Huanhuaxi Park

**A Poet's Corridor Through Two Millennia** The 380-metre Poetry Avenue is the park's defining cultural landmark, an open-air gallery where verses from Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Du Fu, and Su Shi are carved into stone walls and paving beneath your feet. Twenty-five poet sculptures stand sentinel along the path, inviting visitors to stroll through two thousand years of Chinese literary history. Think of it as a comparably intimate alternative to a literary pilgrimage like Stratford-upon-Avon's Bard walks, but rooted in a poetic tradition several centuries older. **Canglang Lake and Bailuzhou: An Urban Birdwatcher's Haven** At the park's heart, the glassy surface of Canglang Lake ripples with koi, while Bailuzhou offers downtown Chengdu's finest egret viewing. At dawn and dusk, white herons glide across the water—an image Du Fu himself immortalised in his famous line "A line of white egrets ascends the blue sky." The experience evokes the contemplative birdwatching traditions of London's Wetland Centre, yet framed by Tang dynasty verse. **Wanshu Hill and the Bamboo Tea Pavilion** Wanshu Hill, a man-made forested lung, shifts its palette dramatically across the seasons: cherry and crabapple blossoms in spring, lotus in summer, crimson foliage in autumn, and plum blossoms braving winter chill. Tucked among towering bamboo, the Zhizhu Tea House revives the literati conviction expressed by Su Shi that "one would rather live without meat than without bamboo"—a sentiment any devotee of Japanese tea ceremony will instantly recognise. **Du Fu's Thousand-Poem Stone Gallery** Completed in 2018, this sweeping stone gallery organises the poet-sage's life into a chronological sequence of carved verses, merging calligraphy, garden design, and biography. Scholars will appreciate its depth; casual visitors will simply enjoy the quiet beauty of verses set against mossy stone and flowing water, much like wandering the inscribed cloisters of a medieval European monastery. **Practical Visitor Information** Admission is free. The park opens from 06:00 to 22:00, with last entry at 22:00. Reach it via Metro Line 4 to Caotang Bei Lu Station (Exit C) or Line 5 to Qingyang Gong Station (Exit B), both a 10–15 minute walk. Drivers can use the South or West Gate car parks. Allow two to three hours; weekday mornings or early evenings offer the softest light and most active birdlife. **Suggested Combinations and Seasonal Highlights** Just one hundred metres north lies the ticketed Du Fu Thatched Cottage, and 800 metres east the free Sichuan Museum—together forming an unrivalled day of poetry and regional heritage. Whatever the season, Huanhuaxi delivers: spring blossoms, summer lotus fragrance, autumn maples, and winter plum blossoms guarantee that no two visits feel alike.

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