Top 12 Things to Do in Chengdu in 2026

Chengdu is China's most liveable city — a place with a 2,300-year history of culinary hedonism, philosophical leisure, and artistic refinement that distinguishes it sharply from the driven pace of Beijing or Shanghai. The home of giant pandas, fiery hotpot, and Sichuan opera, Chengdu moves slowly on purpose: the tea house is not a luxury here but a way of life, and the "slow Chengdu" culture (man Chengdu) is something every visitor eventually succumbs to. It also happens to sit at the gateway to some of China's wildest wilderness.