Step into laid-back rural Sichuan on this easy, fully private day trip from Chengdu, perfect for families and anyone who loves authentic countryside food and gentle nature. Your English-speaking guide picks you up at your hotel and you enjoy a short, comfortable drive to a green forest base set among bamboo groves near Mianzhu.

The day begins with hands-on country fun: try your hand at cutting bamboo and making bamboo-tube rice, and watch the magic of old-fashioned hand-cranked popcorn, fresh, warm and full of woodsmoke flavour, far better than any cinema snack. It's a charming, playful introduction to rural traditions.

At lunchtime you gather around a traditional farmhouse wood-fired stove for the highlight of the day: signature firewood chicken. Free-range chicken is slow-simmered with mountain herbs in a big iron wok over a crackling fire, the meat tender and the broth rich, with crisp pan-baked flatbread pressed around the edges. It's a genuine taste of the local table and a wonderfully convivial meal.

After lunch, settle your meal with a gentle bamboo-forest stroll of around three kilometres along easy scenic paths, breathing the cool, fresh air beneath the swaying bamboo. A little stream runs nearby where, in the warmer months, you can try spotting small crabs, a delight for children. Depending on the season and weather, there may be other relaxed country activities such as roasting potatoes or playing in the stream.

This is a calm, low-intensity experience designed for pure enjoyment rather than exertion. With your private guide and driver handling everything, you simply relax, eat well and soak up the rural atmosphere before being driven comfortably back to your Chengdu hotel.