IN CHONGQING, SPICE BRINGS VARIETY TO LIFE

Visitors eager to know what fuels the mountainous metropolis need look no further than its 40,000 hotpot restaurants

The first bite is a velvet fire: rich beef tallow, dried chili, then the numbing buzz of Sichuan peppercorns dancing across the tongue. On a lantern-lit hillside under loquat trees, a group of Vietnamese hairdressers have just discovered their new obsession.

"This is unbelievable," one whispered, chopsticks already reaching for another mouthful.