[2020 National Day Chongqing Travel Latest Guide] From Night Scenery to 1980s Old Chongqing, Enjoying Both Daytime and Night Beauty of Hongyadong

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Hongyadong, originally called Hongyamen, as one of the ancient Chongqing city gates, is located at the riverside where the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers converge. It is a famous Chongqing tourist attraction that combines tourism landscapes, business and leisure scenery and urban cultural landscapes.

With a history of over 2,300 years, Hongyadong is built along the mountain and river, allowing Jiefangbei to reach the riverfront. Its main structure is the "stilted buildings" with Bayu traditional architectural features. These stilted building clusters, built along slopes, form linear road spaces. The lower part of the stilted buildings is hollowed out, while the upper part is enclosed, showing great ingenuity.

In 2020, Hongyadong began a comprehensive upgrade. New scenes were set up on the fifth to eighth floors, providing a completely different experience. Truly, everyone can enjoy the emerald dripping of Hongyadong, stroll through the old mountain city streets, appreciate Bayu culture, watch the convergence of the two rivers, and taste cuisines from around the world.

This year marks the once-in-a-century long holiday of National Day coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival. I believe everyone is eager to go out and play. So before the holiday, I specially wrote this pure dry goods travelogue about Hongyadong. It can not only serve as a guide for your Chongqing trip but also let you understand Chongqing's mountain city culture and deeply experience this city. This guide deeply analyzes Hongyadong, including its internal structure, routes, attractions and check-in points during day and night, as well as surrounding food and accommodation. It might be the newest and most comprehensive Hongyadong guide on the entire internet. Recommended to save!

Hongyadong is built on a cliff, with a huge elevation difference, and has 11 floors. Out-of-town friends often get confused or lost due to its structure, not knowing how to get out or find the attractions inside, walking thousands of extra steps. Today, let me deeply decode how to walk the least and see the most beautiful scenery in Hongyadong.

First, about the entry route. Taking the bus, subway, or walking from Jiefangbei to Hongyadong all enter from the 11th floor gate. From this floor, you can also go to the nearby Qiansimen Bridge, which is convenient for viewing the overall night scenery. If you take a taxi or walk from Raffles City, you might directly enter from the 1st floor main road. This floor is also a popular spot for internet-famous photos.

Next, about the structure of each floor inside, to prevent confusion.

Starting from the bottom floor.

Floors 1 to 4 all have escalators, elevators, and stairs. The 1st floor is an external observation deck and main road. From Raffles City, you can walk directly here, and internally it is a fine antique city. The 2nd floor is a folk custom museum. The 3rd floor is a century-old craft workshop street. The 4th floor is the Bayu Folk Food Street. This floor is very lively, and you can buy many souvenirs and local foods.

Floors 5-8 are half occupied by Hongyadong Hotel and half by various movie-level themed venues heavily invested by Hongyadong Culture and Tourism. The 5th floor is the Reunion 1980·Chongqing 1980s Life Scene District, showcasing the memories of old Chongqing. It will be detailed below. Going up, the 6th floor is the "Dream Travel Bayu Twelve Scenes·Light and Shadow Interactive Art Museum" under renovation. It is said to incorporate AR technology, using the four seasons and solar terms as a clue, with space evolving from ancient to modern as a thread, combined with immersive multimedia art installations, allowing everyone to perceive the classic beauty of the Bayu Twelve Scenes and the travel and evolution of mountain city scenes from ancient to modern through sound, light, and electricity.

The 7th and 8th floors are under construction, tentatively named CQ2070 Foresee Chongqing·Mountain City Trend Culture Gathering Place. This is a sci-fi element and future business format, combined with light effects to create a futuristic and stunning visual themed venue. In the concept drawings, you can see that you can pass through the magic plank road of the cliff cave to enter the world of 2076. It is said that here you can take a two-seater capsule elevator up and down to the air streets of Hongyadong to enjoy food, or sit in a half-reclining glass egg pod hanging upside down on the roof for sightseeing. Everyone can also discover incredible new things in various future stores. Let's look forward to it together! Hope it opens soon.

Traffic notes:

- If you want to go directly to the 11th floor from the 1st floor, first go to the basement level and then take the elevator. Because there are too many people, it is easy to get full.

- If you want to take a taxi directly from the 1st floor, please book an available car in advance on your phone. Otherwise, there are too many people, and it is hard to hail a taxi, wasting precious travel time.

Finally, the 9th and 10th floors are the International Food Street. The 11th floor is another entrance and observation deck. From here, you can go to Qiansimen Bridge and Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street. You can also take the subway from this floor to other places.

[Reunion 1980·Chongqing 1980s Life Scene District]

This is a new Chongqing tourist attraction and check-in spot I want to introduce, located on the 5th floor of Hongyadong. On the 4th floor, in the direction of Qiansimen Bridge, you can see a giant vintage camera door. Going upstairs leads to it. It authentically recreates the old Chongqing city life of the 1980s. As the title says, the Reunion 1980 block allows us to reminisce about old Chongqing life, savor mountain city culture, and appreciate the beauty of Chongqing during the day.

From the official project information, the Hongyadong 5th floor "Reunion 1980" Chongqing 1980s Life Scene District will focus on immersive interactive experiences, with the theme "Old City Story, Chongqing Reunion", centered around the city's local atmosphere and old alley culture, creating the "Chongqing Two Cities Ten Scenes" from the 1980s. Follow me to see if this Reunion 1980 block presents the old Chongqing in your heart.

Entering from the giant camera on the 4th floor, you can see vintage blackboard paintings and a wall full of colorful mailboxes. Instantly, it reminds us of the purest childhood. Going up the stairs, you can see glass and windows decorated with red, green, and blue mosaic window flowers, and even clothes hung out to dry. By this time, it already evokes my memories.

Figure 2 Tongzilou

Entering the main gate, the first attraction is the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Many friends reading this may have never experienced the era of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, but it was indeed a deep imprint of the 1980s. From the founding of New China to 1982, the supply and marketing cooperatives developed rapidly across the country, forming a nationwide circulation network connecting up and down, vertical and horizontal. They not only met the production and living needs of farmers and organized the main channel of rural commodity circulation, but also served as a bridge and link connecting urban and rural areas, workers and farmers, and the government and farmers. They played an important role in restoring the national economy, stabilizing prices, ensuring supply, and promoting agricultural and rural economic development. This period was the golden age of the supply and marketing cooperatives. To maximize the restoration of the cooperative, the Reunion 1980 block has many small shops selling various retro nostalgic trinkets. If interested, you can browse. Around the cooperative, there are also some snack vendors. You can buy if you like what you see.

Going left, there is the Reunion 1980 light sign. Inside are classic old Chongqing place names from the 1980s. For example, Caiyuanba Railway Station, the oldest railway station in Chongqing, can be said to be the link between Chongqing citizens and the outside world at the time. Of course, this attraction has been restored. Also, there is Zou Rong Road, known to every Chongqing person. Additionally, there are the No. 5 Trolley, Disco Square, Mountain City Cinema, and more. This is an excellent photo spot. Everyone must check in.

Figure 4 Themed light signs

Next is the fork between the inner and outer city. Since the inner city charges an entrance fee, it is recommended to first see the outer city. If you feel it is worth it, then go inside. In the outer city, you can see Baba Tea. "Baba" in Chongqing dialect means square, because older generations of Chongqing people liked to sit on the square to drink tea and chat. This scene truly recreates the situation of that time, making me feel like time travel, seeing my grandfather going out every morning to drink tea with friends. The benches are also deliberately made old to provide visitors with an immersive experience.

Figure 5 Baba Tea

Figure 6 Baba Tea

Next is the Da Tong Street. The real Da Tong Street is located in Yuzhong District, Chongqing, connecting the upper and lower parts of the city, directly leading to Chaotianmen Pier. In the Qing Dynasty, coppersmiths in Chongqing came here with their copper casting tools, and thus the street was named. During the Anti-Japanese War, Da Tong Street and nearby areas housed the Bank of Communications Chongqing Branch, the headquarters of Chuankang Bank, the headquarters of Meifeng Bank, the headquarters of Bank of China, the headquarters of Juxingcheng Bank, Chuanyan Bank, Hecheng Bank, etc. Therefore, Da Tong Street is known as "China's Wall Street during the Anti-Japanese War". At that time, Da Tong Street was far more famous than Jiefangbei today. So this attraction cannot be missed. It restores Chongqing Department Store, People's Park Roller Skating Rink, Mahjong Research Center, and other special features. The light signs are also very distinctive, and the light is especially suitable for taking photos.

Figure 7 Da Tong Street

Figure 8 Da Tong Street

Figure 9 Da Tong Street

Walking forward, there are many food shops. If you are tired, you can buy some specialty foods.

Then we arrive at the entrance of the inner city. Let me scout ahead for everyone. Entering, you see the just-mentioned Caiyuanba Railway Station and traffic lights, making you feel like you are there. There are also various light signs above, perfect for photos. On both sides are shops selling old Chongqing food, even hotpot. Due to limited seating, if you want to eat, it is recommended to come early to grab a spot.

Figure 10 Inner city entrance

Next to the hotpot shop is the telephone wall and the "I arrived here" wall. Here you can see various types of telephones from the last century, worth stopping to look at. Then leave your name on the "I arrived here" wall to commemorate your visit: witnessing the prosperity of old Chongqing and understanding its history.

Figure 11 Telephone wall

Coming out is a very modern Disco Square, where there are staff dressed in 1980s clothes singing and dancing. Let everyone understand the prosperity of Chongqing in the last century and feel how people spent weekend nights back then.

Figure 12 Disco Square

Figure 13 Song and dance interaction

Next to Disco Square is the Mountain City Widescreen Cinema I want to introduce. Its greatness and uniqueness lie in being the official authorized holographic MR interactive music show of Teresa Teng. Presented by the Teresa Teng Foundation, Digital Domain, and Beijing Diting Culture, it offers a visual feast themed "Finding Teresa Teng". The holographic black technology presents Teresa Teng very realistically and in high definition, making everyone feel like they actually watched a concert. And there is an extra surprise at the end, which you have to explore yourself :)

Figure 14 Teresa Teng Mountain City Cinema

Finally, there are two must-introduce attractions: Mountain City Photo Studio and No. 5 Trolley.

After the 1911 Revolution, shipping on the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers further developed. Chongqing's commercial trade became increasingly active, becoming a pivotal material distribution center, driving rapid urban consumption growth. By the early 1920s, the local photography industry flourished, with several photo studios opening. According to records, dignitaries, socialites, and ladies loved to have photos taken at Mountain City photo studios, such as the great writer Guo Moruo, movie star Hu Die, Chongqing celebrity Miss Kong Er, Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Mei-ling, etc. It seemed that photography had become a ritual for the upper class. Fortunately, the 1980 block restored this photo studio, allowing everyone to travel back in time and recapture that mood.

Figure 15 Mountain City Photo Studio

About the trolley, it is a unique memory of the 1980s. Although the trolley was slow, it was indeed the most cost-effective transportation choice for old Chongqing people. The 1980 block restored the No. 5 Trolley, allowing us to find the slow-paced lifestyle of that time in today's fast pace.

Figure 16 No. 5 Trolley

Figure 17 No. 5 Trolley

After reading this, have you already felt the thoughtfulness of Hongyadong and want to experience its daytime beauty?

The night view of Chongqing Hongyadong has been rated as one of the most beautiful night scenes in China, and it's also very similar to the fantastic night scene in Spirited Away. But many people don't know the best angles to take photos. I recommend seven great photo spots.

1. Opposite the 1st floor main road of Hongyadong.

- Watch out for traffic.

- There are many passersby in the photo; you can use Meitu XX's magic pen to blur them for a nice effect.

2. The covered bridge in the middle of the 5th floor of Hongyadong.

- Coming out of Reunion 1980, you can just come to this place.

- Pay attention to symmetry; it will perfectly show the architectural beauty of Chinese stilted buildings.

3. Standing under Qiansimen Bridge.

- Use the elevation difference to overlook the night view of Hongyadong.

- Watch out for passing traffic and people.

4. On the right sidewalk of Qiansimen Bridge.

- Walk down along the sidewalk.

- Recommended to use a wide-angle lens.

5. In front of the Agricultural Bank next to Central Park on the opposite bank.

- Can achieve the effect of a sky city that floods your social feed.

- Walking may be a bit far.

6. The road opposite Hongyadong, directly under Qiansimen Bridge.

- Need a 16-35 wide-angle lens.

7. Outside the Grand Theatre subway station opposite Hongyadong.

- Contrast the tall buildings behind with Hongyadong, one cold and one warm.

- Need a 70-200 telephoto lens.

1. Huan Shan Ice Cream

It has many flavors, such as Chongqing hotpot flavor, Lao Yin tea flavor, Jiang Xiaobai peach flavor, etc., all very characteristic Chongqing ice cream flavors.

Address: Inside the Reunion 1980 block, 5th floor, Hongyadong, Yuzhong District, Chongqing.

2. Guaxi Xi Hotpot (Hongyadong branch)

Recommended: double pepper beef, brown sugar ice powder, shrimp balls, braised chicken feet! Very delicious and authentic.

Address: No. 6 Tieban Alley, Yuzhong District, Chongqing.

3. Hua Shi Wanza Noodle (Xiaoshizi branch)

How can you come to Chongqing without eating Chongqing noodles? This shop has various types of Chongqing noodles, and the wanza noodle is particularly excellent. Recommended.

Address: Intersection of Minzu Road and Wuyi Road, Xiaoshizi, Yuzhong District, Chongqing.

[Chongqing VKing High-altitude Full River View Hotel]

This is a very distinctive newly opened homestay hotel, with a light luxury romantic style. There are many different room types, such as Giverny Queen Room, Tiffany Blue Hot Spring Room, Moon Dark Hot Spring Room, etc. But I think the most distinctive is the Hobbit Cave Hot Spring Room, which is particularly creative. From the window, you can also see the river view with a wide field of vision. And the cost performance is also very high, only 500+ RMB. Such a configuration in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Shenzhen would cost at least 700-800.

Location: 35th floor, Jiefangbei United International Building, 750 meters from Hongyadong.

Price: Varies by room type. On average, off-peak season 400 RMB, peak season 500 RMB.

[Lu Dao High-altitude River View Inn] (Chongqing Jiefangbei Hongyadong)

This inn also has great cost performance, and every room type has a river view. Don't miss it if you like river views. There are also many styles, such as the popular Internet-famous INS Wizard of Oz Forest series and Japanese-style swing river view big bed room. Also, there is the 180-degree skyline river view room and the luxurious CBD river view bathtub room.

Location: Room 3, 29th floor, No. 128 Binjiang Road, Yuzhong District, 700 meters from Hongyadong.

Price: Varies by room type, average 200-300 RMB.

- Hongyadong Station: Bus routes 151, 181, 262, 466, 0491 (night);

- Xiaoshizi Station: Bus routes 111, 114, 135, 401, 866;

- Take Light Rail Line 2 to Linjiangmen Station, then walk 500 meters northeast;

- Take Subway Line 1 to Xiaoshizi Station, then walk about 500 meters;

- Take Subway Line 6 to Grand Theatre Station, then walk across Qiansimen Bridge;

- From Jiefangbei, about 11 minutes;

- From Raffles City, about 16 minutes.

Travelogue Table of Contents

1. Preface

2. Internal Structure