Must-Buy Souvenirs

A vacuum-packed block of the actual beef-tallow-and-chili paste used to build Chongqing hotpot broth at home — melt it into boiling water and the whole restaurant flavor comes with it. Qiaotou is one of the most widely recommended packaged brands, sold everywhere from souvenir stalls to any supermarket.

A crisp, honeycombed candy from Chongqing's Jiangjin District made from puffed glutinous rice bound with malt sugar and studded with walnuts, peanuts, and sesame — light, sweet, and not overly rich, unlike a lot of Chinese candy. Hehua (Lotus) is the best-known packaged brand, sold in gift-box sets of mixed flavors.

A crunchy, salty-spicy pickled mustard-tuber relish from Chongqing's Fuling District, grown along the Yangtze and prepared through a roughly ten-step curing process — sometimes called China's answer to kimchi or German sauerkraut as a defining regional pickle. Wujiang is the dominant, most exported brand, sold in individually sealed packets that travel well.

Ciqikou Ancient Town's signature souvenir snack: a hand-twisted, deep-fried dough stick, sold in original, black-sesame, salt-and-pepper, and sweetened glutinous-rice-and-ice-sugar flavors. 'Chen's mahua' has become a generic name covering several competing shops in Ciqikou using variations of the same 'Chen' name — Chen Changyin is one of the original, most litigation-defended trademark holders.

A small handkerchief, coin purse, or folding fan decorated with Shu embroidery — one of China's four great embroidery traditions, with Chongqing's Yuzhong District a recognized regional center of the craft. Chongqing's take on the style tends toward bolder, more playful, and more genuinely local motifs than the more famous Chengdu-area Shu embroidery it's related to.