Chengdu Private Day Trip: Dujiangyan Irrigation System and Mount Qingcheng

Greet your private guide in your hotel lobby around 8am. It's about a 90-minute drive to Dujiangyan City from Chengdu, where you'll visit the Dujiangyan Irrigation System.

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage register, the Dujiangyan Irrigation System is a masterpiece of Chinese science and engineering. For over 2,300 years, it's enabled 33 counties on the Chengdu floodplain to get the benefits of the Min River, and turned Sichuan into a land of abundance that suffers neither droughts nor floods.

Lunch is at your own expense, but your guide will be happy to recommend good choices either in Dujiangyan or on Mount Qingcheng itself.

At Mount Qingcheng, around 20 minutes drive from Dujiangyan, you'll hike on the mountain and ride the cable car both up and down. Besides the mountain's natural beauty, this area played a critical role in the development of Chinese Taoism - one reason why it too is UNESCO listed. Your guide will show you some of the many palaces, temples, caves, pavilions, and relics that scatter the mountainside.

Some consider Mount Qingcheng “the most peaceful and secluded mountain under heaven” - this is your chance to discover if it's true. Along the way you'll enjoy a boat ride on Yuecheng Lake.

It's about an hour and 40 minutes' drive back to Chengdu from Mount Qingcheng: you'll arrive at your hotel around 6pm.