Zhongshan Road and the adjacent Qingyan Food Street area constitute the most concentrated street food district in Guiyang. After dark, the area transforms into a working Guizhou food market, with stalls selling the full range of the province's snack culture: rice noodles in spiced broth (changwang noodles, a Guiyang variant made with intestines and blood curd), "silk baby" rice-flour pancakes wrapped around pickled vegetables, barbecued skewers of quail eggs and tofu, and the sour plum drinks particular to this part of southwest China.
The market is at its busiest between 8pm and midnight. Guiyang's food is not accommodating to timid palates — the flavours are sour, spicy, and funky in combinations that take adjustment — but it rewards engagement. Follow the crowds to the busiest stalls rather than going to restaurants with English-language signs, and point at what you want. Most individual items cost between 3 and 15 yuan.