Ciqikou Ancient Town

Ciqikou grew as a river port where porcelain from the kilns inland was loaded onto boats for the Jialing and Yangtze, which gave it its name, meaning porcelain port. The old town keeps a grid of stepped stone lanes running down to the water, timber shophouses, a Ming temple and a set of teahouses of the kind Chongqing used to be full of, where storytellers and sichuan opera performances still take place. It is now firmly a tourist quarter, packed with snack stalls selling maihuo twists, chilli sweets and street food, but the topography, the steps and the river frontage remain genuinely old.

What you actually see

• The stepped lanes - stone streets dropping toward the Jialing.
• The teahouses - old rooms with storytelling and opera performances.
• Baolun Temple - the Ming monastery above the town.
• The snack streets - stalls of Chongqing street food throughout.

When to go

March to May and September to November for bearable temperatures; summer is very hot. Weekday mornings are far quieter than weekends, when the lanes become almost impassable.

Honest expectations

The town is commercialised, with much of the frontage given to snack and souvenir shops. Crowds are heavy. Some buildings are recent reconstruction rather than original fabric.

Nearby

Hongya Cave lies east; central Chongqing is downstream.