Ciqikou Ancient Town

Ciqikou (磁器口) is an old town preserved in sprawling modern Chongqing. It is about an hour's drive from downtown Chongqing. It is an old sleepy town built in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Although it is preserved as a tourist town, visitors don't have to pay admission to get in.

The town's name, Ciqikou, means porcelain harbor, and the community prospered from the porcelain trade. Today, it offers a glimpse of an old peaceful laid-back life and is a popular destination for people that want to take a break from the busy commercial world of Chongqing.

A number of old courtyard compounds still stand here. Small as it is, the town used to have several temples and one of them, a Taoism temple, had been turned into an elementary school.

The old town has only two main streets and they've been taken up by all kinds of shops, merchants, and peddlers. The tea house puts on a diverse range of entertainment with shows staged from time to time.

As visitors walk through the crowded alleys in the ancient river town of Ciqikou, they will be amazed by the variety of street food available here. The area blends contemporary styles with the remains of history, and is where Chongqing's trendy residents come for a night out.

Once a prominent market and trade town for porcelain products by the Jialing River during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Ciqikou has now been transformed into a tourism destination for shopping and dining.

Restaurants, food stalls, and snack shops are scattered across the town, offering delicacies ranging from sweet sticky rice cakes, fried Chinese donuts, and flavored beef jerky, which are all specialties one finds only in Chongqing.

Getting There: Take Metro Line 1 and get off at Ciqikou Station.