When you walk down the streets of Chongqing, there is no mistaking where you are. The Fog City. The Mountain City. Chungking. The Chonx. Whatever you call it, there is no mistaking that you are in Chongqing. The clues are everywhere and impacts all five senses. It looks, sounds, smells, feels, and tastes like no other city in China and no other place in the world. Whether you grew up here or are a transplant from another city or country, as soon as you step out your front door you experience the unique character of Chongqing.

Chongqing Hotpot

Hotpot may not have originated in Chongqing, but you wouldn't know it to walk down the street. Everywhere you are met with the smell the spicy soup, full of chile peppers and hua jiao, that pervasive spice that both burns and numbs the mouth. In fact, you can't walk in any direction for long without running into a hot pot restaurant. Considering the number of these restaurants, it's astounding that they never seem to lack customers. That's a testament to the fondness Chongqing folks have for their hotpot.

Some say hotpot originated

First, we need to clarify a word in Chongqinghua (Chongqing dialect): Ba Ba (坝坝). It refers to an open space where groups of people can do physical activities. There are two often-mentioned Ba Ba-related words in Chongqinghua: Ba Ba Tea and Ba Ba Dance. Ba Ba Tea refers to a tea house featuring a piece of spacious outdoor ground which allows customers to drink tea in the open air. I imagine having a cup of tea, especially under the rare sunlight of a Chongqing winter, must be the best experience of living here. Ba Ba Dance means dancing in the open spaces, especially  public squares.

Chongqing, a mega-city, is focusing increasingly more attention on the development of public spaces: well-constructed pedestrian streets, parks and squares to accommodate the people's growing interest for spending their leisure time. If the majority of young people are attracted to pedestrian streets, where malls, supermarkets, boutiques, Starbucks and McDonalds can be found everywhere, the parks and squares have become the definitive destinations for aged people.

China's rapid economic development has brought significant lifestyle changes to people, including their leisure hours, and Chongqingers are no exception.

Joseph Needham (9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995), an eccentric, brilliant Cambridge don and top British biochemist, ended up a Chinese culture lover and the greatest scholar in China research from the West, with his monumental masterpiece Science and Civilization in China, which was recognized as the crowning achievement in the study of Chinese technological and scientific history.

Undoubtedly, 1942-1946 was the most important period for the formation of Science and Civilization in China. Under the Royal Society's direction, Needham was designated as the director of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office in Chongqing in 1942. Assisted by his Chinese colleagues, who helped him out of a tough wartime situation to write his first book on Chinese technological and scientific history in 1945, Needham completed his 4-year term in Chongqing.

Needham's interest in Chinese culture dates back as early as 1937 to an encounter with three visiting Chinese scientists at Cambridge. There were no obvious reasons why a British biochemist fell in love with China so quickly, but he did. In 1938, he started to learn Chinese and read about Chinese culture and philosophy. By about 1939, he and his Chinese friends had conceived the project