Ciqikou

Ciqikou is an old town preserved in Shapingba District, Chongqing, about an hour's drive from the city centre. An old sleepy town built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Ciqikou, meaning porcelain harbor, is so named as it had supplied large sum of chinaware during the past years. Today it offers a glimpse of the peaceful laid-back life in the Sichuan countryside and is somewhere to take a break from the busy commercial world of Chongqing.

The old town has only two main streets and they've been taken up by all kinds of shops. The teahouse puts on a diverse range of entertainment with shows staged from time to time. And this is the famous Sichuan show, 'Changing the face'. The biggest secret is how the performer changes his masks. In this performance, he has to switch masks something like nine times. It's such a difficult trick that sometimes it does not work, but the audience will always forgive him.

As an ancient town, there are obsolutely lots of custom, most of which have lasted till now. The recorded ones includes baibazi, xingbang, family's ancestral temple, Pao Brother, temple fair, dragon dance, dragon boat race, buddies of Sichuan opera, chuntai drama as well as pingshu and teahouse culture.

Chongqing is always famous for its large variety tastes of local food, while Ciqikou is one of the most well-known places in Chongqing. Jiaoyan Peanut, Maoxuewang, and Qianzhangpi, all of which are called three treasures of Ciqikou, as well as Douban fish are the most popular ones.

Although the town is preserved as a tourist town you don't have to pay to get in. After a thousand years, the town now remains as a symbol and miniature of past Chongqing.