Heming Teahouse (鹤鸣茶社, Hèmíng Cháshè), People's Park

If you do one thing in Chengdu that isn't pandas or hot pot, do this. Heming Teahouse has been operating in the middle of People's Park (人民公园, Rénmín Gōngyuán) for over a century, and it remains a working local institution rather than a heritage exhibit. Hundreds of bamboo-and-wood chairs sprawl under camphor trees beside a lotus pond. Old men play mahjong and read newspapers. Families crack sunflower seeds. Staff move between tables with long-spouted copper kettles, topping up covered porcelain cups.

You pay once for a cup of loose-leaf tea — ¥20–60 ($2.80–8.40) depending on grade — and then the hot water is unlimited. There is no expectation that you leave. Three hours with a book is entirely normal behaviour, and it is one of the cheapest good times available in any Chinese city.

The surrounding park is worth a lap. There's a 1911 railway-protest monument, a small boating lake with pedal boats at about ¥40 ($5.60) per half hour, and on weekends the notorious "marriage market" where parents post their children's résumés on laminated cards. Morning brings tai chi, ballroom dancing to portable speakers, and choirs singing revolutionary songs with total commitment.

Two things to know: the toilets are basic public-park standard, and the ear-cleaning trade here is aggressive. The cǎi ěr (采耳) practitioners with their vibrating tuning forks and feather picks are genuinely traditional, genuinely skilled, and genuinely will keep asking. A firm "bù yòng, xièxie" (不用，谢谢) works.