Chengdu, China
 

I will be traveling China the month of June. I was to be in Chengdu about the middle of June. Do you think it will be allowing tours by that time?

You can go to Chengdu today. It's not significantly affected.

How about the areas of Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, were they affected?

Those area are definitely affected. They just finished evacuating all tourists by plane out of the Huanglong airport and by road northwards towards Gansu province.

The main road between Chengdu and Jiuzhai/Huanglong goes through the worst hit area.

You won't be visiting those parks in June, that's for sure.

Oh,no. I was afraid of that. After Xian we were headed to Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong and Chengdu for 4-5 days then we go to Kunming. Any ideas where to visit between so that I can research a detour.

Do you have Guilin/Yangshou in your plans?

Yes, I plan to go there after Kunming. I had planned only a couple of days there.

How about switching your itineraries around and add Zhangjiajie National Park in Hunan Province?

Its scenery is different, but it's as famous and as crowded as Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong. ;)

I'll go check that now.

Is Chengdu worth the time going to if Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong are out of the question?

Chengdu is a large city, which lots of tourists pass through to visit areas around it. Jiuzhaigou/Huanglong is out of the question now. Wolong is also out. The closer attractions at Dujiangyan and Qingchengshan are also affected. And I doubt the panda center in Chengdu (not Wolong) is ready to take visitors, as they have their hands full to deal with the problems at Wolong and to get enough food for the pandas they have there.

You can still visit Leshan and Emeishan. Those don't seem to be affected in significant way.

Leishan and Emeishan are definately worth visiting. We have been to Chengdu twice and think there is plenty to see if you read up on it a bit, old temples, poets garden, a new area near the park with a lovely walk way with information plates all along the road, sitting in a tea garden and watching the local people play cards and other games. We very much enjoyed Chengdu - for a large city it has some style.

I'm just reading an article about areas around Chengdu but outside the most affected region.

Parts of the building at the Thatched Cottage of Du Fu (one of the main attractions in Chengdu) collapsed with a few antique porcelain vase broken.

And some historical buildings on Emeishan also damaged or destroyed.