Ciqikou (磁器口)
- Grade: 4A (AAAA)
Ciqikou is rich in religious culture, and folk culture that it is reckoned as the epitome of ancient Chongqing, and is praised as "Little Chongqing". There amongst the busy streets and crushing heat, you get a true sense of Chongqing's noise, energy, and boisterousness. If you want to feeel Chongqing's essence and you've been there, there's no need for the rest of the city. We ended up disliking Chongqing for those reasons. We hope you feel differently.
On a lighter note, there were many street foods inside. Most notable the sour and spicy noodles (酸辣粉) restaurants. These restaurants usually put up a good show at their storefront.
We saw a noodle maker tossed his noodles 9 feet high, caught them from hand to hand, and spun them around in the air. He did all this while singing along. We tried the noodles and they weren't bad, though you will need to bear with numbness even for a non-spicy version of the noodles.