DgcityMore than a thousand diners will lift their chopsticks over bowls of spicy Chongqing noodles on Tuesday in an attempt to set a world record for the largest noodle tasting ever staged. The gathering at Xinhu Park in Dadukou district is the opening event of the sixth Chongqing Xiaomian Culture Festival, a city-backed promotion running under the slogan “Chongqing noodles, meeting every day.”
Organizers said 1,040 people would take part, sampling three classic styles: mala spicy noodles, pea-topped noodles and noodles mixed with stewed peas and minced pork. The application for the Guinness World Records title has been submitted, and the final certification rests with official judges on the day.
The festival is about more than a single spectacle. A ten-city noodle fair brings together regional wheaten foods from across China, including Shaxian tossed noodles from Fujian, Putou braised noodles, Qinghai pulled noodles, Wuhan hot-dry noodles, Xiangyang beef noodles, Yibin ranmian and Zhongjiang fine-dried noodles. Delegations plan to visit the old Yidu town and the Chongqing Xiaomian Industrial Park to discuss ingredient sourcing, contract manufacturing, shared distribution and cross-brand collaborations.
City commerce officials have placed the noodle bowl at the center of an industrial plan. Chongqing xiaomian has been added to the municipal roster of distinctive food industries for the next five years, with Dadukou district positioned as its production hub. The push is to move beyond selling individual bowls and build an entire supply chain, from chili and rapeseed planting to seasoning bases, cold-chain delivery, chain stores, packaged instant noodles and souvenirs.
Centralized factories and digital workshops are being encouraged, alongside prepackaged products carrying a shared “Chongqing made” brand identity. The culture festival itself leans into that pitch, with an artificial-intelligence imagery contest for university students, a short-video competition and dedicated noodle shelves in local retail chains.
For residents, the event also brings discounts. Promotions along the Jiugongmiao pedestrian street and around Shuangshan Park combine vendor stalls, tastings and price cuts, with bank points, digital coupons and mobile-payment discounts stacked together for savings of up to 50 yuan per person. It is a familiar playbook in Chinese cities: use a record attempt for attention, then convert the crowds into a supply-chain story with national ambitions.
