Neijiang sits in southeast Sichuan where the Tuojiang River bends through a wide plain, about an hour by high-speed rail from Chengdu and roughly the same from Chongqing. Locals call it the Sweet City for its old sugar and candied fruit trade, and it is the birthplace of Zhang Daqian, one of the most celebrated Chinese painters of the twentieth century. Most foreign travelers skip it on the way to Chengdu, which is exactly why I liked it: cheap food, quiet streets, and a slow rhythm that bigger Sichuan cities have lost. This Neijiang travel guide covers how to get there, what to do, and what to eat, with the practical detail I wish I had before my first visit. For the administrative and population overview, the Neijiang Wikipedia page is a useful reference.
I first stopped in Neijiang because a train connection forced an overnight, and I stayed an extra day on purpose. If you are building a Sichuan trip, pair it with our Chengdu travel guide, which lays out the region’s transport hub and where to base yourself for day trips around the province.
How to get to Neijiang
The gateway is Neijiang North Station on the Chengdu Chongqing high-speed line. Trains from Chengdu East take about forty to seventy minutes and cost RMB 45 to 75 in second class; from Chongqing West or Chongqing North it is about fifty to eighty minutes for RMB 50 to 80. Services run from early morning to late evening, roughly every twenty to forty minutes at peak, so you rarely need to book far ahead except on a public holiday. Our China high-speed train guide for foreigners walks through buying tickets on the 12306 app and using your passport at the gate, which you will need here too, because station staff check documents against the booking and a mismatched passport means a denied boarding.
Inside the city, buses and Didi, the local ride app, cover everything, and a Didi across town rarely tops RMB 20. The station is a few kilometers north of the old center, so budget a short ride to your hotel. If you are coming from farther afield, the nearest major airport is Chengdu Tianfu International, about two hours away by train plus metro, and there is no need to fly into Neijiang itself. Long distance buses to nearby counties like Longchang and Zizhong leave from the central bus station every half hour and cost a few dozen yuan.
Things to do in Neijiang
The obvious first stop is Daqian Park, a riverside cultural zone built around Zhang Daqian’s old residence and a museum of his work. Entry to the park is free, and the small museum charges about RMB 20 to 30. I spent a quiet hour there watching copyists practice his brushwork, and the gift shop sells inexpensive prints if you want a souvenir. The Tuojiang riverside promenade below the park is the best evening walk in town, with floodlit bridges and snack stalls that stay open past ten, and on weekends there is often a small night market selling toys and roasted seeds.
South of the city in Longchang, a county under Neijiang, stands the Longchang stone archway cluster, a set of more than a dozen Qing dynasty ceremonial gates lined along an old post road. It is about thirty to forty minutes by bus or Didi from Neijiang and worth half a day; the carving detail is remarkable and there are almost no foreign tourists. Each gate was erected to honor local officials or widows, and the inscriptions are still legible if you walk slowly. Back in the city, Shengshui Temple is a working Buddhist monastery on a hill with good river views and a vegetarian canteen, and Zizhong, a county to the north, has a preserved Confucian temple and the Chonglong Mountain park with pavilions and a slow climb that rewards you with the whole plain spread out below.
A quieter option is the old town lanes near the river, where tile roofed houses and morning markets show daily life without a ticket booth. I liked browsing the Sichuan pepper and dried chili stalls, then sitting for a bowl of noodles while the city woke up. The pace is the real attraction: nobody is hurrying you, and the few English speakers you meet are genuinely curious rather than sales driven.
Neijiang food
This is where the Sweet City earns its name. Neijiang candied fruit has been made here for centuries, and small shops in the old town sell candied tangerine and candied cherry by the box, around RMB 15 to 30. The savory local staple is Neijiang beef noodles, a sharp, peppery bowl with braised beef and a hit of Sichuan pepper; a filling bowl runs RMB 12 to 18 at a hole in the wall near the river. Peanut brittle makes a good train snack and packs easily into a day bag.
For a wider edible tour of the province, our Sichuan snacks guide lists what to try across the region, and Neijiang is a gentle, cheap place to practice before Chengdu’s crowds. Do not miss the street cold jelly, a mung bean noodle with chili oil, or the small stuffed pancake sold from carts in the evening. The sugar heritage shows up in desserts too, and a sweet éŞç³, a fermented rice soup, is the perfect end to a spicy meal.
Getting around Neijiang
The city is compact enough that most of what you want sits within a short Didi ride of the old center, and walking covers the riverside and the nearby lanes easily. Buses are cheap at RMB 2 a ride but rarely signed in English, so the ride apps are the easier choice for newcomers, and a cross-town trip rarely tops RMB 20. Carry some cash as well as your phone payment, because the smallest snack stalls and the older candied fruit shops sometimes prefer notes, and a translation app smooths over any gap in the local dialect.
Neijiang is safe and relaxed after dark, and the evening promenade is where the city loosens up, with dancers, kite flyers, and rows of snack carts. I found the best beef noodles at a place with no English menu and no sign I could read, pointed at a regular’s bowl, and was fed within minutes. That kind of easy exchange is the real reward of stopping in a smaller Sichuan city, and it is the part no guidebook screenshot can capture.
A simple Neijiang itinerary
With one day: morning at Daqian Park and the riverside, lunch of beef noodles, afternoon taxi to Longchang’s stone archways, back for dinner and an evening walk. With two days, add Zizhong’s temple and mountain on day two, and leave a slow morning for the old town markets. Hotels are cheap: budget chains like Hanting and Home Inn run RMB 120 to 200 a night, and a decent mid range place is RMB 250 to 400. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons, with mild days and little rain, while summer is hot and humid and winter is damp and grey.
If you want a side of water heritage and a mountain with your city food, the Dujiangyan irrigation system and Mount Qingcheng sit a couple of hours north and make an easy add on from the same Chengdu hub, and the panda bases near Chengdu are a short ride away for anyone who came to Sichuan for the giant bears.
Neijiang will not top anyone’s bucket list, but as a low cost, low stress slice of real Sichuan life between Chengdu and Chongqing, it is hard to beat, and the train makes it an easy half day detour or an overnight reset on a longer rail journey through the southwest.