Is Chengdu family-friendly?

Chengdu scores 7.2/10 for family friendliness (see the TTDI Family-Friendliness Index), and the giant pandas earn most of that number. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding opens at 7.30 am, and the bears eat and climb until roughly 10 am before sleeping through the heat, so the whole morning visit has to be built around that clock. Take Metro Line 3 to Panda Avenue station, then a shuttle or a Didi for the last stretch, and book tickets ahead with each child's passport number. Expect about 55 yuan per adult (about US$8.20): under-6s usually go free and teenagers pay a reduced rate. The grounds are hilly and wide enough that a 4-year-old will not walk all of them, and the electric carts cost extra. Bamboo shades most paths, and after rain they smell green and damp. Head back to the hotel for lunch and a nap, since by noon the enclosures hold sleeping black-and-white lumps. Keep the afternoon gentle at People's Park: Heming Teahouse pours jasmine tea into lidded cups for around 25 yuan, the lake rents pedal boats, and kids tend to stare at the clack of mahjong tiles and the metallic twang of the ear cleaners' tuning forks.

For rainy days, or days the nap never happens, most options sit inside the Second Ring Road. The Jinsha Site Museum keeps its excavation pit indoors under one enormous roof, where kids aged 6 and up can peer down at elephant tusks laid in the mud about 3,000 years ago, and the gold Sun Bird disc is smaller than an adult's palm. The Sichuan Science and Technology Museum on Tianfu Square, beside the Mao Zedong statue, is free with a booking, and its robots and hands-on rooms hold 5-to-12-year-olds for about two hours, though it usually closes on Mondays. Chengdu Zoo, next door to Zhaojue Temple in the north of the city, costs around 20 yuan and has pandas of its own with far smaller crowds. On Jinli Street, beside the Temple of Marquis Wu, sugar painters pour molten amber syrup into dragons for 10 to 20 yuan, and the smell of burnt sugar alone tends to buy 20 minutes of good behaviour. Du Fu Thatched Cottage is shady, flat and quiet. It suits parents with an under-3 asleep in the pram better than older kids who want something to do.

Strollers work in Chengdu, with conditions. The Hi-Tech Zone and the streets around Chunxi Road and Taikoo Li have wide, smooth pavements. Most metro stations have at least one lift, though reaching it can mean a 200-metre detour, and every metro entrance has an airport-style bag scanner where staff often ask you to fold the stroller onto the belt. At rush hour on Lines 1 and 2, roughly 8 to 9 am and 5.30 to 7 pm, carriages are too packed for an open pram. Kuanzhai Xiangzi's stone lanes are easy on wheels on a weekday morning and impassable on a Saturday afternoon. Malls such as IFS and Taikoo Li have mother-and-baby rooms (母婴室) with changing tables and hot water. Toilets in parks and temples are often squat-style with no paper, so keep tissues in every bag. Didi cars rarely have child seats, so bring a lightweight travel booster, or a carrier for under-2s.

Food is the hardest part with kids, because chili and numbing Sichuan pepper turn up in dishes that look plain. Before you land, learn 'bu yao la' (no chili) and 'bu yao ma' (no numbing pepper). At hotpot, order a yuanyang pot: split down the middle, with a mild bone or tomato broth on one side, so kids can dip lotus root and quail eggs on their half while the red side bubbles and spits beside them. Long Chaoshou on Chunxi Road serves wontons in clear broth that most 3-year-olds will eat. San Da Pao vendors throw rice balls so they thud against a wooden board and roll through soybean flour, making it a show as well as a snack, and it costs a few yuan. Bing fen, a wobbly cold jelly under brown-sugar syrup, rescues hot afternoons. If your child has allergies, carry a printed card in Chinese, because peanuts and sesame oil appear in cold dishes and dipping sauces without warning.

Hotel rooms are where 'family' listings fall apart. Chinese hotels usually sell either a king room or a twin with two 1.2-metre single beds, so two adults and two kids often need connecting rooms or a serviced apartment. On Trip.com, filter for apartments near Chunxi Road or in the Hi-Tech Zone with a kitchen and a washing machine, and check that the property accepts foreign passports, since every guest has to be registered, babies included. With under-6s, skip the Sichuan opera face-changing shows at Shufeng Yayun: they start around 8 pm and run 90 minutes. Leshan Giant Buddha is a carrier-only day trip because of its cliff staircase, and queues can pass two hours during the 1 to 7 October holiday. Jinli at night is shoulder-to-shoulder. Spring and autumn are the best times to come, and on 19 October the city read 21.6°C and clear at 1 pm, while July and August run above 30°C with sticky, thundery afternoons.