Twin Cities
of Spiciness
Chengdu or Chongqing are two big cities in the western region of China with only 270 kilometers apart, so they are quite close and less than 3 hours driving distance from each other and 1 hour by high-speed train. Although both originated from Bayu culture—it’s the local culture created by people who used to live in Chongqing-Chengdu area since the period of Spring and Autumn and the period of Warring States, these two cities were built in different geographical environments, with Chengdu located in the plain hinterland of the western Sichuan Basin and Chongqing in the hilly area of eastern Sichuan. Chengdu has a flat terrain with the flourishing agriculture industry. It enjoys the reputation of ‘the land of abundance’. On the other hand, Chongqing is surrounded by mountains crossed by a network of rivers. It is known as the ‘mountain city.’
Despite differences, they have similar cultures as well, most notable of which is their flavor of spiciness and HOT POT which was originally from Chongqing, but Chengdu is the place where hotpot has been developed and famous.