Enjoy Chongqing

Visiting or living in a new and strange place could be dull and boring if there’s not much fun to discover to add color to such an experience. No matter what kind of life-enriching experience you are looking for, Chongqing has its own unique flavors for you to savor.

Food

As a fast developing modern city, Chongqing has a wide range of food choices to offer. No matter whether you are looking for a western or eastern cuisine or different types of Chinese cuisine, you can find them in either high class or common standard restaurants.

We will give you some recommendation on that in later posts, here let’s first take a peek at what the locals are usually having in their daily lives.

Breakfast

Like in many cities, typical breakfast choices would be like Baozi (steamed stuffed bun), Mantou (steamed bun) and Youtiao (deep-fried dough stick and better served together with soya-bean milk), those favored in Chongqing are Xiaomian (vegetable noodle), Youcha (sweetened fried flour) and Tangyuan (rice dumpling), just to name a few.

Lunch

Local people usually don’t spend much time enjoying an elaborate lunch and some typical “fast food” lunch choices include Noodles of various meat toppings, Chaoshou (Wonton), Fried rice, Rice topped with meat/vegetables or served separately in small plates, Ma La Tang (food boiled in hot pot and served in plates separately when ready)

Snacks

Of course there are snacks around to appeal to the inquisitive eyes. And most locals are natural foodies searching for a joy of snacks whenever they feel like to. What most commonly supplied in the food street and food stands are Suan La Fen (noodle made of sweet potato with mainly sour and hot flavors), cold noodles, fried meat strings, tofou jelly (with spicy flavor), cold shrimp, cold jelly, etc.

Dinner

When the day’s work is finally finished and the night comes, the city becomes even more dynamic and energetic. Some people will simply go home, prepare some simple home-made dishes, rest and call it a day. While for many others, it’s the start of another chapter of life. Decent restaurants are commonly available around the city for lovers, families, friends or business associates to catch up and stay connected. But the places that are mostly favored by the locals are restaurants serving hot pot, dry pot, Jianghu (literally means rivers and lakes, and indicates the common life in general) dishes, or temporary sidewalk booth serving barbecues, night snacks, grilled fish etc., where they can relax, drink beer, talk out loud and eat as late as they want. People who enjoy and follow such kind of night life style are called “night cats” here.

Entertainment

As compared to the more developed coastal/eastern cities in China, people here are more inclined to spend time on entertainment whenever they have the chance. Karaoke Center and Tea house for Longmenzhen (literally means Dragon Tongue Squad, and locally indicates casual chat for killing leisure time), Mahjong and Poker games are the most common leisure channels. Of course, there are also bar streets in different commercial areas for both Chinese and foreign “night cats”.

If you would prefer a more quiet night life, for expat standard housing in Chongqing, usually there’s decent commercial center, gym center, leisure area inside the community or close by. Yet unless you are living in some remote area, jogging outside would not be very convenient, safe or even healthy. In nice sunny days, go picnicking in the nearby parks or mountains is also a nice option. If you are more of a culture hunter, the various museums telling Chongqing’s histories and stories, theaters for national and international performances, and scenic centers inside the city and its suburban areas can always offer you something in your to-do-list.

And if you have nothing against Hot Spring, Chongqing has nice hot spring resorts for a bit pressure easing and health enhancement which could be nice for either weekend or holiday outing.