Chongqing's Monorail Through an Apartment Block and Other Urban Surprises

Chongqing is the largest municipality in China by area and population, built on a peninsula of rock at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in a landscape of dramatic cliffs and fog-shrouded hills. It is a city that violates almost every assumption about how a Chinese city is organised: there is no flat ground, the metro goes through apartment buildings, the streets change elevation by ten storeys between one end of a block and the other, and the scale is so large that visitors consistently underestimate travel times.

It is also, as a travel destination, genuinely interesting in ways that the more polished tourist cities are not. The food is excellent, the urban geography is unlike anywhere else in China, and the people are straightforwardly Sichuan in their directness and leisure-orientation.

The City's Geography

The Jialing Peninsula — the tongue of land between the Yangtze and Jialing rivers — forms the old urban core (渝中区, Yuzhong District). It tapers to a point at Chaotianmen and rises steeply from both rivers. The result is a city built on multiple vertical levels simultaneously: what functions as ground floor on the riverside face of a building may be the fourth or fifth floor on the upper-ridge face. Streets tunnel through hills, escalators connect different vertical levels publicly, and buildings are entered simultaneously from different floors depending on which side of the cliff you approach from.

This topography produced the engineering peculiarities that have made Chongqing internationally known online: the monorail through the apartment building is the most famous, but it is one example among many of infrastructure that adapted to impossible terrain rather than flattening it.

Liziba Station and the Monorail (Metro Line 2)

Liziba station (李子坝站) on Chongqing Metro Line 2 runs through the sixth to eighth floors of a 19-storey residential apartment block. The building was designed with the train in mind from the beginning — the station occupied floors 6–8 before the upper residential floors were completed. This is not a retrofit or an afterthought; it is an engineering solution to building a light-rail network in a city where terrain made conventional elevated track impractical.

The building's residents live above the train. The train runs through what is functionally their building's midpoint. By all accounts, it is no noisier than any other urban environment.

An observation terrace below the station allows photography of the train entering and exiting the building — a shot that has circulated widely online and brings visitors specifically for the purpose. The terrace is worth 20–30 minutes. To ride the line through the station, take Line 2 toward Xinshan Cun; the train passes through the building in a matter of seconds.

Chaotianmen (朝天门)

The peninsula's eastern tip, where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet. The two rivers — different colours in the wet season (the Jialing running clearer; the Yangtze murkier) — converge here visibly from the overlooks. Evening is the best time: city lights reflect on both rivers, the cliffs on the opposite banks are illuminated, and the scale of the urban mass built into the landscape becomes comprehensible from a vantage point.

The Raffles City Chongqing complex at Chaotianmen — a large-scale contemporary development — has a sky bridge connecting twin towers at the 67th floor. The views from this level are the most comprehensive available of the peninsula and both rivers.

Hongya Cave (洪崖洞)

A multi-level entertainment and restaurant complex built into the cliff face above the Jialing River, with stacked floors of timber-framed traditional-style architecture descending from street level to the riverbank. Photographed heavily at night when the tiered structure is lit. The comparison to the Spirited Away bathhouse is made by almost every visitor online — the visual similarity is real and not entirely coincidental. Visit at dusk for the transition from daylight to illumination.

The interior is tourist-orientated restaurants and shops rather than an authentic neighbourhood. The exterior from across the river or from the Jialing riverbank is the photographic point.

Chongqing Hot Pot

Chongqing claims the original hot pot, distinct from Sichuan hot pot in using a beef-tallow base (rather than vegetable oil) for the broth and in the character of the spice — more directly pungent and less aromatic than Chengdu variations. The numbing-heat (麻辣) effect from Sichuan peppercorn is intense.

The tourist-area hot pot restaurants around Hongya Cave and Jiefangbei are fine but priced accordingly. The correct approach is to eat in residential neighbourhood restaurants in the Shapingba, Jiulongpo, or Nan'an districts where locals eat — same quality, significantly lower prices. Look for restaurants with outdoor tables on steep lanes in the evenings.

Key ingredients to order: fatty beef (肥牛), duck intestine (鸭肠, cooks in seconds and is a Chongqing staple), tripe (毛肚), goose intestine (鹅肠), and brain (脑花, for the committed). Pork luncheon meat (午餐肉) and various lotus root and potato slices round out the order. Order a split pot (鸳鸯锅) if not everyone at the table wants maximum heat.

Other Points of Interest

Ciqikou (磁器口): a preserved Ming and Qing dynasty commercial street near Shapingba. More authentically maintained than similar streets in other cities, though still tourist-commercial in the main lane. The side alleys are quieter and more atmospheric.

Eling Park (鹅岭公园): high on the ridge with views in both directions across the peninsula — the Jialing on one side, the Yangtze on the other, the urban mass between. Free entry. The 重庆PARK within Eling has become a photography location in its own right.

Three Gorges Museum (重庆中国三峡博物馆): covers the history of the Three Gorges region and the social impact of the Three Gorges Dam, including the relocation of over one million residents. One of the better museums in China for regional history.

Getting There

Chongqing Jiangbei Airport (CKG) serves the city with direct international routes and extensive domestic connections. High-speed train: Chengdu to Chongqing in approximately 1 hour 10 minutes. Xi'an to Chongqing in approximately 3 hours. The train arrives at Chongqing North (重庆北) or Shapingba (沙坪坝) station — both are connected to the metro network.