Sad street food variety and experience. Sad shows of silly noodle slicing and chicken cooking. It was a waste of few hours for us.

Everything started good, our guide Vivian was kind and very helpful. But after the visit to the Panda Breeding Center she told us that the agency couldn’t buy our tickets for the Buddha because we didn’t t have a Chinese ID and in the ticket office they were already sold out. So we didn’t see the Leshan Buddha and they only refund the amount of the ticket for the Buddha (70RMB) and got a visit to Jinlin street. I think the agency should know and be prepared for these kind of things. We only had one complete day in Chengdu and we couldn’t see the Buddha, which was one of our priorities in the trip. We are very disappointed.

Our guide Bella was the best guide we had in three weeks of tours around China. Her English was excellent, she was very knowledgeable, but also very chatty and interested in us. On the long trip to Leshan we chatted and we felt like old friends chatting, not like a guide giving us endless historic soundbites and nothing else. This gave us a better understanding of life in China than anything else. She made sure that we got to see the pandas at a time when they are active, which is very important, as they sleep for a lot of the day. The pandas were amazing. I wasn't looking forward to a trip to a "zoo" that much, expecting sad animals in cages, but the pandas are very well treated and seem very content. The whole centre has been planted with bamboo to create a natural feel, and it is beautiful. Bella took us to her favourite restaurant at lunch and we were glad to have her sit with us to try some authentic local food, even dishes specific to Leshan itself. The Buddha was spectacular. I don't know whether it is best to see it from a boat or from the land, but either way it is huge and worth the trip to visit. I can't recommend this highly enough.