Companionship Is the Longest Confession of Love: A 3-Day Chongqing Family Trip

When you mention Chongqing, you'll think of the Mountain City, the 7D Magic City, the light rail going through buildings, the Hongya Cave night views, hot pot... On our first two visits, my husband and I went to Chongqing by ourselves and had basically ticked off all these places. Taking advantage of the Qingming holiday break, we brought our little one, Xiaomitao, for a different kind of family trip to Chongqing.

Chengdu East → Shapingba → Daxigou → University Town → Xiangfeng Lake Children's Park (Day 2) → Firefly Valley (Day 3) → Shapingba → Chengdu East

Except for taking a taxi to the children's park on the second day, we used public transport (light rail + metro) for the entire trip.

Accommodation: 410 (two nights)

Round-trip high-speed train: 660

Public transport: 30

Activities: 400

Total: around 1,800

We had a 10:40 a.m. high-speed train, and leaving home an hour early was perfect timing. Thinking that check-in would close 15 minutes before departure, we rushed with Xiaomitao after getting off the metro — Chengdu East Station is really huge! Dad sprinted off with the luggage and disappeared in no time. On the first day of the Qingming holiday, the train station was packed. Xiaomitao just followed closely behind me, running faster and getting more excited. We ended up arriving at the ticket gate 20 minutes early. (In fact, check-in only starts 10 minutes before departure.)

Arriving at Shapingba Station in Chongqing, we headed straight for the light rail. Along the way, I explained to Xiaomitao why Chongqing is called the 'Mountain City.' The metro required taking two floors of escalators down to the boarding platform, which let Xiaomitao experience the name firsthand.

Since it's rare to meet up with friends, we spent both lunch and dinner with them. We had chicken pot and boiled fish with pickled cabbage, which were delicious. In the evening, we took the light rail from Daxigou Station to the hotel we'd booked. It was almost 10 p.m. by the time we got there, but Xiaomitao had napped for over an hour at our friend's place in the afternoon, so she was still full of energy.

Mom and Xiaomitao slept in until 9 a.m. and woke up naturally, then went downstairs for breakfast. Since our activities for the next two days would all be around University Town, we'd chosen accommodation right next to the University Town Station on light rail Line 1. The morning was quite leisurely, and at 11 a.m. we set off by taxi, arriving at Xiangfeng Lake Children's Park half an hour later.

My first impression upon entering the children's park was just how huge it was. The park has various themed activity zones, and all the equipment is very complete. There's a designated picnic area (with water and electricity), a dedicated camping area, a sand play area... Our friend's tent was set up in the camping zone, but to get there we had to pass many fun spots. I kept saying, 'Hurry up, Xiaomitao, let's keep walking a bit further.'

We finally found our friend's tent after one in the afternoon. The tent was all set up, and there was a spread of garlic prawns, bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms, bonbon chicken, honey-glazed chicken wings, and ice-cold beer. Everyone cooked and ate, and the kids just ran wild and had a blast.

Before we knew it, 6 p.m. had arrived. Everyone packed up and got ready to go for Chongqing hot pot. After a satisfying meal, we headed back to the hotel to rest, looking forward to Day Three's activities.

We slept in again naturally, gathered our luggage and checked out, then set off for Firefly Valley at 10:30 a.m.

Soon we'd be changing into adventure gear to explore the cave!

The whole trip ended with the cave adventure. After that, we had wontons at Shapingba Station and then dozed all the way back to Chengdu East Station, thus finishing our check-in list.

1. Choose accommodation closely tied to your itinerary. This time our hotel near University Town, just 200 meters from light rail Line 1, offered easy access to food, drinks, and entertainment. Although it was far from the must-see spots in Yuzhong District, it was within our activity zone, so the 200-yuan hotel with breakfast was really comfortable.

2. Xiangfeng Lake Park offers many ways to play: barbecuing during the day, camping at night, or even just buying some snacks and letting the kids run off their energy is great.

3. Firefly Valley has plenty to enjoy. The cave exploration costs extra per person, regardless of age, at 128 yuan per person. For Xiaomitao it was great fun, but for adults it wasn’t quite as thrilling.

For Xiaomitao, this was yet another wonderful journey. Many thanks to our good friends for their warm hospitality.

Travelogue Contents: 1. Preface 2. Itinerary 3. Number of People and Expenses 4. Time Schedule 5. Travel Tips 6. Conclusion

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