Chongqing,
the vertical city

Chongqing is the strangest big city in China, and that is the reason to go. Thirty-two million people live on the cliffs where the Jialing meets the Yangtze, in a place so vertical that a road can pass over the roof of a fifteen-storey building and a metro train runs through an apartment block with residents living above and below the platform. At night the riverfront lights up like a film set. This is two days of pure spectacle — and the hottest food in the country.

1. The nights: Hongya Cave and the rivers

• Hongya Cave — a stilted complex of yellow-lit wooden galleries stacked eleven storeys up the cliff. It is the photograph you have seen. Go at dusk, watch it switch on, and shoot it from the Qianximen bridge across the water rather than from inside the crush.
• The Yangtze cable car — a working commuter line strung across the river, still the best three minutes in the city. Ride it after dark.
• Nanshan / One Tree Hill — the hillside terrace with the full skyline below. Taxi up for the view, eat at one of the hill restaurants, come down late.
• The rivers themselves — an hour-long night cruise past both waterfronts is touristy and worth it once.
• Timing: the lights come on around dusk and the crowds peak right after. Arrive 30 minutes early and you get the same view with room to stand.

2. The vertical city, decoded

• Liziba station — the monorail that passes through the middle of a residential tower. There is a viewing platform outside built specifically for the photograph; the ride itself is a normal metro journey.
• Floors don't mean what you think. Buildings routinely have entrances on several levels; a shopping mall's "1F" may open onto a bridge four storeys above another street. Trust the map's altitude, not your instinct.
• Kuixinglou — the famous "22nd floor is street level" building. A five-minute detour for a genuinely disorienting moment.
• Ride-hailing is chaos here and walking directions lie about elevation. This is the one Chinese city where a local driver saves real time — see mobile pay for getting cars at all.
• Wear real shoes. Chongqing has stairs the way Venice has bridges.

3. Hotpot without fear

• What makes it Chongqing: beef tallow, dried chillies and Sichuan pepper — hot and numbing, a different sensation from ordinary spice. Chengdu's version is lighter; this is the original.
• The split pot (yuanyang) is your friend: fiery on one side, mild bone or mushroom broth on the other. Everyone orders it; nobody judges.
• The dip is the trick. Sesame oil with garlic and coriander cools the food as you lift it out. Skip the dip and you feel every chilli.
• Order for texture, not just meat: luncheon meat, potato slices, lotus root, quail eggs, beef tripe and duck blood are what locals actually reach for.
• Drink: cold soy milk or sour plum juice, not beer, if you want the burn to stop. More on the regional kitchens in what to eat in China.
• Xiaomian — the city's other obsession: a bowl of chilli-oil noodles eaten at a plastic stool for breakfast. Ask for less chilli and it is still excellent.

4. Ciqikou and the Dazu carvings

• Ciqikou old town — a Ming-and-Qing river port of stone lanes, now busy and snack-driven. Go early, walk to the far end where the crowds thin, and eat the chili-fried rice cakes.
• Dazu rock carvings — the real reason to add a third day. Around 50,000 statues cut into cliff faces from the 9th to 13th centuries, UNESCO-listed and far less visited than they deserve. The Baoding Mountain group is the one to see; roughly two hours each way.
• Wulong karst — three natural bridges and a sinkhole three hours out, used as a film location. Spectacular, but a long day; only if you are not already going to Zhangjiajie.
• The Stilwell Museum and the wartime tunnels — Chongqing was China's capital during the war against Japan, and the air-raid shelters cut into the rock are now everything from museums to hotpot restaurants.

5. Two days, and how it connects

• Getting there: bullet trains link Chongqing with Chengdu in about 1.5 hours and Xi'an in around 5 — see the rail guide. Flights make sense from Beijing or Shanghai.
• Pair it with Chengdu. Two hours apart, completely different cities — pandas and teahouses, then cliffs and neon (Chengdu in 2 days).
• Or start a cruise here. Chongqing is the upstream port for the Three Gorges; see the Yangtze guide for whether the cruise is for you.
• Weather honesty: summers are famously brutal — hot, humid and hazy. Spring and autumn are far kinder; the fog that gives the city its nickname is a winter thing (when to visit).