Chongqing : Xiahaoli Old Street and Guanyin Bridge Food Street

Xiahaoli Old Street 

Also known as Xiahao Lane. It's located near Dongshuimen Bridge and Nanbin Road. It has a feel of Chongqing with small steps ups and down, narrow alley with cute shops, little coffee shops and restaurants. I found a story of the origin of Xiahaoli Old Street.

Story of Xihaoli Old Street and the young people

In 2014, a young girl moved to Xiahaoli Old Street and opened a small teahouse, she decorated her small garden. Another women was attracted by her and put forward an idea of establishing a public garden of the block. Then the community and people here raised money together and started to establish the public garden. They decorated the garden with flowers and plants and scrawled on the walls of the Xiahaoli Old Street. In 2016, the girl was invited by TED to make a speech of her story with Xiahaoli Old Street. More and more people know about the Xihaoli Old Street after her speech and Xiahaoli Old Street became more popular. (quoted from www.topchinatravel.com).

We went there after lunch so the place looks pretty plain. I should have known better as I saw it at night as we were going back to our hotel. I saw a lighted area on the other side of the river. When I asked our Didi driver what place was that, he told me Xiahaoli 下浩里.

Guanyin Bridge Food Street 

Chongqing is definitely not short of food street and Guanyin Bridge is one of them. Located at Guanyinqiao street and Huaxin street of Jiangbei District, this area certainly fits description of food street.

We took metro from our hotel at Chaotianmen area and after one switched, the metro brought us across the bridge. The view from train to the lighted building and night scenes was amazing.

Just like any other tourist attractions in Chongqing, Guanyin Bridge also was full of people. We managed to try a few items here like black fermented tofu, meat skewers and fruit bingfen. Bingfen is a type of dessert with bingfen main ingredient. Bingfen is made a jelly made from a type of seed and mix with lemon juice. The color is a bit yellowish and has texture of jello. Ours being a fruit bingfen then had some cut fruits topping on it. The bingfen itself doesn't have much taste so syrup was added to give it its sweet taste.

The fermented tofu was better than expected. This one was labeled as Changsha smelly tofu. The smell wasn't as potent as its Taiwanese counterpart. This version was served wet with some sweet tangy spicy sauce. Surprisingly pretty good.

This is also a good place to shop for souvenirs. Snacks like pork jerky, corn chips are readily available. If you are looking for something more exotic, try insects snacks ? Or maybe braised rabbits ?