Why this route
Travellers consistently favour this shape for a Chengdu stay: the city’s heritage core first, the mountain leg after, and a soft landing at the end. The three opening days layer the city rather than repeat it. Day 1 stays with old-street Chengdu at Kuan Alley and Zhai Alley, the Temple of Marquis and Jinli. Day 2 moves from the JINSHA SITE MUSEUM to the Chengdu Dufu Thatched Cottage Msm. Qingyang Palace and Jiuyan Bridge complete the day. Day 3 delivers the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Wenshu Monastery and Chunxi Road, and Days 4 and 5 then leave the streets behind for gullies, a gorge plank road, an ancient town, the Qingcheng Mountain Front Hill and the Dujiangyan Scenic Area.
The day split does the pacing work. The city days run seven, eight and eight hours, with Day 2 the fullest at four stops, so the urban sightseeing is banked before the physical peak arrives. Day 4 is that peak: a walking day built on Wulong Gully, the Longyin Gorge plank road, untimed pauses at Youyi Village and Wangyun Pavilion, Feiquan Gully and Tai’an Ancient Town. Day 5 pairs the two-hour Qingcheng Mountain Front Hill with the five-hour Dujiangyan Scenic Area, the longest single stop on the route, and Day 6 drops to a two-hour wind-down at Chengdu People’s Park, a deliberate soft landing after the mountains.
Day by day
Day 1. The route opens with two hours at Kuan Alley and Zhai Alley, follows with two hours at the Temple of Marquis, and gives its biggest block of the day, three hours, to Jinli. Seven hours of stops in all.
Day 2. The fullest of the city days: four stops, eight hours. Three hours go to the JINSHA SITE MUSEUM and two to the Chengdu Dufu Thatched Cottage Msm. Qingyang Palace takes an hour, and Jiuyan Bridge closes the day with two.
Day 3. Four hours at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the longest stop of the city days, come first, followed by two hours at Wenshu Monastery and two at Chunxi Road. Eight hours in total.
Day 4. The route’s walking day. Wulong Gully takes two hours and the Longyin Gorge plank road one, with Youyi Village and Wangyun Pavilion left untimed in between; Feiquan Gully adds another hour and Tai’an Ancient Town closes the day with two. Six timed hours in all, plus the two untimed stops.
Day 5. Two hours on the Qingcheng Mountain Front Hill, then five hours at the Dujiangyan Scenic Area, the longest single stop anywhere on the route. Seven hours in total.
Day 6. A two-hour wind-down at Chengdu People’s Park, the only single-stop day on the route and its lightest.
Trade-offs
Day 2 is the fullest of the city days, four stops and eight hours, and it is where the schedule flexes most easily. Qingyang Palace, at one hour, is the shortest timed stop of the city days, and travellers running long at the JINSHA SITE MUSEUM can drop it and finish the day at Jiuyan Bridge. The other built-in slack is Day 6: a single two-hour stop at Chengdu People’s Park that travellers who need to save a day can cut without touching any of the route’s timed anchors.
Day 4 is the physical peak and the day to simplify for travellers who want a gentler route. Cutting the one-hour Longyin Gorge plank road and treating Youyi Village and Wangyun Pavilion as pass-throughs rather than stops leaves the two-hour Wulong Gully and the two-hour Tai’an Ancient Town as an easier spine for the day. On Day 5 the flex sits at the front: the two-hour Qingcheng Mountain Front Hill is the adjustable stop, while the five-hour Dujiangyan Scenic Area is the one to protect.