Hechuan Rice Noodles 合川米粉
Hechuan Rice Noodles is featured among the local specialties of Chongqing.
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Hechuan Rice Noodles (合川米粉) are the rice noodles eaten for breakfast in Hechuan (合川), a district of Chongqing where three rivers meet. The Hechuan District Media Centre says they are made from good-quality rice in two kinds, dried noodles and wet "water noodles", and served under many different toppings, of which braised mutton is the local favourite.
How it is made
Hechuan has fine, soft wet noodles, smooth and springy fafen (发粉), and a wide noodle about a finger across. The wide noodle is cut from a whole steamed rice sheet. Its traditional method takes many steps, from choosing and washing the rice through soaking, cooking, grinding and straining to steaming the slurry into sheets, drying them and cutting them into strips. In 2019 the traditional wide-noodle technique entered Hechuan District's sixth list of intangible cultural heritage items, and it is carried on at the Chen Kuanfen (陈宽粉) noodle shop.
At the founding of the Hechuan rice-noodle trade association in December 2023, a deputy district head described Hechuan Rice Noodles as made entirely by hand, oily without being greasy, with a red but not hot broth, and melting in the mouth. The association agreed to work with the Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences (重庆市农科院) to grow the academy's rice varieties bred for noodles, such as Q You 12 (Q优12), in the district. The Chen Kuanfen shop says it now makes its wide noodles only from Q You 12 rice and water.
How it is eaten
Toppings include mutton, beef, pig's liver and chicken giblets. In Hechuan the noodles come with mutton on top and mutton stock underneath, whether in a spicy "red soup" or a plain "clear soup", so locals usually call the dish Hechuan mutton rice noodles.
Breakfast in Hechuan means noodles, and many shops sell both rice noodles and Hechuan xiaomian (合川小面), the local wheat noodles.
Where it comes from
The Hechuan District Media Centre traces the local taste for rice noodles to Nanchong (南充) and Guang'an (广安) in northern Sichuan, which share the Jialing River (嘉陵江) basin with Hechuan. The wide noodle has its own story: in the early 20th century a hawker named Chen Guangyao (陈光耀) sold cold rice noodles near the Xiaonanmen (小南门) dock, began scalding them in boiling water with chilli for winter customers, and later opened the Chen Kuanfen shop nearby.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.