Guizhou eats sour first and hot second — start with the fish

Sour soup fish, a fermented tomato and rice broth with river fish, is the provincial dish and unlike anything else in China: tangy, light, and hot underneath. Order it with the dry dipping powder they bring on the side.

Then the night market on Qingyun Road: luoguo skillets, grilled stuffed tofu, changwang noodles for the brave at breakfast, silk-doll pancakes you fill yourself. It runs very late, and it is the best evening in the city.