Attractions in Chongqing and Why you Should Visit

Chongqing is a beautiful and interesting city built on top of hilly terrain in the heart of China. It is not a famous tourist destination for foreigners in China, most of us have never even heard of it, but it does seem to have a lot of Asian tourists around. Most travellers to Chongqing go there as a starting point for a cruise down the Yangtze river to view the Three Gorges. I did not have enough time on this trip to see everything I wanted AND take a pricey 3-7 day cruise one way – so we opted out of this option and chose to remain in Chongqing and explore China via rail instead.
While in Chongqing, my family and I only ran into only 1 other group of foreigners; a couple of backpackers that we passed in the streets but didn’t talk to. All the locals that we spoke to asked us “Why are you in Chongqing? People don’t come here.” Many people stared at us, a few stole pictures of us. Regardless of this, I think Chongqing is actually a very interesting city to visit.
The city itself has 8.5 million people (for comparison, Toronto has only 2.93 million), and to accommodate all the people and because of the hilly terrain, buildings seem to be built one on top of another. Downtown is just skyscraper after skyscraper, for miles on end. They also have a great subway/tram system that is not difficult to use and being here really feels like we are seeing a more authentic version of China. The people of Chongqing were definitely the nicest and most helpful out of anywhere we went in China, and when shopping, we were not harassed, nor did the locals inflate the prices to ridiculous proportions like they do in Xi’an. We felt welcome there and safe.

Attractions in Chongqing:

Hot Springs

Ciqikou

Hot Pot

Wulong Scenic Area

Whilst not actually in the city of Chongqing… One not-to-miss attraction nearby is the Wulong Scenic Area. You can easily book a one day tour from Chongqing to this area where a bus picks you up at your hotel and shepherds you around to the best attractions. We booked a tour from a local tour company that we just happened to walk into. Our tour guide only spoke Mandarin, as did all the people in the tour. Unfortunately, because we cannot understand Mandarin, we missed out on learning about some of the history of the region, but the Nature of this tour is the real attraction, so I don’t feel as though we missed that much.

Our tour included a short stop at a newly-built glass floor towering high above a cliff looking out into a canyon.

The tour then brought us to a restaurant for lunch. The food was share-style meals of noodles, rice, assorted vegetables, and a couple meat dishes. It was good.

After this, the bus took us to the main attraction – the Three Natural Bridges of Wulong. A natural bridge is formed within a mountain or hill when different types of rocks erode unevenly, whereas the stronger rock remains on the sides and above, but the center weaker portion of the mountain gets chipped away by nature until it forms the shape of a bridge.

Here we followed the crowd down a myriad of stairs into a beautiful valley. Following the nicely paved paths of the hike, we saw what China claims to be the three largest natural bridges in the world. This was one of the film locations for Transformers as well as a few other Chinese movies! The location is phenomenal and a place that is well worth exploring. The natural bridges themselves were, in fact, the largest (and only) natural bridges I have ever seen and totally awe-inspiring.
We weren’t given a map for the park, and we had no idea how big the park was nor how much time we had to explore, so we mostly followed the crowd. However, halfway through we got separated from our group because my mom wanted to walk around under the natural bridges and explore a little farther down the trail (away from where everyone else was going). Not to worry though, the tour had given us a few hours to explore, and we did find our way back to the main trail. We made it back to the tour bus long before we had to leave.
We were with a tour group, so of course, we visited the site during peak hours, but regardless, we still managed to get very nice photos.
Our original plan was to take a train and then a bus to Wulong and stay the night. If you have more time, I definitely think that it would be worth exploring this area for more than one day. To get to Wulong from Chongqing on your own, there is a train, bus, then taxi rides that you can take to get around. The Wulong area is quite large and seems difficult to get around on your own, but other travellers have done it. We were planning to go to Zhangjiajie after Wulong and there are no train stations near Wulong headed in that direction. So instead of taking this long uncertain voyage back and forth, and because we value our time, we decided to take the easier route and just hop on a day tour instead. It wasn’t that expensive and we actually saved money on transportation costs.

Jiefangbei

Chongqing is a very beautiful city and one of its attractions is the beautiful lights of Jiefangbei. They call this area the Times Square of China. One way to see this is by hopping on a boat for a couple hours to take in the views. It is also a great way to snap a picture of the famous Hongya Cave. To take a picture of the “caves” from land, people actually pay a fee to line up at the site and get a nice view; which I found bizarre.
My family enjoyed the boat tour, but personally, I did not get much out of it. I actually fell asleep on this tour and I found it to be a little gimmicky. Our tour had some cultural entertainment along the ride, which seemed to be a video showing other attractions within Chongqing and a group of costumed ladies dancing in the local style. We didn’t understand any of what they were saying and therefore did not get much out of it. Seeing the lights of the city was nice, but unfortunately, I was too tired from the time change and walking around Ciqikou to go out on to the deck and really enjoy them. The tour cost a bit much, and if you are travelling with a strict budget, I would say that this is something you can skip. Instead, I would recommend spending time just walking around Jiefangbei.

Zhongshuge Bookstore

This famous bookstore brand has a few locations across China. The bookstore in Chongqing is a maze of eclectic rooms. One room, in particular, has crisscrossing staircases and a mirrored ceiling. This room made me feel as though I were walking around Hogwarts, but instead of moving paintings along the walls, there were books. It seems a little odd that a commercial store would become a tourist attraction, but if you love libraries, come here and see it for yourself.

Impossible to find on google maps, Zhongshuge is located at on the 3rd Floor of Zodi Plaza, No. 8 Yangzheng Street, Yangjiaping, Jiulongpo District (九龙坡区杨家坪杨正街8号中迪广场3楼). To get here we got off at the Chongqing Yangjiaping subway station stop and walked the rest of the way.

Read more about Zhongshuge here.

People watching

Some of my favourite experiences abroad are those I came across by chance. Whilst visiting Zhongshuge we stumbled upon one spot perfect for people-watching in the main square of Yangjiaping. Every evening, locals from various dancing groups gather in this square to practice while visitors enjoy the free show. It’s really interesting and fun to see. You probably could jump in and try dancing too if you want to make a spectacle of yourself. In every corner of the square wafts different genres of music competing for your attention. One group danced to Tango, another to Pop, and another to fast pumping Techno.
This is group dancing is a cultural activity that is not unique to Yangjiaping and can likely be found in many public places around the city. I honestly wish that my own city had this because it looked like such a fun group to be a part of.