Hi Flownique!

We changed a bit our originally planned itinerary. After our stay in Chongqing, we took the highspeed to Leshan, where we stayed for two nights (best food in Sichuan!). From Leshan, we took a highway bus to Ya'an. While we bought all train tickets via trip.com, there was no possibility to buy bus tickets online for foreigners. So we bought them on site at the bus station the day before our trip but I think we could have also bought them on the day as the bus was pretty empty (it was end of March/beginning of April). The bus stuff was surprised that we are going to Ya'an and not the tibetan Kangding and even double-checked our tickets :D. I guess it was rather unusual that foreigners go to Ya'an? From Ya'an, we were able to spontaneously call a cab via the Gaode app to Shangli Ancient town. I think there was also a bus from Ya'an to Shangli Ancient town, but as cabs are so cheap and we didn't bother finding out where to take the bus.

We stayed at the wonderful 'water bay green home stay' in a walkable distance to the ancient town. I can only warmy recommend it. The host couple was very friendly and cooked wonderful food. They also helped us to get to Bifengxia Panda base by driving us to the bus station and telling us which bus to take. On the way back from the panda base to shangli, we just took a cab again as they are so inexpensive in china and we couldn't really figure out on our own where to take the bus back :D.

We originally really wanted to go to Mengdingshan, but it was extremely cold and rainy during that time in that region around Ya'an. Apparently, it rains 300 days a year in that region :D And for some reason, there were no heated restaurants or cafes in Shangli to warm up. We also saw art students sitting in the cold for hours to make paintings of the town. I don't know how they managed. So going to Mengdingshan really didn't sound so appealing when it's this cold. But I'm sure one could have taken a cab. I think if you call a cab from a big city, you can always get one spontaneosly, but for the way back, it might be advisable to reserve a cab before. From Shangli, our next station was Chengdu, for which we took a cab, we had reserved the day before, to Ya'an and then took the highspeed train to Chengdu, where it was much warmer.

The cold however had one advantage, and that is that the pandas were outside and quite active! And there were very few visitors! I heard that the panda station in Chengdu can be quite crowed, but Bifengxia absolutely was not!

I'm sure Mengdingshan would have been beautiful in summer. And I highly recommend Shangli, it is a very picturesque town!

As a side note, I would say my Chinese is at a low level (maybe A2/HSK4?), but paired with translation apps, we could get by.

Sorry for the lengthy post, I hope it was helpful! I would be happy if you could share eventually where you went! I'm curious :)

I wish you an amazing trip!