Chengdu

NASA Club is Chengdu's flagship electronic-music venue, attracting international DJs and housing a world-class Funktion-One sound system. The industrial-warehouse space hosts techno, house and bass-music nights that run well past dawn.

The Sichuan Cuisine Museum in Pidu District claims to be the world's only museum dedicated to a regional cooking style. The campus includes exhibitions on Sichuan's chilli, bean-paste and fermentation traditions, a re-created Qing-dynasty kitchen, and — best of all — a hands-on cooking class.

Sichuan Museum is the largest comprehensive museum in southwest China, with over 260,000 items spanning 5,000 years of Sichuanese history. Its 12 permanent galleries cover everything from ancient bronze ware to revolutionary art.

Xinhua Park is a compact, leafy urban park in Chengdu's northeast, popular with locals for tai chi practice, ballroom dancing, and relaxed afternoon tea sessions. It offers an unhurried neighborhood atmosphere away from tourist crowds.

The Zhuge Liang Memorial Hall sits within the Wuhou Shrine complex, dedicated specifically to the legendary strategist and Prime Minister of Shu Han. Zhuge Liang's military genius and loyalty have made him one of the most revered figures in Chinese history.

Chengdu Museum is a modern five-story museum in Tianfu Square showcasing the city's 4,500 years of history. The striking geometric building, designed by Sutherland Hussey Harris, houses over 200,000 artifacts from ancient Shu civilization to modern Chengdu.

A4 Art Museum is an independent contemporary art space in Chengdu's Luxe Hills district, known for its focus on emerging Chinese artists and experimental multimedia installations. It hosts the biannual iSTART children's art festival.

Nine Eyes Bridge (Jiuyanqiao) is Chengdu's nightlife epicenter, where a strip of bars, clubs, and live music venues lines both banks of the Jin River. The area comes alive after dark with neon reflections on the water and crowds spilling onto riverside terraces.

The Leshan Giant Buddha is a 71-meter-tall stone statue of Maitreya carved into a cliff face where three rivers converge. It is the largest stone Buddha in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

Chengdu's Fenghuangshan Sports Park is a modern multi-venue complex built for the 2023 FISU World University Games. The 60,000-seat main stadium features a dramatic undulating roof inspired by the mythical phoenix.

The Southwest Jiaotong University Railway Museum documents China's railway history from the first steam engines to today's high-speed rail network. As the university is China's premier railway engineering institution, the collection is authoritative and comprehensive.

The Chengdu Museum of Natural History is a new, architecturally dramatic facility housing dinosaur skeletons from Sichuan's rich fossil beds, geological specimens from the Tibetan Plateau and immersive dioramas of the province's ecosystems — from bamboo forests to alpine meadows. Interactive exhibits make it a hit with families, and the building's swooping roof lines are photogenic in their own right..

The Dujiangyan Irrigation System is a 2,270-year-old hydraulic engineering marvel that still irrigates over 5,300 square kilometers of farmland today. Built in 256 BC by governor Li Bing, it is the oldest surviving no-dam irrigation system in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The New Century Global Center is the world's largest standalone building by floor area, covering 1.76 million square meters. This colossal structure houses an indoor beach resort, water park, IMAX cinema, ice rink, shopping mall, and offices.

No visit to Chengdu is complete without a Sichuan hot-pot session. In a traditional restaurant, a bubbling cauldron of chilli oil, Sichuan peppercorns and numbingly spicy málà broth arrives at the table, and diners cook their own sliced meats, tofu and vegetables.

Chengdu's Sansheng Flower Market is one of China's largest wholesale flower and plant markets, spanning several acres with thousands of vendors selling tropical plants, bonsai, orchids, garden supplies, and seasonal flowers.

Sichuan University Museum is one of China's oldest university museums, housing over 40,000 artifacts spanning ethnography, biology, and archaeology. Its ethnographic collections documenting Tibetan and Yi minority cultures are particularly significant.

Mount Qingcheng is a sacred Taoist mountain and UNESCO World Heritage Site located 68 km northwest of Chengdu. Its mist-shrouded peaks, ancient temples, and dense forests have inspired Chinese painters and poets for over 2,000 years.

Hidden within the Sichuan University campus, the Chengdu Insect Museum houses one of the world's largest collections of arthropod specimens — over six million insects across countless display cases. The museum is especially strong on butterflies, beetles and endemic Sichuan species.

Jinsha Site Museum is built directly atop one of China's most significant archaeological discoveries — the remains of the ancient Shu kingdom capital dating from 1200–650 BC. The centerpiece is the exquisite Golden Sun Bird, now China's cultural heritage symbol.