By Xinyi Li, iChongqing

Chongqing– on Feb. 24, a series film about Chongqing Navigating the Hills of Chongqing on CGTN`s Travelogue started broadcasting. Through the featured angle of transportation, CGTN has explored Chongqing’s culture, history, and development of transportation to showcase this mountain megacity. The series film started broadcasting by CGTN`s English channel, Spanish channel, French channel, Arabic channel, Russian channel, and YouTube channel. A unique city with a three-dimensional image shows up on the international stage. Besides, this film has gained favorable comments in China and aboard.

The host, Megan, was at Jiaotong Chaguan (the tea house)

The second episode is talking about lifestyle in this hot city. Megan, the host, visited Pipayuan (a hot-pot restaurant), Hongya Dong, Jiaotong Chaguan (tea house), and Guanyinqiao to experience three features of Chongqing, which are hot food, hot weather, and hot tempers.

The unique lifestyle in Chongqing

Chongqing lies deep in China’s southwest. It gets hot and humid here, especially in summer. As one of the four stoves (Chongqing, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, and Nanchang) in China, Chongqing deserves the name.

Why is Chongqing so hot here? Located near the Tropic of Cancer, the city embraces the maximum solar altitude with the maximum solar radiation. Moreover, Chongqing is at the inside of eastern Sichuan Basin. The average altitude here is so low, surrounded by mountains. Hence, it is not easy to be in a draught.

However, the weather is good to perspire, and spicy food is even better.

Hot pot is one of the most popular food in Chongqing. It is not only a kind of food in this city but also a lifestyle here. According to an old man, this kind of food is composed of a flame, a pot, and a group of people who gather around it to cook food.

The bird's eye view of Pipayuan, which is a hot-pot restaurant

Moreover, it becomes a unique culture to eat this kind of food. There is an old saying – nothing is a problem with eating a meal of hot pot. However, if there was still a problem after getting hot pot, then you can have two meals of it. In addition, hot pot in Chongqing embraces a taste of numbingly spicy.

But, what makes the taste numbingly spicy is the spicy bean paste with the local color of Chongqing. This is one of the essential mouth-burning elements of Chongqing hot pot – guaranteed to make you slick with perspiration. There’s a belief among the Chongqing locals that eating spicy food for generations has given them a collective toughness.

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