Chengdu's Fanhua to Yulin Walk: Fangcao Street Exit D to Yulin West Road

The walk runs from Fangcao Street metro Exit D through Fanhua Hengxie, Fanhua Street, Yulin Comprehensive Market, Yulin East Road and Yulin West Road — a half-day on foot, best started on a sunny afternoon so you arrive at Yulin East and West as the bars fill up.

One visitor's advice: give it the whole afternoon and keep going until dark, because the last two streets are the reason to do it in the evening rather than the morning.

Stay near Fangcao Street so you can step out of Exit D and start walking — compare the main booking sites for options along the metro line.

The route

1. Fangcao Street metro Exit D. The start of the walk. Come out and head for Fanhua Hengxie.
2. Fanhua Hengxie (芳华横街). A run of small market stalls where you can dig through jewellery, porcelain and stationery, and get a quick sketch or cartoon portrait done. This is the browsing stretch, not the sitting stretch.
3. Fanhua Street (芳华街). Coffee, light meals, desserts and bakeries — a street of places to stop rather than shop. On a sunny day the whole street is under green leaves, and sitting at a roadside table with a coffee is the point of it.
4. Yulin Comprehensive Market (玉林综合市场). A produce market dropped into the middle of the café-and-bar district. Local snacks and specialities are all here, and plenty of older residents sit playing cards — the most Chengdu stretch of the route, and a useful contrast to the two streets before it.
5. Yulin East Road (玉林东路). Bar after bar, plus hotpot, chuanchuan skewers and barbecue if you want a proper meal rather than drinks. Everything you'd want for dinner is on this street.
6. Yulin West Road (玉林西路). More bars, and the better atmosphere of the two Yulin roads once it's dark. Finish here.

Yulin East and Yulin West are continuous in practice — walk east to west and you move from dinner into drinks without a break in between. Expect to pay for whatever you eat and drink along the way; the times above are walking and browsing, not sitting.

If you want the bars at their best, start the whole route later in the day: Fanhua Hengxie and Fanhua Street are fine in daylight, but Yulin East and West only come alive after dark.