Panda Valley at Dujiangyan is a working conservation facility rather than a zoo. The enclosures are large, wooded and built to prepare captive-born pandas for reintroduction to the wild, which means the animals have room to disappear into the trees. You may see them at closer quarters at the more famous Chengdu Research Base, but you’ll see them behaving more naturally here, and with a fraction of the crowd. Mornings are much the best time: pandas are most active in the cool hours and tend to sleep through the afternoon.

The second half of the day is the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the more remarkable things in China. Built around 256 BC, it splits the Min River without a dam using a weir, a spillway and a cut through the mountain to divert water onto the Chengdu plain and flush out silt automatically. It has been in continuous operation for over 2,200 years and still irrigates the region today. The site includes suspension bridges over the river and a temple complex on the hillside above.

The day closes at Zhongshuge Bookstore, whose mirrored ceilings and curved shelving make a small shop look like an infinite library. It takes twenty minutes and it’s one of the most photographed interiors in Sichuan.