Chongqing is the one Chinese city where the map lies to you. Streets cross at different heights, an address can be six floors above the road it is named after, and a driving route between two points a hundred metres apart can run for two kilometres. Walk, take the metro, and let the shape of the place be the point of the trip. Wear something you can climb in.
At a glance
- Day 1Jiefangbei → Bayi snack street → Yangtze cableway → Hongyadong
- Day 2Eling Er Chang → Liziba station → Ciqikou → Jiujie
- Day 3Shancheng Trail → Huangjue Old Road → Nanbin Road
Day 1
The middle of it, and the river after dark
Jiefangbei → Bayi snack street → Yangtze cableway → Hongyadong
Start at Jiefangbei, the old centre, and eat your way down Bayi street — xiaomian, suanla fen, small bowls at small prices. A word on ordering: mild here is not mild anywhere else, and asking for the least spicy option still arrives red. Cross the river on the Yangtze cableway in the late afternoon, which is a commuter route that happens to be the best view in the city. Come back for Hongyadong after dark — the stilt-house facade lit up is the photograph, and the snack stalls inside it are the one thing here worth avoiding on price.
Day 2
A train through a building, and an old town
Eling Er Chang → Liziba station → Ciqikou → Jiujie
Eling Er Chang is a print works turned into studios on a ridge with the city on both sides. Liziba is the station built into the sixth to eighth floors of a residential tower, and the train really does go through the middle of it — stand on the viewing platform opposite rather than on the platform itself. Ciqikou in the afternoon is the old river port, touristed and still worth an hour or two. Jiujie at night is where the city under thirty goes.
Day 3
The staircases the locals actually walk
Shancheng Trail → Huangjue Old Road → Nanbin Road
The Shancheng Trail is a stepped path along the cliff below the centre — old houses, laundry, and the river appearing between them. The Huangjue old road on the south bank is the same idea with trees. Finish along Nanbin Road, which faces the skyline and is where to be at dusk, and eat hotpot: beef tallow, chilli, and Sichuan pepper in a divided pot, ordered with a plain side if it is your first time.
Eat like you mean it
- Chongqing hotpotBeef tallow and Sichuan pepper. Order the divided pot on a first visit and do not be proud about it.
- Chongqing xiaomianThe breakfast of the city: noodles, chilli oil, done in ninety seconds.
- Suanla fenHot-and-sour sweet-potato noodles, eaten standing up.
- MaoxuewangBlood curd, tripe and whatever else, in a red pot. Braver than it sounds and worth it.
- LazijiFried chicken hidden in a plate of dried chillies. Hunting is part of the dish.
- Sour-plum drinkWhat to hold in the other hand while eating any of the above.
Where to stay
- Jiefangbei · HongyadongFirst trip: the centre, the cableway and the river on foot.
- Nanbin Road · Nan'anThe skyline view from your side of the water.
- Guanyinqiao · JiangbeiWhere the city shops and eats, cheaper than the centre.
- Shapingba · CiqikouStudent end of town, near the old port and the west station.
Before you go
- Use walking directions, not driving. A driving route in Chongqing can be twenty times the walking distance between the same two points.
- Do not order mild. Chongqing mild is other cities’ hot, and the kitchen is not exaggerating.
- Wear shoes you can climb steps in all day. There is no flat route anywhere in the old city.
- Eat the snacks outside Hongyadong rather than inside it. The facade is the reason to go; the stalls are the reason people complain.
- Watch the Liziba train from the platform opposite rather than the station itself — that is where the photograph is taken from.
One honest thing — Set your map to walking directions rather than driving. Chongqing stacks vertically and a driving route will send you round the hill you are standing on.
