"Yan Qingshan "Flips the Table," Can Sichuan-Chongqing Hot Pot Enter Its Next Golden Decade?"

Chengdu’s emerging “Qingyou Hotpot” represented by “Yan Qingshan”—will it revolutionize the beef tallow hotpot industry?

Recently, the social circles of Chengdu’s food industry have been lively.

On March 12, dozens of veteran industry insiders shared a teaser poster for a brand event at the same time. The main focus was a Chengdu hotpot brand called “Yan Qingshan,” which specializes in “Qingyou Hotpot.” The poster revealed that on March 20, Yan Qingshan would host a “brand celebration that will overturn industry perceptions.”

Behind this viral poster, a larger trend of “Qingyou” hotpot is surging. Red Restaurant Network notes that although Sichuan-Chongqing market has long been dominated by beef tallow hotpot, recently, not only in Chengdu but also in Guangxi, Henan, Xinjiang, and other regions, new brands or outlets focusing on Qingyou hotpot have been emerging.

Amid this spreading “Qingyou fever,” Yan Qingshan is undoubtedly the most prominent player so far. It is understood that the brand plans to hold its event on March 20 in the main hall of a provincial satellite TV station, covering an area of 1,500 square meters. Mainstream media such as “Sichuan Observation” will broadcast the event live, revealing many major highlights. Industry insiders see this as a high-profile industry event.

This naturally raises questions: What is the unique appeal of Qingyou hotpot? Why is this trend emerging now? Who is Yan Qingshan? In the increasingly competitive Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot scene, is “Qingyou hotpot” just a passing trend or a new opportunity for entry?

1. Chengdu Hotpot Scene, a “Qingyou Wave” Rises

This “Qingyou wave” probably started around late 2025, quietly rising in Chengdu and gradually spreading nationwide.

In fact, Qingyou hotpot is not a new concept. As early as the 1990s, some brands had already pursued this route. For example, the pioneer “Chuanjiang Haizi,” the “Mala Space” founded in 1995, the “Damyue Hotpot” focused on business banquets, and the already international “Xiang Tianxia Hotpot,” among others.

But it was only with the emergence of a new wave of innovative brands that Qingyou hotpot regained public attention and sparked a fresh boom.

Among these, Yan Qingshan, which appeared in Chengdu in the second half of 2025, is seen as a key driver of this trend.

Yan Qingshan’s first store opened in late September 2025 in the Wuhou Shrine hotpot cluster area in Chengdu—a “red ocean” surrounded by established beef tallow hotpot brands like Jin Cheng Yinxiang, Yue Man Da Jiang, Shu Daxia, and Shu Jiu Xiang.

Surprisingly, this new 200-square-meter store with 24 tables, quickly achieved 6-7 turns per day without discounting, and rapidly topped the local popularity charts. Industry insiders call it the “dark horse” of the 2025 Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot scene.

Notably, perhaps sensing the heat of Qingyou hotpot, many traditional chains known for beef tallow hotpot, such as Feng Xiaozhang Old Hotpot, Huang Cheng Lao Ma, and Chuanxi Bazi, have begun adding Qingyou options to their menus. This trend of major chains adopting Qingyou hotpot reflects a proactive market adjustment towards product diversification.

Currently, the per capita spending on Qingyou hotpot generally ranges from 85 to 120 yuan, which is not significantly cheaper than traditional beef tallow hotpot, and some outlets even price slightly higher.

In a market where price advantage and deep-rooted beef tallow culture prevail, Qingyou hotpot is still gradually gaining ground. Red Restaurant Network believes this is mainly due to two factors:

First, its health attributes.

The “China Resident Consumption Characteristics and Trends Report (2025)” shows that 29.92% of consumers prioritize “health and wellness” in their spending, shifting dietary concepts from “eating enough” to “eating well and healthily.”

Young consumers, who want the spicy thrill but dislike greasy or stomach discomfort, find a perfect entry point in Qingyou hotpot.

Qingyou hotpot replaces beef tallow with plant oils like rapeseed and soybean oil, with the base broth fully cooked without adding beef fat. Compared to the high saturated fat content of beef tallow, plant oils are more friendly in fat composition and digestion, aligning with current consumer demands for “low burden, easy digestion” diets.

Second, its flavor profile and experience advantages.

Compared to the rich, heavy flavor of beef tallow hotpot, traditional Qingyou hotpot is often perceived as “clear broth, watery,” but Yan Qingshan has successfully retained the signature spicy and fragrant qualities of Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot, enhancing the flavor richness of Qingyou hotpot.

Additionally, replacing beef tallow with rapeseed oil results in a fresher, less greasy taste, and can be simmered for long periods without bitterness, balancing the “spicy and addictive” with “light burden.”

More importantly, Qingyou hotpot significantly improves on the traditional beef tallow hotpot’s “odor residue” issue.

On social media, many consumers mention: “Qingyou hotpot is refreshing and not greasy, without the heavy beef tallow smell, almost no odor on clothes afterward,” and “the aroma of rapeseed oil combined with spicy flavors is just right, getting more fragrant as it cooks.”

Clothing and hair almost do not retain any smell, greatly enhancing the convenience of the dining experience: whether after a business dinner, a date, or shopping, consumers no longer need to worry about “being covered in hotpot smell.”

Overall, Qingyou hotpot is integrating into consumers’ daily diets and social scenes in a lighter, more friendly way.

2. Breaking into the “Beef Tallow Hotpot” Stronghold

Over the past decade, brands like Dalong Yao and Xiaolong Kan, known for their beef tallow hotpot, have used the intense flavors of heavy oil and spice to educate consumers nationwide about authentic Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot. Beef tallow hotpot has almost become synonymous with the region’s hotpot.

The “China Food Service Development Report 2025” shows that in 2024, the Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot market reached 253 billion yuan, with over 160,000 stores, maintaining its leading position in the segment.

However, after rapid growth over ten years, this category is showing signs of fatigue: slowing growth, product homogeneity, lack of innovation. Many brands face growth bottlenecks, and traditional business models and product features struggle to meet increasingly diverse consumer needs.

The market needs new vitality, which creates opportunities for new brands and products. In 2025, a wave of Qingyou hotpot brands began to break through.

Take Yan Qingshan as an example. This brand, only half a year old, has not only established a foothold in Chengdu’s fiercely competitive Wuhou Shrine area but also expanded into 17 provinces across the country (including municipalities and autonomous regions), with over 60 stores (including locations in planning, under construction, and operating).

It is understood that Yan Qingshan’s Chongqing outlets are also under development, signaling a “counterattack” into the traditional beef tallow hotpot stronghold—Chongqing.

What gives Yan Qingshan the confidence to challenge the dominant beef tallow market?

Product Reinvention: From “Bland and Tasteless” to “Memorable”

Compared to beef tallow hotpot, Qingyou hotpot is characterized by “oil that is not greasy, fresh and crisp,” but for a long time, it was considered weak in flavor and lacking layers, often seen as “too bland and forgettable.”

Yan Qingshan’s first move was to break this stereotype.

The brand did not simply copy traditional Qingyou hotpot but developed a secret recipe that, while maintaining the refreshing quality of Qingyou broth, enhanced the “spicy first, then numbing” layered flavor. It aims to deliver a “rich like beef tallow, healthier and fragrant” experience, overcoming Qingyou’s natural shortcoming of weak flavor absorption, making the product more distinctive.

Value Rebuilding: Differentiation in the mainstream 80+ yuan price range

As a pioneer of China’s new-style Qingyou hotpot, Yan Qingshan positions itself around “health” and targets the mainstream price segment of about 80 yuan per person, trying to carve out a differentiated path in the Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot red sea.

The brand adheres to the philosophy of “restoring the original taste of food,” treating health as a fundamental requirement rather than an optional add-on. Its Qingyou broth uses common household rapeseed oil, offering a light, non-greasy flavor designed for daily consumption. It emphasizes fresh ingredients and instant preparation—such as freshly sliced beef and live-killed bullfrog—done in front of customers in open kitchens. Additionally, the store offers free, freshly made Sichuan-style Lao Ma Dumplings to seated guests, making “freshness” an immediately visible experience.

In terms of scene design, Yan Qingshan covers various dining scenarios—main meals, family dining, single diners—expanding its customer base and integrating Qingyou hotpot naturally into daily life and social occasions.

Service-wise, the brand offers “Six Free” self-service stations with unlimited supplies of snacks, tea, pudding, cold jelly, shrimp, and ice cream, along with nearly ten types of fruit, roast duck, and cold dishes, with unlimited refills to boost repeat visits.

Details are carefully refined. For example, its unique “boiling” ceremony involves pouring fresh ingredients like green Sichuan pepper, chili peppers, and ginger slices into the pot in front of customers, increasing transparency and trust. The space adopts a “minimalist mountain and countryside” style, distinct from traditional street-market aesthetics, aligning with young people’s tastes and highly shareable on social media.

All of this is supported by the product and supply chain synergy. While refining the front-end experience, Yan Qingshan also builds a standardized, replicable supply chain system to ensure consistent quality, laying a foundation for future nationwide expansion.

Through comprehensive value reconstruction—product, scene, service, supply chain—Yan Qingshan is gradually establishing a competitive advantage centered on “high cost-performance, strong experience, and hard barriers,” subtly changing consumer perceptions of this category.

Veteran Leadership: Ensuring Steady Brand Operations

Yan Qingshan’s rapid rise is backed by an experienced founding team.

Founder Huang Fei has over 20 years of industry experience. As chairman of Chengdu Huang San Ye Catering Group, he has accumulated extensive experience in opening thousands of stores. Since entering the industry, he has focused on refining Qingyou hotpot, laying a solid foundation for Yan Qingshan’s product strength.

If Huang Fei is responsible for “thickening” the product, co-founder Wang Chaobing is responsible for “broadening” the brand. As chairman of Chengdu Shangpin Zhen Shan Group, he has led the opening of over 3,000 restaurants, gaining mature chain operation experience. Within six months of Yan Qingshan’s founding, over twenty stores opened, with Wang Chaobing’s team providing key standardization and scaling capabilities.

In marketing and brand promotion, Yan Qingshan has brought in a team with rich practical experience in the food and FMCG sectors—Sichuan Chuanqi Le Culture. Led by senior media professionals Li Rui and Song Yang, they have managed campaigns for brands like Wuliangye, China Jinjui, Tan Duck Blood, Bawang Tea, Grandpa’s Tea, and Xianhe Zhuang. They excel at balancing content output and traffic operations, helping the brand build recognition on both B2B and B2C levels, enhancing influence.

From product development to store operations and brand promotion, this multi-dimensional, veteran-led approach creates a closed loop of product strength, operational efficiency, and communication power. This capability is key to Yan Qingshan’s ability to break through in the fiercely competitive Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot scene and accelerate growth.

3. From “Brand Fire” to “Category Fire”: Qingyou Hotpot Needs a Catalyst

Industry insiders suggest that over the past decade, Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot has been dominated by Chongqing beef tallow brands; in the next decade, Chengdu’s Qingyou hotpot, better aligned with current consumer needs, may take over and initiate a new growth cycle.

However, turning this prediction into reality requires Qingyou hotpot to cross a critical threshold: shifting from “point breakthroughs” to “category consensus.”

Currently, the popularity of Qingyou hotpot shows a clear “AB” pattern.

Side A is positive market feedback.

Consumers are “voting with their feet.” Yan Qingshan’s success in opening stores that perform well validates the product’s effectiveness and the single-store model, representing the differentiated value of Qingyou hotpot that consumers can perceive and accept.

But Side B is equally real.

Across the country, “Qingyou hotpot” remains a relatively unfamiliar term for most consumers. When asked about Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot, the first association is still “beef tallow.” Many people lack a clear understanding of what Qingyou hotpot is, its advantages, and how it fundamentally differs from beef tallow.

In other words, Qingyou hotpot has yet to complete the mental leap from niche specialty to mainstream category.

This is the strategic challenge faced by pioneers like Yan Qingshan: they need to do more than build a successful brand—they must promote a dual-category education for both B2B and B2C audiences.

“Category education” essentially involves establishing a new cognitive reference point for consumers. When they think of Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot, they should no longer only think of beef tallow but also recognize “Qingyou” as a distinct category, with clear value anchors: health, freshness, spicy but oil-free.

From this perspective, the brand event planned by Yan Qingshan on March 20 in Chengdu could be seen as a “category explosion” test. Huang Fei has revealed that in 2026, Yan Qingshan will invest 30 million yuan to develop its brand operation system, optimize supply chains, and promote marketing.

The value of this event extends beyond brand exposure. It aims to leverage a topic-rich, engaging platform to give the general public their first comprehensive understanding of Qingyou hotpot.

In terms of communication logic, a category explosion often requires a “cognitive anchor”: for beef tallow hotpot, it’s authenticity, strong flavors, and street culture; for Qingyou hotpot, it could be “refreshing spicy,” “low-burden healthy hotpot,” or “everyday Sichuan flavor experience”…

Once this anchor is widely accepted and shared among consumers, Qingyou hotpot can transition from a “brand fire” to a “category fire,” evolving from regional phenomenon to national trend.

Conclusion

Establishing a category consensus is never an overnight achievement, nor can it be done by a single brand alone. It requires pioneers to test the waters, and more followers to join in. Through continuous product innovation, market education, and scaled operations, consumer cognition can be gradually deepened.

Currently, brands like Yan Qingshan are doing something very concrete: trying to tell the market that the imagination of Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot is not limited to beef tallow.

A lighter broth, lower burden, no lingering smell—these subtle experience differences provide new variables for consumer choices.

Whether Qingyou hotpot can, like beef tallow hotpot, become a widespread phenomenon remains to be seen. But for now, it has already added a fresh sense of anticipation to this highly homogeneous, competitive hotpot scene. When a new option is repeatedly mentioned, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes mainstream.