A Day Trip to Dazu Rock Carvings

On March 8, many scenic spots offered free admission (for female tourists). I went with my girlfriend, and overall, it was a great experience, although it was quite crowded. 1. Transportation: From the main city to Dazu, we took passenger vehicles for both legs of the trip. You can book tickets via Yu Ke Xing (Longtousi to Dazu, CNY 46/ticket, including a CNY 2/ticket service fee; one-way trip takes about 1.5 hours). We took a taxi between the scenic spot and downtown Dazu (about CNY 27 round trip, using promo codes). 2. Detailed Itinerary: We departed from Longtousi at 8:30am and arrived at Dazu Passenger Transport Station (located in the city center) around 10:00am. 2-1: We had lunch first. We arrived at Dingjiapo Potatoes, a popular spot, around 10:50am. Overall, it looked appealing. As for the taste, the potato chips were slightly better, with a bit of crispness. The tofu skin and potato chunks were average. Overall, it tasted a bit bland and not as flavorful as the spicy potatoes back home, but it was still acceptable. 2-2: Next, we took a taxi to Jiaotong Noodles around 11:30am and ordered a dry mixed sauce noodle dish. The specialty might be the soup base, as the dry version wasn't as tasty and was a bit oily. The ground meat in the mixed sauce was a bit chunky, not the traditional kind. 2-3: We took a taxi around 11:50am and arrived at the visitor center at about 12:00pm (taxi fare was a little over CNY 10). My girlfriend got free admission, and I also got free admission with my Bashu Travel Card. We only had to pay for transportation (CNY 22 for me, CNY 20 for her). It's about a 5-minute ride from the visitor center to the scenic spot. 2-4: We started our tour and joined a couple to hire a guide for the rock carvings (CNY 150 per group, so each group paid CNY 75, or CNY 37.5 per person). The guide mainly explained the origin and history of the rock carvings, as well as the Buddhist stories depicted on them. I think it's worth it to share a guide with others. We entered a little after 12:00pm and finished around 2:00pm, with the tour lasting nearly 2 hours. This was because there were a lot of people that day, so the guide led us through the tour without returning for a closer look after the explanation. 2-5: After finishing around 2:00pm, we came out and visited the nearby Shengshou Temple, then walked back to the museum to visit it. Note that you need to exit from Gate 3, which is the starting point for the scenic area's electric shuttle. You can take the shuttle to the museum, otherwise there are basically no empty seats along the way, and you can only walk there. The walk isn't too far, taking at most ten minutes to reach the museum. We spent about 1.5 hours visiting the museum and spent some time looking for beads with words on them at the museum exit. We came out a little after 4:00pm. Afterwards, we walked back to the scenic area entrance, which took about 10 minutes. Finally, we took the scenic area shuttle back to the visitor center and took a taxi back to downtown Dazu, arriving close to 5:00pm (it was difficult to get a taxi that day). We originally planned to eat rabbit hot pot, but the restaurant was full, and we only had less than an hour, so we ate some snacks and then took the passenger vehicle back to the main city (departing at 5:55pm and arriving around 7:30pm). The total cost for both of us, including transportation, meals (lunch, snacks, excluding dinner), scenic area transportation, and the guide fee, was less than CNY 350, or less than CNY 175 per person. Summary: Overall, Dazu is definitely worth visiting. The Dazu Rock Carvings are truly artistic treasures, and the city center has some unique snacks. It's great to spend a day exploring on the weekend. If you have enough time, you can also try the Beishan Rock Carvings and Nanshan Rock Carvings. Unfortunately, we didn't get to eat rabbit hot pot.