Ciqikou takes its name from the porcelain that was loaded and unloaded at its wharf on the Jialing river, and for several hundred years it was a working river port with a resident population, a temple and a mint. Today it is the most visited old town in Chongqing: a steep grid of stone lanes and timber houses climbing the bank in Shapingba district, thoroughly restored but still lived in, and famous above all for what it sells to eat. The food lanes are the reason to come, and they are at their best in the morning before the coaches arrive.
What to eat in the lanes
The signature item is chen mahua, a twisted fried dough sold in long, brittle ropes and made in several flavours - plain, sweet, salt-and-pepper, honey-glazed - and sold from a handful of shops that have been at it for generations. There is a great deal more: handmade sweets pounded and cut on the spot, including peanut brittle, sesame cakes and ginger candy; jars of fermented chilli bean paste and pickled vegetables; hotpot base sold by weight, so you can take the flavour of the city home; rice tofu, cold noodles, and small bowls of douhua. Maoxuewang, the fierce dish of blood curd, tripe and chilli, is generally said to have originated in this neighbourhood, and it is on every second menu.
How to work through it
Portions are deliberately small and priced by the item, so the sensible approach is to buy a little at a time and keep moving rather than sit down for one meal. Prices are low even by Chinese standards and the quality is genuinely good, because the competition on the lane is intense and the shops live on repeat visitors. The lanes are steep, stepped and narrow, and the crowd moves in a slow current, so wear shoes you can walk in and be prepared to stop unexpectedly when a shop pulls a fresh tray out of the fryer.
Practical notes
Ciqikou is served by its own metro station, about half an hour from Jiefangbei, and it can also be reached by road along the Jialing. Weekends and holidays are extremely crowded and the food lanes become a queue; a weekday morning is a completely different and much more enjoyable experience. A short walk upstream from the main gate the lanes turn residential and quiet, with old teahouses and courtyards, which is worth seeing if you have already done the food.
