Sichuan Food Tours Guide 2026

Chengdu Street Food Morning Walk

Join a local guide for a comprehensive morning street food tour through Chengdu's authentic neighborhoods, visiting traditional breakfast stalls, noodle houses, wonton shops, and teahouses away from the tourist-facing areas. Taste 8–10 dishes including dan dan noodles, zhong dumplings, guo kui flatbread, and rice jelly noodles.

Includes: Morning wet market visit · traditional wonton stall · authentic guo kui from clay oven · park teahouse gaiwan tea experience

Jinli & Kuanzhai Alley Night Food Crawl

An atmospheric evening walking tour through Chengdu's two most famous historic streets sampling snacks as lanterns light up the ancient lanes. Try spicy rabbit head, sugar-coated hawthorn sticks, fried glutinous rice cakes, and fruit skewers while learning about the history and culture behind each food.

Includes: Illuminated Jinli Street · Kuanzhai Alley teahouse stop · spicy rabbit head tasting · traditional shadow puppet show viewing

Sichuan Hotpot Deep Dive Experience

A guided deep-dive into Sichuan's most iconic culinary tradition — the hotpot. Your guide introduces you to different broth styles, the art of dipping sauce composition (with 30+ condiment options), explains which cuts of meat and offal to order, and helps navigate the heat levels. Includes a visit to a traditional hotpot broth workshop.

Includes: Broth history and regional varieties · offal and unusual ingredient tour · dipping sauce masterclass · mala numbing heat challenge

Sichuan Spice Market & Cooking Discovery Tour

Visit Chengdu's wholesale spice market with a chef guide who explains the key ingredients of Sichuan cooking — Pixian doubanjiang, Hanyuan peppercorns, dried chilies, and fermented condiments. Then head to a home kitchen to cook three dishes using what you've purchased, eating the results for lunch.

Includes: Huang Cheng Bazi spice market · peppercorn tasting session · doubanjiang workshop · hands-on cooking of mapo tofu, kung pao chicken, and dan dan noodles

Teahouse Culture & Dim Sum Morning

Experience authentic Chengdu teahouse culture with a guided morning in People's Park's famous teahouse, learning the art of gaiwan tea service, watching ear-cleaning demonstrations, and sampling traditional Sichuan dim sum (xiaochi) including stuffed flatbreads, sesame balls, and sweet wontons.

Includes: People's Park morning atmosphere · gaiwan tea ceremony · Sichuan Opera warm-up performance · traditional dim sum varieties

Street food tours

Street food crawls through Chengdu's morning wet markets, Jinli Street, Kuanzhai Alley, and Jiuyan Bridge night market — best with a local guide who can translate menus and negotiate prices

Market tours

Guided tours of Huang Cheng Bazi spice market and Pixian Douban workshops — ideal for cooks wanting to understand Sichuan ingredients at their source

Restaurant tours

Multi-course dinners at historic Chengdu restaurants (Chen Mapo Tofu, Long Chao Shou, Chuan Ban) with menu translation and dish explanation

Specialty tours

Sichuan hotpot masterclasses, Pixian doubanjiang fermentation workshops, and tea tasting sessions at Ya'an Mengding Mountain tea estates

Chengdu Classic Sichuan Cooking Class

Learn to cook three quintessential Sichuan dishes — mapo tofu, kung pao chicken, and Sichuan cold noodles — with an English-speaking professional chef in a well-equipped teaching kitchen. Includes market visit, cooking session, lunch, and printed recipe cards.

Sichuan Hotpot Broth Making Class

Learn the secrets of authentic Sichuan hotpot broth making — creating the complex tallow-based spicy broth from scratch using Pixian doubanjiang, dried chilies, spices, and Sichuan peppercorns. Take the spice blend home to recreate it.

Sichuan Dumpling & Wonton Workshop

A hands-on workshop mastering the folds and fillings of Sichuan dumplings (jiaozi) and wontons (chaoshou), including how to make the iconic red oil chili sauce from scratch. Eat everything you make for lunch.