Buddha Zen Hotel

Designed and run according to Buddhist principles, the Buddha Zen Hotel is a three-storey building set around two peaceful courtyards that has a great location and a sense of tranquility. The hotel’s 35 spacious and bright rooms have lovely high-ceilinged rooms, polished floors, dark wooden furniture and embroidered silk cushions but come with modern comforts such as a flat-screen TV and an en-suite bathroom.

There are many good restaurants serving deliciously spicy Sichuanese cuisine nearby, however Buddha Zen’s own restaurant is a good place to try healthy vegetarian dishes that follow classic Buddhist recipes. A wander around the open walkways surrounding the inner courtyard is a great way to unwind before a spa treatment, or you can enjoy a tea ceremony and discuss the finer points of Buddhist doctrine in the hotel’s teahouse.

The hotel’s location is close to Wenshuyuan Monastery, one of China’s most important, and here you can listen to the daily Buddhist sermons amongst the heady aromas of incense - a wonderful experience. It is also fun to shop for traditional textiles among the city’s wide hibiscus-lined streets or take in Sichuan Opera at the Shufeng Yayun Sichuan Opera House. Further afield are sacred Mount Emei, the Great Buddha Statue at Leshan and, of course, the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding.