Chongqing cuisine is a heady mix of chili and huajiao in generous servings of oil. For the uninitiated and the faint-hearted, this can prove a bit much both for the palate as well as the digestive system. Fortunately, non-spicy Chongqing dishes do exist. Read More>>

As the center of development for western China, Chongqing has been the fortunate beneficiary of generous government funding. For die-hard shopaholics, this is cause for celebration as a shiny new mall is born every so often along Chongqing's ... Read More>>

Not long ago, Pizza Hut was your only option for readily available, moderately authentic Western food in Chongqing. While bacon and eggs are still hard to come by (Café Arabica is about your only bet), pizza has become as ordinary as one could ... Read More>>

Chongqing is many things, but a temperate city it is not. Reflecting on Chongqing’s weather with any degree of delight is a relatively bizarre occurrence. As a furnace, it gets too hot; as a polluted, fog-bog you can count the amount of blue-sky days on ... Read More>>

Much like a witch’s cauldron, the bubbling red-hot brew of the famous Chongqing hotpot (火锅) permeates the air with a heady, spicy aroma. A medley of spices, mainly chilli and prickly ash (a numbing spice), in liquid beef fat ensures that anything boiled ... Read More>>

Left virtually untouched by the onslaught of “Western” influences, coffee drinking has only recently caught on in Chongqing. Café culture and coffee drinking may have been thriving in cities like Shanghai and Kunming, but Chongqing remained ... Read More>>

There are some pleasant places to eat out in Chongqing’s Shapingba city centre, but they take some finding. We’ve scouted the area and compiled this dining guide to make choosing your next dining excursion in the city just that little bit easier. Read More>>

Chongqing is famous throughout China for its "Three Hots": hot girls, hot weather and hot food. The girls? Pretty for sure, but perhaps no prettier than elsewhere in China. The weather? Shorter summers of late have made a sweater a better value ... Read More>>

The sprawl of Chongqing's Jiangbei city centre – in common with the city in general – has little to offer those foreigners shopping for a taste of home. Look closely, though, and a few emporia cater to the foreign palate with imported foodstuffs… Read More>>

Diners from all over the world are lured by the delicious Sichuan cuisine offered in Chongqing. Restaurants dot every street and alley in the city; downtown Chongqing alone has 12 different dining streets that are each unique in their own right. If this is ... Read More>>