China Cultured · 品味中国

Province Book · 省份之书

Chongqing

重庆

One province, one book — what to see, what to eat, and the folk customs few travellers have ever heard of.

China Cultured · 品味中国Daily Province

Chongqing · 重庆

Chongqing: The 8D City Built on a Mountain

Chongqing is China's "magic city": the monorail passes through apartment buildings, elevators work as public transport, and maps are basically useless here. The Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet at Chaotianmen, and the mountain city stacks skyscrapers, old streets and the smell of hotpot on top of each other. You don't need a guidebook in Chongqing — just a brave stomach and good shoes.

Hongya Cave illuminated at night in Chongqing

Hongya Cave at night — the cliffside village that glows. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

What to See 好玩的

Hongya Cave is a cliffside village of stilted buildings that glows like a scene from Spirited Away at night. Floor one is a street, and so is floor eleven — in Chongqing, storeys never mean what they should.

The Yangtze River Cableway is the city's most romantic mode of transport. Ride the gondola across the river with boats below and the stacked city on both banks — a few minutes of airtime and the best view in Chongqing.

Gondola of the Yangtze River Cableway crossing above Chongqing

The Yangtze River Cableway — the city's most romantic commute. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Wulong Tiankeng is a two-hour drive into one of nature's great works. The Three Natural Bridges are colossal stone arches framing a green sinkhole floor, and even Transformers filmed here. Stand beneath the bridge and look up — you'll feel very small, in the best way.

The Three Natural Bridges karst formations at Wulong

The Three Natural Bridges at Wulong — a canyon written in stone. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

What to Eat 好吃的

Hotpot is Chongqing's soul: a nine-grid iron pot, beef-tallow broth, tripe and duck intestine, sweating through the spice and going back for more. Xiaomian — two liang of noodles in red-oil mala sauce — is the city's breakfast and late-night snack, best eaten squatting on a stool. And suancai fen, hot-and-sour sweet-potato noodles, is springy in the mouth and sharp in the broth.

A nine-grid Chongqing hotpot with spicy broth and ingredients

The nine-grid hotpot — Chongqing's soul in a boiling pot. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

The spice scaleIn Chongqing, "mild" is already a compromise. The local code: order the nine-grid pot, let the tripe cook for exactly eight seconds, and don't ask for less chilli unless you want the whole table to look at you funny.

Folk Customs 民间习俗

Chuanjiang haozi are the work songs the Yangtze boat trackers shouted while hauling boats through the rapids — each "haiyo" carrying the danger of the river and the grit of the men. The calls are rarer now, but they're listed as intangible cultural heritage, and old trackers still sing them by the river sometimes.

The Tongliang Fire Dragon is Chongqing's Lantern Festival spectacle: bare-chested men whirl a dragon through showers of molten iron, sparks flying — people dancing in fire, a dragon flying through sparks. A folk festival written in courage and molten metal.

Want the full province atlas — all 34 provinces, what to see, what to eat, and the folk customs nobody tells you about? chinacultured.com/guide/province-atlas.html →

China Cultured · 品味中国Chongqing · 2026

← Previous: Jiangsu

Photos: Hongya Cave at night, Yangtze River Cableway, Wulong Three Natural Bridges, nine-grid hotpot — via Wikimedia Commons, CC-licensed. Licenses and authors available on the original file pages.