Sipping tea in a local teahouse or tasting Sichuan dishes and snacks here is an easy way to immerse yourself in Chengdu's leisure life, with well-preserved traditional buildings in Zhai Lane for lovers of architecture and a livelier blend of Chinese and Western influences in Jing Lane. You will also encounter Shu Brocade, a traditional silk fabric unique to Sichuan renowned for its exquisite craftsmanship and vibrant colors, and a visit to a Shu Embroidery workshop shows the intricate processes involved, from silk thread preparation to the final weaving and embroidery. If you would prefer to slow down further, an optional alternative is Chengdu People's Park, where locals gather to play chess, practice Tai Chi and enjoy mahjong, and where a teahouse offers traditional Sichuan tea in a serene setting.

Evening — Flexible Evening
The evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure in Chengdu.

Meals — Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
All three meals are included on this day.

Morning — Chengdu to Leshan (depart hotel ~08:00 AM)
Your guide and driver collect you from your Chengdu hotel and drive south to Leshan in Sichuan Province, a journey of about two hours. The Leshan Giant Buddha is a 71-metre seated figure of Maitreya carved directly into the cliff where the Min, Dadu and Qingyi rivers meet. Work began in 713 AD under the monk Haitong and was finished in 803 AD, ninety years later. Your guide leads you down the nine-turn plank road cut into the rock beside the statue, bringing you level with the head, the shoulders and the hidden drainage channels that channel rainwater away from the stone.

Cultural Insight
The statue is the tallest stone Buddha in the world and was inscribed by UNESCO in 1996 as part of the Mount Emei Scenic Area, including the Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area. Its ears measure seven metres from top to lobe.

Lunch — Leshan
Lunch at a local restaurant in the scenic area.

Afternoon — River view and return to Chengdu
A short river crossing gives the one view that the stairway cannot: the complete figure, from the crown of the head to the hands resting on the knees. You then drive back to Chengdu, arriving in the late afternoon.

Evening — Departure
Your guide assists with check-out and the transfer to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport or Chengdu Tianfu International Airport for your onward flight. Groups extending their stay are transferred back to their Chengdu hotel instead.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation
Departure day — no hotel night included.