Chengdu Food Tours offer intimate way to heart of the city

Canadian Jordan Porter moved to Chengdu in 2010 as an alternative to doing his masters degree in Chinese history.

That initial two-year jaunt became a journey that has now spanned seven years and given rise to his own company, Chengdu Food Tours, which uses Sichuan’s famous cuisine as a tool to teach visitors about the city.

Since the company’s inception in 2015, Chengdu Food Tours has guided dozens of groups through the side streets of the city, exploring wet markets, visiting small street stalls, and enjoying multicourse dinners in hard to find locales around the city.

Porter is passionate about showing visitors the special relationship Chengdu people have with their food sources, and how that relationship emerges in the form of nostalgic searches for old neighbourhoods and traditional settings.

“We started the company in order to show people what makes this city a special place,” Porter says.

“Food bypasses the barriers of traditional tourism and is the best way to get a candid insight into the city.”