Chengdu is the sort of city where the main achievement is that people there have a good time, and the rest is background. The capital of Sichuan province sits in a wide, humid plain in western China, home to more than seven million people in the city proper and a lot more in the wider area. It has an easy, teahouse-and-mahjong rhythm, a pace the rest of the country envies, and a cuisine whose reputation is global. Sichuan pepper, the tingling spice that numbs the lips, flavours the hotpot, the mapo tofu and the dan dan noodles, and a rider arriving here should plan on eating well.
The city is old. A famous irrigation system at Dujiangyan, built more than two thousand years ago, tamed the Min river and turned the Chengdu plain into one of the richest farming regions in China. Nearby, the bronze masks and gold work from the Sanxingdui site reveal a Bronze Age culture that left no written records. In the city itself, the Wuhou shrine honours the strategist Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms period, and Du Fu, the Tang dynasty poet, lived in a thatched cottage that is now a park. The giant panda research base on the northern edge of the city is its most visited attraction, best seen early in the morning when the animals are feeding.
For riders, Chengdu is the start of the Sichuan–Tibet Highway, the southern branch of the G318 that crosses the Tibetan plateau toward Lhasa and is counted among the great overland journeys. From the plain the road heads west toward Ya'an and then climbs into mountains that shake off the humid haze, with high passes above four thousand metres farther along. Practical planning matters. Foreign travellers generally need permits, a local guide and temporary driving documents in China, and Tibet requires special permission, so the arrangements need to start well before arrival.
The city has everything a traveller needs, including fuel, spare parts and large shops. Traffic is heavy and city air can be hazy, so leave early. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for the road west, while summer rains bring landslides, and winter closes some high sections with snow.