Ya'an (Chinese: 雅安; pinyin: Yǎ'ān; Wade–Giles: Ya-an) is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province, China, located just below the Tibetan Plateau. The city is home to Sichuan Agricultural University, the only 211 Project university and the largest regional comprehensive university in Ya'an. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Ya'an has a population of 1,434,603.
There is a wall-size map in the bus station; this includes Labahe Nature Reserve.
If you go to BiFengXia, you can buy a hat made from a fern frond. It's not much good for keeping the sun off your face, but you will fit in with the crowd.
About a block due south of the museum on the south side of West St (Xidàjiē), a family-run establishment has satisfactory rooms and WiFi for ¥90/night, but the proprietor will want to escort you to the local police station about a block or two away some time after you've checked in for registration purposes.
Fast buses from Chengdu’s Xinnanmen bus station (07:30-19:00, every 35 min, 2 hr, ¥46) leave throughout the day.
Even though your ticket says Ya’an, there is a possibility you may be directed onto a bus bound for the inane Bifengxia Nature Park near Ya’an. If you are the discerning type and forgo the park's dancing tigers, the driver will drop you off at the first intersection inside Ya’an. From here you can flag down a Shangli-bound minivan or get a taxi to the Wangyu minivan depot.
This prefecture-level city in Sichuan Province is located in a mountainous area on the western edge of the Sichuan Basin. At the end of 2022, the city had a population of 1.433 million.