Chongqing is a cyberpunk city, an urban planner’s nightmare, and a multi-level megacity with 8D architecture (what? Yes!). It is considered the largest megacity in the world: its territory is comparable in size to Austria, while its population is around 32 million.

Chongqing is famous for its complicated transport interchanges and futuristic views. It’s not a city everyone will love. Will you? Read on and decide for yourself.

Where to stay and how to get around

It’s best to stay right in the centre of the peninsula, in the Jiefangbei area (how fancy!), near Jiefangbei pedestrian street. Yes, it will be crowded. But you’ll be within walking distance of many attractions, which, by Chongqing standards, is practically a miracle.

The easiest way to get around is by metro — and it’s an attraction in itself. Most of Chongqing’s metro lines run above ground, which means you’ll be speeding along somewhere high above the streets, between residential buildings… very futuristic!

Things to do in Chongqing

First, let’s explore our peninsula. I recommend staying in Chongqing for at least two nights because the cyberpunk glow is most impressive after dark! I’ve written a full China itinerary here.

Let’s start in the morning. Before diving into cyberpunk, let’s pay our respects to traditional Chinese culture and history. Visit the Arhat Temple and meet some actual Buddhist monks. In the morning, the temple is almost empty.

Then you can wander around the old Shibati quarter and explore its little streets and alleys.

From there, head to a very unusual attraction that could only exist in Chongqing: Kuixinglou Square. At first glance, it looks like just another square… but walk towards the bridges and you’ll realise that you are somehow standing on both the 1st and 22nd floors at the same time. Multilevel architecture and fever dreams If you have time, stop by the Museum of Contemporary Art along the way.

Once it gets dark, wander through the city lights and don’t miss Deyi World. Make sure you get there before 22:30 — after that, all the cyberpunk magic disappears in the name of saving electricity. This is exactly how I imagine the near future of cyberpunk.

hat same evening, head to Hongyadong, the City of Ghosts. During the day, there isn’t much going on here, but at night the illuminated shopping buildings look very much like a ghost city from the anime Spirited Away, which is where the Chongqing attraction gets its nickname.

The best way to look at it is not from inside, but from across the road. However, the best view is from the bridge.

Unfortunately, everyone knows this, so around half a million people were trying to get onto the same bridge with us. Getting a beautiful photo of yourself with Hongyadong in the background is therefore rather unlikely because of the crowds.

The next day, you can go and see the pandas. Honestly, I think visiting China without seeing a panda is a major sin. So off we go to Chongqing Zoo. It takes about an hour to get there from the city centre — by metro, with no traffic jams! And even after travelling that far, you still won’t have left the city. You won’t even be particularly close to its outskirts.

So, the zoo. I’m generally not a fan of zoos, and I didn’t particularly like the conditions in which many of the animals were kept in Chongqing. But the pandas are very well looked after. You’ll be extremely lucky if you find a panda that is actually awake. They are adorable, but so incredibly lazy that you can’t help wondering how they even survive in the wild.

On your way to the zoo, don’t forget to make an important stop at Liziba Station, another Chongqing attraction and an urban planner’s worst nightmare. Yes, this is the famous metro station that literally passes through a residential building. You can photograph it from outside and from inside.

Chongqing 1949

After the zoo, keep going and see Chongqing 1949, the world’s only immersive theatrical performance with a stage that rotates 360 degrees. Even if you’re not a theatre person, you absolutely have to see this technological masterpiece. The stage moves and transforms, but the audience seating area doesn’t stay still either! If possible, get a translator before the show, because the entire performance is in Chinese. But even without one, you can understand quite a lot, especially if you read a little about the city’s history beforehand. In 1949, Chongqing was caught up in the Chinese Civil War between the Communists and the Kuomintang. To be honest, as people from the post-Soviet world, it felt very strange watching such an enthusiastic glorification of the Chinese Communist Party. But what won’t you do for art? After the performance, you can even make yourself a newspaper featuring your own photograph.

There are several performances every day. I recommend getting seats in the front rows for the full immersive experience.

Also, if you’re only in Chongqing for a short time, I recommend choosing a midday performance so you can save the evening for night shows, sunsets and panoramic views of the city at night.

If your evening is still free, you can watch the sunset from a hill overlooking the peninsula — just try to get there from the other side of the city in time! You’ve probably seen Reels filmed at the numerous restaurants on the hillside. Let me tell you what it was actually like. First, choose the nearest metro station to your restaurant. You can book in advance — around sunset, many of these restaurants are packed. At the bottom of the hill, you’ll be approached by Chinese people on scooters or in cars offering to drive you up for a fee. Bargain with them or walk, although walking is… quite a long way. They will most likely take you to a restaurant they already have an arrangement with. You can leave and look for another one further down or further up if you don’t like the view — that’s what we did. The prices and concepts at these places are more or less the same, and we made a mistake… They will almost certainly offer you barbecue. And, by the way, it turned out to be quite expensive. We ordered it, but we were absolutely not prepared for what happened next.

You see, our understanding of barbecue was very different from the Chinese one. We were extremely surprised when they brought us a burner, oil, a little barbecue grill and a plate of raw meat and vegetables. Yes. For that rather large amount of money, we had to cook everything ourselves. So instead of enjoying the sunset, we were grilling food and swearing, and then eating half-raw vegetables. Would not recommend.

And there we are again — it’s dark. For your final night, I recommend seeing the megacity from above. There are several options. We tried one of them twice and still failed: walking across the rooftop of The Raffles City. You can simply go to the observation deck, or you can walk across the rooftop with safety equipment. Keep in mind that we missed it the first time because the attraction closes at 22:00. Even arriving at 21:30 didn’t save us. The second time, we were turned away because of the weather.

Disappointed, we were standing outside The Raffles City mall when I suddenly remembered a Chinese blogger who had talked about a secret rooftop in the city centre

We found his Reel and — miracle of miracles! — discovered that we were standing directly opposite the building he had been talking about. If it weren’t for that stroke of luck, we would probably never have found the place. I wanted to kiss that blogger’s hands! So, following his directions, we ended up on the rooftop of the building and paid some guys at the entrance three times less than we would have paid for The Raffles City rooftop! And the view… Absolutely unreal. It felt like the finale of a cyberpunk action movie. Like a film where you are the main character. The feeling was simply incredible. But remember, Cinderella: the lights go off at around 22:30!

By the way, you could also have a full cyberpunk photoshoot there, just like at many other locations around Chongqing. If you happen to be in Chongqing over the weekend, these rooftops are also a great place to watch the drone shows. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see one.

Chongqing leaves you with mixed feelings, but I personally left feeling more fascinated than anything else. In 2.5 days, we saw a lot — but this is definitely far from everything the city has to offer.