Two stops, one afternoon

Chengdu rewards slow days, and this walk is one of my favourites. It pairs the polished, photogenic Kuanzhai Alleys with the much quieter Wenshu Monastery a short taxi ride away. Together they take half a day at an unhurried pace, with a good lunch in the middle.

The contrast is the point. Kuanzhai is Chengdu performing itself for visitors. Wenshu is Chengdu getting on with its day, with incense smoke and old men reading newspapers in a tea garden. Doing both gives you a more honest picture than either one alone.

Kuanzhai Alleys: three lanes side by side

Kuanzhai means "wide and narrow," and the name tells you the layout. There are three parallel lanes running east to west, each with its own personality.

• Kuan Lane, the wide one, is the most restored and the most crowded. Courtyard restaurants, tea houses, and a lot of people taking the same photograph.
• Zhai Lane, the narrow one, mixes small shops, snack stalls and bars. It gets lively in the evening.
• Jing Lane, the third one, has a long wall of old photographs and reliefs showing what the neighbourhood used to look like. Most people skip it. I think it is the most interesting of the three.

Entry is free and the lanes are open all day. Go before ten in the morning if you want photographs without a hundred strangers in them, or after eight in the evening if you want it lit up and bustling.

What to eat there

The alleys are not the best food in Chengdu, but they are not bad either. Look for the stalls selling san da pao, the three glutinous rice balls in one bowl, and the small shops doing dan dan noodles. Prices are tourist-level, so treat it as a snack stop rather than a meal.

Wenshu Monastery: the quiet counterpoint

Wenshu is a working Buddhist monastery in the middle of the city, and entry is free. It dates back to the Tang dynasty, though most of what you see was rebuilt in the Qing period. Monks still live and practise here.

Walk through the main halls, watch people lighting incense, and then do what locals do: sit down in the tea garden to the side, order a cup of jasmine tea, and stay for an hour. Nobody will hurry you. This is the Chengdu afternoon that people write home about.

The vegetarian restaurant

Inside the monastery grounds there is a vegetarian restaurant that serves some of the most interesting food in the city. The menu is built around mock meat dishes that are far better than that description makes them sound. It is cheap, it is busy at lunch, and I would plan the whole walk around eating here.

Getting between the two

Kuanzhai Alleys has its own metro station on line 4. Wenshu Monastery has one on line 1. They are not directly connected, so the easiest plan is to take a taxi or a ride-hailing car between them, which takes about ten minutes and costs very little. You can also walk it in around half an hour if the weather is good.

Practical notes

• Start at Kuanzhai around 9 or 10 am, eat lunch at Wenshu, and be done by mid-afternoon.
• Wear something you can sit on the ground in, because the tea garden chairs are low and the benches are stone.
• The monastery is a religious site. Dress a little more modestly than you might for the alleys.
• Both areas are cash-free. Mobile payment is everywhere.

If you have energy left, the People's Park is a short walk from Kuanzhai and makes a good third stop for a late-afternoon cup of tea.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.