A long dinner in Chongqing with Yedu.

What is like to join yedu's night food tour?

We will take you to a riverside residential neighbourhood in Chongqing where about fifty thousand people live. It has no sights, no famous street, and nothing a travel agency would bring you to see. What it has is dinner: a street where people have been eating and gathering for decades, at the same plastic stools, at the pace the neighbourhood keeps.

There's a word in Chinese for what this feels like — 烟火气, yānhuǒqì. Literally the air of cooking smoke and fire. It describes the texture of ordinary evenings: dinner being made, neighbours talking over it, a street that is lived in rather than looked at. English doesn't have a word for it. You'll know it when you taste it.

So we're taking you there. Six stops, one unhurried neighbourhood, dinner the whole way, and when the last bowl is empty, the whole river lights up below you.

The practical bits

How long About 2 and half hours, in the evening. 18:30-21:00.

Where We meet/finish near a metro station. Under 2km of walking in total, with about 100m between stops.

Group size Six people maximum. Small enough that your guide can actually tell the story, order for you, and talk to the owners.

Who takes you One of four Yedu guides, all from Chongqing.

Food 5-6 local picked spots. Come hungry.

Dietary notes

We'd rather be honest than accommodating on this one.

• Vegetarian — yes. There's something for you at every stop, though at one or two you'll miss the house dish.

• Less spicy — yes, we can dial it down if you wish. And we arranged dessert spot to balance out the spiciness.

• Vegan — not on this route.

• Gluten-free — not on this route. Wheat is in the noodles, the dumplings, the wontons and most of the sauces.

• Severe allergies — we'd gently steer you elsewhere. These are small street kitchens and we can't promise no cross-contamination.

Pricing and booking open soon in October.