Chengdu
Dujiangyan
A 256 BCE diversion works on the Min River that still irrigates the Chengdu plain.
SICHUAN
Sichuan.
Water, stone and a bowl of tea
Sichuan is a basin, a set of high valleys and a river system that begins at Dujiangyan and ends, as the Yangtze, at Yibin. This journal follows water, stone, tea and the people who keep them moving.
Jiuzhaigou
Jiuzhaigou opens the province with water made visible: 108 lakes held by calcium, forest and three villages.
Explore this placeBegin with the classics
From waterside homes and tea hills to island temples, discover the lives of different places.
Deyang
Sanxingdui
The Guanghan site whose bronze masks, trees and figures date from about 4800 to 2800 years ago.
Leshan
Leshan Giant Buddha
The 71-metre seated Buddha cut into the red sandstone cliff at Leshan.
Chengdu
Wuhou Shrine
A joint shrine to Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, with a red wall, bamboo and a public park.
Nanchong
Langzhong Ancient City
A Ming-Qing old city inside a Jialing River bend, still lived in and still read as a feng-shui plan.
Meishan
Sansu Shrine
The former residence of Su Xun, Su Shi and Su Zhe, rebuilt as a shrine in the water.
Look a little closer
Follow tea craft in Longjing, a book collector in Ningbo and indigo cloth in Wuzhen.
From the journal
Tea before the city
In Chengdu, the first useful thing to learn is how to sit down: a bamboo chair, a lidded bowl and an afternoon that is not rushed.
From the journal
Towers built without a drawing
Danba has 562 towers and tower sites. The tallest is 68 metres, and the builders worked by eye, using an inner frame and a tapering wall.
From the journal
One night of fire, a year of return
The Torch Festival is Liangshan's public calendar. In 2026, 86 bonfires were lit along 3.2 kilometres of Xichang's main avenue.
From the journal
The garden beside the Changming River
The Li Bai Memorial in Jiangyou is a twentieth-century garden for a poet who never lived in it; the river outside the wall is older than the halls.
From the journal
The road that moved for a cliff
Qianfo Cliff has been carved across dynasties. In 2025 a national highway was moved to avoid it, which makes the road part of the conservation story.
From the journal
The filature that still runs
Nanchong's Six He Silk Park, built on a former filature, keeps reeling equipment, rapier looms and a route that follows silk from cocoon to cloth.
Keep exploring
Choose a city: start with its highlights or continue reading in the full article collection.
Chengdu
Sichuan's capital, where a river-fed plain, teahouses and ancient Shu sites sit inside one city.
All articlesDeyang
A prefecture north of Chengdu whose Guanghan county holds the Sanxingdui site.
All articlesLeshan
A river city at the meeting of the Min, Dadu and Qingyi, below Mount Emei.
All articlesYa'an
A wet, tea-growing prefecture between the Chengdu plain and the highlands, and the scientific discovery place of the giant panda.
All articlesYibin
The city where the Min and Jinsha meet and the Yangtze begins.
All articlesZigong
A salt city with wooden derricks, deep wells and a lantern craft that fills winter parks.
All articlesMianyang
A river city of poetry and research institutes, where Li Bai's childhood home and a state science city sit in the same basin.
All articlesGuangyuan
A Jialing River city where the Shu Road, cliff carvings and the memory of Wu Zetian share the same gorge.
All articlesMeishan
The Su family's hometown, a bamboo-weaving county and the low hills between Chengdu and Leshan.
All articlesNanchong
A Jialing River city of silk and old streets, with Langzhong's river bend upstream.
All articlesLuzhou
A river port at the meeting of the Tuo and Yangtze, known for pits that have never stopped fermenting.
All articlesAba
The Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture in northwest Sichuan, holding Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong and Taoping.
All articlesGanzi
The western prefecture of high passes, stone towers and the Dege printing house.
All articlesLiangshan
The Yi autonomous prefecture in southwest Sichuan, with Xichang at its centre and the Torch Festival as its public calendar.
All articlesPhoto credits and rights
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Panda Lake in JiuzhaigouCEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
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The Dujiangyan weir across the Min River星星 / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
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A bronze head from SanxingduiGary Todd / CC0 · CC0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
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The Leshan Giant Buddha seen from the river王计 / CC BY 2.5 · CC BY 2.5 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
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Wuhou Shrine, Chengdu螺钉 / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
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Langzhong old city, Nanchongliuzusai 刘祖赛 / CC BY 3.0 · CC BY 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
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Sansu Shrine, MeishanN509FZ / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.