Best things to do in Chongqing, China

Positioned alongside the Yangtze River, Chongqing offers plenty of attractions for travelers, including delicious cuisine, cultural museums, and even UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Here’s our guide to the top things to do and see in this booming megacity.

Eat hot pot

Chongqing is known for its boiling temperatures, but the city’s ubiquitous hot pot is even more scorching. This style of cooking has been practiced in China for centuries and has no clear origin, with stories tracing it back to various regions including Mongolia and Southwestern China. The dish is cooked like a communal stew, with diners gathering around a pot of spicy boiling broth and tossing in a variety of ingredients, from thinly sliced meat and quail eggs to vegetables and mushrooms. For the people of Chongqing, hot pot is more than just a meal; it’s an experience and a chance to connect with family and friends. There are countless delicious hot pot eateries around the city, including the renowned Xiao Tian E.

Hike in the Wulong Karst Gelogical Park

Sprawling along the Wu River Southeast of Chongqing, Wulong Karst Geological Park is a breathtaking scenic area named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area is home to streams, caves, gorges, and karst limestone formations. Of the numerous natural wonders in this area, Three Natural Bridges, Furong Cave, and Houping Tiankeng, an eroded sinkhole, are particularly popular. The park is an excellent choice for nature lovers, as well as avid hikers. Furthermore, movie-goers may recognize it as a filming location for the movie Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Explore Ciqikou Old Town

For travelers seeking to escape the bustling energy of Chongqing’s city center, the out-of-the-way Ciqikou Old Town is an ideal solution. The quaint town is positioned in Shapingba District and dates back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties when it served as a port town and commercial center for the area. In English, the area is known as Porcelain Town, for its history as a porcelain producer. Today, visitors can still find porcelain pieces sold in the town’s shops, as well as numerous eateries selling beef soup, spicy stir fry, and various pastries. Ciqikou is also famous for being linked to Samuel CC Ting, a recipient of The Nobel Prize in Physics who studied in the small town during his childhood. The classroom where Ting studied has been preserved and is open to visitors.

See giant pandas at the Chongqing Zoo

China has become synonymous with the giant panda, an adorable animal native to the country’s central, southern, and eastern areas. As an endangered species, there are less than 2,000 giant pandas alive in the wild. Travelers itching to catch a glimpse of these bamboo-loving creatures can pay a visit to the Chongqing Zoo. Positioned five miles from the city center, the zoo is home not only to pandas, but to elephants, leopards and kangaroos, as well a variety of sea life housed in the zoo’s aquarium. The zoo’s lush hills, waterfalls, and foliage also make it a refreshing haven from Chongqing’s crowded streets.

Wander through the Three Gorges Museum

Named after the famous Three Gorges area alongside the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Museum is situated in Chongqing’s busting Yuzhong District. In addition to information related to the Three Gorges, the museum also serves to preserve the history of Chongqing and is home to a variety of cultural artifacts and artistic pieces. Among its vast collection, visitors will find antique porcelain, sculptures from the Han Dynasty, paintings, and calligraphy work. The museum was originally founded as the Chongqing Museum but was later reopened under its current name.

See more: Challenge yourself with top 5 Chongqing spicy dishes

Source: Internet

A guide to specialties in Cao Bang, Vietnam

With the list of top special food in Cao Bang, travelers know what local specialties and unique dishes to enjoy. It brings distinctive feeling about real Vietnamese Northern cuisine. Cao Bang is a land of the historical attractions and places of interest such as Pac Bo Cave, Ban Gioc Waterfall, Nguom Ngao Cave, etc. Besides sightseeing, it is ideal for ethnic food tour to the local traditional villages.

Banh Khao

Banh khao is one of the very famous specialties of Cao Bang. The main ingredients are glutinous rice, sugar, peanuts, and sesame. When you bite into a piece of banh khao, the sweetness of the sugar, the buttery taste of peanuts and sesame, and the soft glutinous rice cake combine to make a delicious dessert snack that will not fill you up. The final product is wrapped in colored paper in rectangular shapes.

Banh khao is usually made for Tet (Vietnamese New Year). A custom of Cao Bang says that as long as banh khao is in a local home, it is still Tet vacation. However, you can buy banh khao at any stores in Cao Bang.

Pho Chua

The unique sour noodle is the highlight of Cao Bang culinary. A bowl of Pho Chua is abundant, filled with fleshy liver meat, bacon, roasted duck, heap of peanuts and chili. In summer time, the sauce is made with a light sour taste, making it even delicious. This dish can be eaten for any meal of the day.

Banh Trung Kien

In April and May of every year, the Tay ethnic group of Cao Bang Province gathers at the forest to find the black ant-eggs which are major ingredients to make the cake. “Banh Trung Kien” is made from the glutinous rice flour, ant-eggs, and the young leaves of fig tree. The black ant-eggs in Cao Bang are high in protein. Understand that not every kind of ant-eggs can be eaten, and only the Tay people know how to sort out those of the right black ant-eggs (the ants with small body and pointed tail).

Secrets might also lie in the steps of mixing the glutinous rice flour, the flour grinding, the ant-eggs frying, etc. The completion should be steamed and then left cool to be cut into the square pieces. The cakes are soft, fragrant with the fig leaves, fatty and scrumptious thanks to the high-protein ant-eggs.

Vit Quay Bay Vi

Vit quay bay vi literally means roasted duck with seven flavors. Before roasting the duck, the cook marinates it with seven ingredients including ginger, garlic, shallots, peppers, honey, tofu, and a special ingredient which is Clausena indica, a fruit grown in Cao Bang’s forest.

After roasting, the duck is cut into small slices and put on a plate. When eating vit quay bay vi, you should chew slowly to experience the seven flavors of this dish. Try to guess the ingredients as most people do when trying this food for the first time. When travelers return home and try to cook it, they say it never has the same taste as it did in Cao Bang. The reason is the absence of Clausena indica, which only grows in Cao Bang.

Banh Coong Phu

Banh coong phu is a specialty of the Tay and Nung people. According to the Tay and Nung language, the name of this food means the floating cake. The Viet people also have a dish called banh troi nuoc, which has the same meaning and is very similar to banh coong phu in terms of recipe.

The best time to eat banh coong phu is in the winter. A vendor will put banh coong phu in boiled water and wait until the pieces float to the surface. She will then put them to a bowl and pour in the sugar water. Hot banh coong phu will warm you up and the sugar provides much-needed energy to fight against the cold of this high land.

Banh Che Lam

The list of the unique delicious Cao Bang food cannot miss, “Banh Che Lam” which is made from the roasted sticky rice, roasted peanuts, ginger, and malt. The cake brings the enjoyable eating experiences in which foodies appreciate the sticky sweet honey, the soft sticky rice, the ginger taste, and the scrumptious peanut. All makes this cake unforgettable. Served with the hot tea, this traditional cake makes guests fall in love with the green charming land. The cakes are on sales in local markets and shops.

Read more: The unique experiences in Sapa, Vietnam

Source Internet

Hiburi Kamakura: The festival of Fire and Snow

Surrounded by a ring of spectators, a hiburi dancer takes hold of his weapon – a fiery bale of hay and charcoal. Their enemy is not one that can be seen or heard. But to the locals of Kakunodate it’s a threat that cannot be ignored.

Zen Buddhists have a saying about enlightenment: “To burn Mount Sumeru with the light of a firefly.” In other words, to try to reach enlightenment through logic or common sense is futile; like trying to light up a mountain with the glow of an insect. But that hasn’t stopped the locals of Kakunodate from trying.

Every lunar new year, around mid-February, a snowy corner of Akita Prefecture hosts the Hiburi Kamakura, the festival of fire and snow. The rituals mark the end of winter and the beginning of spring, but they also invite the positive energy of good spirits, or ‘kami’.

Alongside the frozen Kinokinai River near a cluster of sleeping cherry blossom trees, locals construct little igloos called kamakura – shrines for the Shinto water god, Sui Jin. Children rush from one kamakura to the next, respectfully making offerings in return for good health and fortune. Like all animist gods, Sui Jin is partial to a bribe of mochi balls and sake.

Sui Jin is one of the ‘good’ spirits and is mainly in charge of protecting fishermen. But in the landlocked town of Kakunodate, he is called upon to protect rice fields and to prevent failed harvests. Harvesting rice is a tricky trade and, since many people in this region still make a living through agriculture, nobody is taking their chances. Especially given the threat of Yuki-Onna, or the ‘Snow Woman’.

In some stories, Yuki-Onna is depicted as a complex woman whose bitterness was borne from a life of tragedy. But many believe she was plain evil from the very start. In some parts of Japan, those who don’t acknowledge her shrill cries are punished and shoved into a valley to their death. Children in Akita are told early on that if they’re not careful, the snow woman will come to eat their souls.

In Japanese animism, all spirits must be appeased, no matter how uncooperative they might be. During the first part of the Hiburi Kamakura festival, a shrine is constructed in their honor, decorated with offerings and good luck charms. Shinto priests, or kannushi, lead the worship. Dressed in thin silk robes, these figures of pink, red and blue punctuate the snow-covered landscape. They recite prayers in calm, measured tones, defying the elements with their equanimity. Before them is a group of men with their heads bowed in reverence, stoically standing their ground against the evil spirits of winter.

As the night goes on, a bonfire is lit and bales of hay and charcoal are tied up with lengths of straw rope. Locals participating in the Hiburi dance prepare by wrapping their hair in headscarves and slipping their hands into protective gloves, to stop them from getting singed. The stage for the battle against Yuki Onna is set.

A dancer takes hold of one end of the rope as the attached bale is set on fire. Slowly, the bale picks up momentum and forms a protective halo. A rush of wind feeds oxygen to the flame and the fire roars to life as it swings faster and faster. The heat melts the falling snow into rain. Tendrils of fire curl magnetically around the dancer’s body.

Hiburi Kamakura in Kakunodate

The fire illuminates the faces of the crowd like the backlit frames of a reel of film; expressions suspended in delight, awe and wonder. The hiburi dancers transport the audience to a spiritual realm; a world where ghosts and spirits rule; where logic and common sense fall short; a place where the mystical properties of fire might be the only thing humans can use to defend themselves against misfortune.

The hiburi dancers must withstand intense heat and dense clouds of smoke until they’ve forced out the evil spirits of winter. Eventually, when the flames are flickering just inches away from the hands, the bale is swung into the direction of a bonfire. Is Yuki-Onna gone for good? Only time will tell. Have they done enough to summon Sui Jin? The livelihoods of locals in Kakunodate may depend on it.

It’s no coincidence that there’s a symmetry in the kanji for fire (火) and human (人); the curved legs of these two kanji represent the potential for both good and bad. Fire can bring death and destruction, but can also create warmth, light and energy. Similarly, according to Buddhist conceptions of good and bad, humans at their worst can exist in a purely physical world where all that exists is what can be seen, heard and felt. But, if they choose to fulfill their potential for good, they can live in the spiritual world. And in doing so, they can reach the mythical Mount Sumeru and experience enlightenment.

It might look like the locals of Kakunodate are just swinging balls of flaming hay around their bodies. But if you look a little deeper, you might be lucky enough to see Mount Sumeru, on fire with the light of Hiburi Kamakura.

Read more: Top favorite summer dishes in Japan

Source Siukei Cheung/ The Culture Trip