Chengdu in Sichuan province is the perfect base of operations for almost every traveller heading to western China. Information on tours, hotels, places of interest as well as reliable internet access and five-star accommodation are all readily available.
Chengdu is surrounded by tourist attractions, situated as it is in the middle of Sichuan province, sandwiched between the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Shanxi, Yunnan, Gansu and Guizhou provinces and Chongqing municipality.
Tour groups to Lhasa must pass through Chengdu, as do tourists heading for the Tibetan regions of Ganzi and Abba prefectures in the Himalayan foothills west of Chengdu.
Heading west on the newly completed highway into Tibet, travellers can stop off in Emei Shan, one of the four major Buddhist mountains in China, or in Leshan, site of the Great Buddha carved into the cliffs and overlooking the waters.
Winding deeper into the mountains, the traveller eventually reaches the frontier towns of Kangding, Songpan and Tagong, a short drive from the grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau. These areas were once inaccessible because of bad roads, but in recent years the trip to Kangding, once regarded as dangerous and taking anywhere between seven and 24 hours, has been shortened to a brisk six-hour drive on a two-lane highway.
Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, world famous for their breathtaking scenery all year round, are a few hours north on the highway. Just a bit further on lie the Four Sisters Mountains and the Wolong Nature Reserve, home of the giant panda. Chengdu also offers a 30-minute flight to Huanglong.
