Hotpot restaurant Wang Gang Bo boasts an authentic Chongqing-style hotpot restaurant flavor. [Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/China Daily]

Though the best place in the country to savor the speciality is Chongqing in Southwest China, there is no shortage of places in Beijing where you can experience the real thing. Xing Yi reports. 

Hotpot is one of China's favorite dishes. A pot is filled with boiling chili broth, plates are full of raw ingredients chopped into slices, and diners putting whatever they want into the pot.

But eating a hotpot on a hot summer day? Some might call that crazy, but not in Chongqing.

"Hotpot and ice beer, that's my favorite when the temperature hits 40 C," my cousin Zhao Shishi, a Chongqing local, says.

"Eating hotpot is not about the temperature, but the mood."

Hotpot is not a one-person meal. And the atmosphere in hotpot restaurants is lively and boisterous.

People chat while putting meat or vegetables into the pot and waiting for it to boil.

Though the origin of hotpot is hard to determine, the current "hotpot capital" is Chongqing in Southwest China.

The title was bestowed on the municipality in June by the China Hotel Association. Eating hotpot is part of the city's culture, and there is even a comedy film, Chongqing Hotpot, which was released last year.