8-Day China: Beijing, Xi'an & Chengdu Pandas

Terracotta Army 秦始皇兵马俑

Booking

Required — opens real-name, booked online in advance. days ahead on Golden Weeks + peak-season weekends

Last entry

17:00 peak season (Mar 16–Nov 15) · 16:30 off-season; Lishan Park stops admission ~17:00

Ticket

¥120 flat, all year (students ¥60; under-16/65+/disabled/military free)

On a passport

Real-name, passport required. Official bmy.com.cn accepts a passport; the WeChat mini-program needs a Chinese phone, so many book a Trip.com tour that bundles the ticket. No third-party platform is authorised to sell the museum ticket itself.

Getting in

Bus 游5 (Tourist 5) from the East Square — the only official tourist bus; touts offering a "cheaper ride" are fake vans. Get off at the last stop (兵马俑).

Full Terracotta Army guide

Jinli Ancient Street 锦里

Hours

Street open 24 hours; shops and snack stalls 09:00–22:00, bars later

Ticket

Free

Lights

Lanterns come on at dusk and switch off at 22:00. Dusk in Chengdu is late on the clock: about 20:00 at midsummer, about 19:50 in mid-August, about 18:05 in midwinter. The half hour after they light is the blue hour, when the sky still has colour behind the lanterns.

Full Jinli Ancient Street guide

Kuanzhai Alley 宽窄巷子

Hours

Alleys open 24 hours; shops, tea houses and stalls keep roughly 10:00–22:00

Ticket

Free

Lights

No published schedule — the lights track dusk, which in Chengdu means about 6pm at the winter solstice and about 8pm at midsummer. The blue-hour window is the thirty minutes as they come on, while the sky still holds colour.

Full Kuanzhai Alley guide

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding 成都大熊猫繁育研究基地

Last entry

clearing starts 18:00 (March–October) and 17:30 (November–February); the Panda Tower stops admitting at 16:30. The number that actually decides your day is not any of these — it is the 12:00 boundary between the two tickets.

Ticket

¥55 — one price, but see the session split in the hours block; the morning and afternoon tickets cost the same and are not worth the same

On a passport

A passport is an accepted booking and entry document — the operator names it alongside mainland ID, the HK/Macau and Taiwan permits and the foreign permanent-residence card. Two catches, both physical: you must carry the original document you booked with, and a QR code on its own does not admit you. The over-60 and other free tiers are verified against Chinese-issued certificates, so budget the full price. Booking through Ctrip is an authorised channel rather than a workaround.

Getting in

Line 3 to Xiongmao Avenue (熊猫大道), the station named for the SOUTH gate — leave by exit A and take bus D025, 198 or 198A to the Panda Base stop. This is the gate with the car park and the coaches, so it is also the queue.

Heming Teahouse 鹤鸣茶社

Last entry

no gate and no ticket — the park itself is open around the clock

Ticket

Free — both the park and the teahouse. You pay by the cup

On a passport

Nothing here needs an app, an ID or Chinese: you sit down, someone comes over, you point. Cash works. This is the least-friction cultural experience in the city, which is exactly why it lands so well with foreign visitors.

Getting in

Metro Line 2 (also Line 17) to People’s Park (人民公园), exit B — the station sits 270 m north of the teahouse, Amap-measured 2026-08-11. The teahouse is inside the park on the lake shore.

Full Heming Teahouse guide

Sichuan Opera at Shufeng Yayun 蜀风雅韵

Last entry

there is no late entry worth having: the face-changing and fire-spitting are set pieces inside a running programme, not a loop. Arrive 30–40 minutes early if you want the tea, the ear-cleaning and the backstage face-painting, which are most of the reason to pick this venue over a theatre.

Ticket

¥80–260 by seat tier — 壹品 VIP ¥260, 贰品 ¥180–200, 叁品 ¥140–160, 加座 ¥80–100; the mid-tier seats people actually book online run about ¥188–268

On a passport

What separates the rungs is not just distance from the stage: the top tier comes with the covered tea bowl, snacks and a costume-wearing photo, the middle with tea and a snack, the cheapest with tea and melon seeds. Nothing about the show needs Chinese — face-changing, fire-spitting, hand shadows and the rod puppets are all visual — so the cheap rung is not a compromised experience, it is a smaller one.

Getting in

Line 2 to Tonghuimen (通惠门), exit E, then about 400 m along Qintai Road — the venue sits inside Chengdu Culture Park and the box office address is given relative to that exit (Amap, 2026-08-10)

Full Sichuan Opera at Shufeng Yayun guide