A hotpot extravaganza — the 2025 Chongqing Hotpot Carnival — kicked off at Yangjiaping pedestrian street in Chongqing's Jiulongpo district on Friday night. The three-day event drew over 10,000 hotpot establishments — representing 7,800 hotpot brands from both online and offline platforms — and a tremendous number of enthusiastic foodies to celebrate the city's most famous spicy cuisines.

As the highlight of the festival, a grand outdoor hotpot feast for one thousand diners was held at the bustling hotpot booths after the opening ceremony.

The event also featured a hotpot-themed music festival and market, organized in partnership with local hotpot brands including Liu's Hot Pot Chongqing and Hui Hotpot.

Boasting both the best and largest number of hotpot restaurants in the country, Chongqing was named "China's hotpot city" by the China Cuisine Association in 2007.

"As of 2024, searches related to Chongqing on the Douyin platform have surpassed 260 million, with video views exceeding 90 billion," said Wang Qinglong from video-sharing platform Douyin at the event.

According to the local commission of commerce, Chongqing boasts approximately 37,000 hotpot restaurants and nearly one million industry-related employees, generating an output value exceeding 300 billion yuan ($41.12 billion). These local hotpot brands have also expanded their businesses to over 80 countries and regions.

In September, Meituan, an online service platform, released the 2024 Chongqing Hotpot Big Data Observation report. It revealed the robust supply and demand dynamics in Chongqing's hotpot industry for 2024, projecting that the city's hotpot market consumption scale this year is expected to surpass 72 billion yuan.