Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan and the unofficial capital of laid-back China. A city of sixteen million people, it is famously addicted to tea, mahjong, hotpot and pandas — usually in that order. Where Beijing strives and Shanghai dazzles, Chengdu sits back, orders another pot of jasmine, and asks why you are in such a hurry.
The single biggest draw is the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on the city's northern edge, where dozens of pandas munch bamboo at close range. Get there at opening time, when they are awake and active before the long midday nap. From there, the city itself rewards slow wandering: the red-walled courtyards of Wuhou Shrine dedicated to the Three Kingdoms strategist Zhuge Liang, the bamboo gardens of Du Fu Thatched Cottage where Tang China's greatest poet wrote in exile, and the incense-thick halls of Wenshu Monastery, the most atmospheric Buddhist temple in town.
Then there is the food, which is reason enough on its own to come. Sichuan cooking runs on the numbing tingle of huajiao peppercorn combined with chillies — a sensation called mala — and Chengdu does it better than anywhere. Hotpot, mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, twice-cooked pork, chuan chuan skewers from sidewalk stalls: it is hard to eat badly here. Pair it with the city's other obsession, the teahouse, and you have the rhythm of Chengdu life. The teahouses at People's Park and around Wenshu are unchanged in spirit since the Qing — old men play mahjong and chess, ear-cleaners ply their trade with long metal picks, and you can sit for hours over a single pot.
The reconstructed Qing lanes of Jinli and Kuanzhai Xiangzi are unashamedly touristy but pretty in the evening when the lanterns come on. Tianfu Square at the city centre is dominated by one of the few remaining giant statues of Mao still standing, arm raised in greeting.
Chengdu is also the gateway. From here you can reach the giant Buddha at Leshan, the sacred Taoist mountain of Qingcheng Shan, the irrigation works at Dujiangyan, and the alpine lakes of Jiuzhaigou. It is also the standard staging point for overland travel into Tibet and across western Sichuan to the Tibetan plateau — flights to Lhasa leave daily, and the long mountain road to Litang and beyond starts here.