Ciqikou Ancient Town - Best Place for Strolling and Experiencing the Old Chongqing

Located 14km west of Chongqing Chaotianmen Peir, Ciqikou Ancient Town is reputed as “Little Chongqing” among tourists. Surrounded by three mountains and ran through by one river and two streams, Ciqikou has the great location to be a transport hub. In fact, it was a famous business port in the ancient time. At present, it’s a great place to relax for the locals.

With a long history, Ciqikou Ancient Town was first built from 998 to 1003 and it was firstly called as Baiyachang. At the beginning of Qing Dynasty (1636 ~ 1912), Baiyachang was famous for producing and selling porcelain (there are over 70 porcelain stores at the peak time and most merchants from other places were coming for the porcelains here), and porcelain is pronounced as “ciqi” in Chinese, so Baiyachang was called as Ciqikou since then.

Ciqikou Ancient Town has 12 streets in total, and most of the architectures on the streets were built in Ming or Qing architectural style, and the roads on the streets are all paved with stone plates. Delicate specialty stores, featured snack stores and old style teahouses can be seen all over the town. Take your time to taste the local flavors, or just order a cup of tea and at the same time, watch the folk performances, like Sichuan Opera or Sichuan Qingyin, let Ciqikou take you back to the old time of Chongqing.

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The architectures on the town are all featured in the architectural style of East Sichuan folk house. The basic structures of most houses were built with bamboo and wood. White painted wall with grey tile roof are the basic features. Besides, the wooden pillars in the room will be carved with dragon or phoenix images. Normally, the living house is located on the back of the shops, and the back houses are normally quadrangle dwellings, which were lived by rich merchants.

This is the great place to see East Sichuan folk houses. Zhong Family House, built around 1890, exhibits ancient bed and tables of Qing Dynasty, and it has the flavor of Beijing quadrangle dwellings and also has the delicate feature of architectures in south China. Stilted buildings are also very special in the town. People don’t live in the stilted buildings any more, and as an ecological architectural form, stilted houses are only for appreciation today, and they reflect the perseverance of the ancient people.

Tourists can taste many delicious local foods at Ciqikou Ancient Town. The most well-known foods are the “Three Treasures in Ciqikou”. They are Eel with Duck Blood Curd, Qianzhangpi (fried sliced bean curd), and Salt Peanuts. Besides the three treasures, there are also other delicious featured local foods. Chen Fried Dough Twist is popular for its crispy flavor; glutinous rice cake is favored by children and seniors for its sweet and soft flavor. Tourists can also taste Chongqing cuisine in Ciqikou. Chongqing cuisine is reputed by its pungent and spicy flavor. Chongqing hot pot, poached fish in chili oil, barbecued fish and steamed chicken with chili sauce are all popular dishes.

Ciqikou is located at Shapingba District in Chongqing, with Jialing River on its east side. Tourists can get there by bus, rail transit or taxi. In Chongqing, travelers can take Light Rail Line 1, taxi, and public bus No.202, 220, 237, 261, 467, 503, 553, 808, 843 to get Ciqikou Ancient Town.

By Flight: the direct distance between Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport and Ciqikou is about 24km and the drive distance is about 33km. From the airport, tourists can take taxi to get there, and it will take about 50 minutes and the taxi fare is about ¥80. If you take public transportation vehicle, you can take the rail transit line 3 first, and then transfer to line 1 and get off at Ciqikou Stop, and this will take about 1.5 hours.

By Train: Chongqing has several railway stations, and the most used two are Chongqing Railway Station and Chongqing North Railway Station. Chongqing Railway Station can be reached by rail transit line 1 and line 3, thus from there, tourists can take line 1 to get to Ciqikou directly, and this will cost about half hour. As for Chongqing North Railway Station, it’s a now the largest railway station in southwest China. Bullet train from Chengdu to Chongqing (take about 1.5 ~ 2 hours) will arrive at Chongqing North Railway Station. It’s about 17km from Ciqikou (about 40 minutes’ drive). Tourists can take taxi to there, about ¥40, or just take public bus No.202 and this will take about 55 minutes. Check more about Chongqing Train Stations >>

Usually, tourists visit Ciqikou Ancient Town tour in the morning of their One-day Chongqing City Tour to avoid the crowds there. And during the rest morning, they will go to Three Gorges Museum to explore the history and culture of Chongqing and Three Gorges of Yangtze River. After the lunch, it’s their time to marvel at amazing house-crossing metro trains at Liziba Station on Line 2. Before the night falls on that day, they will travel up to E‘ling Park to have a panorama view of Chongqing city. And the rest hours of the day are for them to discover the splendid Chongqing Night View at Hongya Cave and have authentic hot pot meals there.

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Warm tip: Most visitors travel Chongqing City before boarding their downstream Yangtze River cruise ship at night (18:00-21:00). If you are going to have such a tour too, remember to leave yourself enough time to catch your ship at Chaotianmen Dock. And please notice that dinner on the embarkation night is not included in your Yangtze River cruise tour. Treat yourself something you like to eat before boarding your ship.

>> 4 Days Chongqing Essence Tour with Yangtze Cruise