What should I avoid in Chengdu?

The tea ceremony scam is Chengdu's most persistent con. Young locals, usually in pairs, approach you near Chunxi Road or outside the Wuhou Shrine and suggest practicing English over tea. They walk you to a teahouse on a side street where the bill arrives at ¥500-800 per person for lukewarm jasmine in chipped cups. The teahouse keeps roughly 60% and the students pocket the rest. If someone under 30 wants to practice English with you within 200 meters of a tourist site, that is the tell. The same pitch sometimes shifts to a calligraphy exhibition near Tianfu Square. For real tea culture, Heming Tea House in People's Park charges ¥15-30 for an afternoon of refills, and nobody there recruits customers off the sidewalk. The bamboo chairs fill with retirees by 2pm, card games spread across low tables, and ear-cleaning vendors charge ¥30 for a 10-minute session.

Jinli Ancient Street sits beside the Temple of Marquis Wu and looks like a Qing-dynasty lane, but it is a 2004 reconstruction with prices to match. Dan dan noodles run ¥35-45 at the Jinli stalls. Walk 15 minutes south to Yulin West Road and the same dish costs ¥10-15 with better sesame paste and more chili oil. The restaurants facing Tianfu Square's Mao Zedong statue charge ¥60 for kung pao chicken that goes for ¥28 on Wangpingshi Street. For mapo tofu, Chen Mapo Doufu on Xiyulong Street has served the original version since 1862. A plate of their signature dish costs about ¥26. The numbing tingle from Hanyuan peppercorns builds slowly, and the soft tofu breaks apart in a slick of chili oil and fermented bean paste. Chengdu hotpot tends to be milder than Chongqing's version, with more herbs in the broth. Xiaolongkan on Yulin Middle Road draws lines by 6pm, and a pot for two runs ¥80-120 depending on the broth base. The craft-beer scene on Tongzilin South Road has grown quietly, with taprooms like Harvest pouring Sichuan-brewed IPAs for ¥35-50 a glass.

The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding opened in 1987 and draws roughly 18,000 visitors on a peak-season day. The pandas eat between 8:00 and about 9:30am. That 90-minute window is when they move, roll, and wrestle in the outdoor enclosures. After 10am, they sleep. By 11am you're standing in a crowd staring at a motionless heap on a wooden platform. Book your ticket on the base's WeChat mini-program at least 1 day ahead. The base sits 10km north of downtown in Chenghua district, and metro Line 3 to Panda Avenue station gets you within a 15-minute shuttle ride. For a day trip with more solitude, Qingcheng Mountain lies 68km northwest. The front mountain has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2000, with Daoist temples dating to the Jin dynasty. The 4-hour round-trip hike through the forested trail smells of damp cedar and incense from the Jianfu Palace near the trailhead. A high-speed train from Chengdu East to Qingchengshan station takes 35 minutes and costs ¥15.

Chengdu sits in the Sichuan Basin, which traps moisture and heat. July and August are the worst months. The humidity clings to your skin within seconds of stepping outside, and the haze over the Fu River smells faintly metallic on bad air-quality days. September is better, currently 24°C with 73% humidity, though the basin fog means you might go three weeks without seeing the sun. Winter, November through February, hovers around 5-8°C with a damp cold that goes through your jacket in a way that dry -10°C in Beijing does not. Pack layers and a waterproof shell for anything after October. Mind you, the locals joke that Chengdu people are pale because the sun forgot the city exists. Chengdu's overcast climate feeds the indoor life. Sichuan opera at Shufeng Yayun Theatre in the Culture Park district runs nightly at 8pm, and ¥150 gets you a front-row seat for the fire-breathing and face-changing acts that date back to the early Qing period.

Shuangliu Airport sits 16km southwest of downtown, and the metered taxi fare to Chunxi Road runs about ¥60. Tianfu International, roughly 50km south, costs closer to ¥180 by meter. Flat fare offers at Shuangliu or Tianfu always cost more. Chengdu's metro covers 13 lines, and Didi works for ride-hailing with a Chinese phone number. A prepaid SIM at the airport China Mobile counter costs about ¥100 for 10 days. E-bikes weave silently through red lights along the Second Ring Road, so cross with caution during rush hour between 7:30 and 9:00am. Kuanzhai Xiangzi, the Wide and Narrow Alleys, carries the same tourist markup as Jinli but delivers better atmosphere. The courtyard bars let you sit under ginkgo trees in October when the leaves turn yellow. Skip the Leshan Giant Buddha day trip without a pre-booked timed ticket. The 2-hour drive from Chengdu leads to a 3-4 hour queue for the staircase descent. LGBTQ+ friendliness in Chengdu sits at 3.5 out of 10 (cities.lgbtq_friendliness_score), and public displays of affection between same-sex couples tend to draw stares outside the bar strip near Jiuyanqiao.