A Glimpse of Chongqing: The 3D Magical City

📍 Chongqing · 👁 2 reads · ❤️ 131 likes

I'd always been quite fascinated by Chongqing. After visiting, I found it truly special, but quite different from what I'd imagined—probably because I didn't see the metro that goes straight through a building?!

My flight landed in Chongqing just before 6 p.m. Luckily, the sunset comes late there. The one place to explore in the evening was undoubtedly Hongya Cave. So I dropped my luggage, figured out the transport, and set off. A city without shared bikes—that felt so strange!

We stayed at the Sheraton Chongqing Hotel, and to get to Hongya Cave we needed a bus and then the metro. Looking at the 2D Baidu map while facing the real 3D roads, I really felt I was in Chongqing. You definitely can't get that feeling from taking a taxi. So if you come to Chongqing, you must try the public transport. Taking a bus or metro is easy—just open Alipay.

After getting off the metro, the signs to Hongya Cave were fairly clear along the way. You could also keep your eyes peeled and just follow the crowd—you generally won't go wrong.

Before going, I'd only seen photos online and had a rough visual idea; I knew next to nothing about Hongya Cave. Rumor has it that it resembles the bathhouse from 'Spirited Away'. My honest impression? I didn't think it looked like it at all—if that's what you're after, head to Jiufen instead!

When I arrived at the Hongya Cave scenic area, I was utterly confused. I finally found the entrance, where they said you needed to scan a code to reserve a free ticket—though nobody actually checked tickets after walking through a long winding queue. Suddenly I was inside... a commercial street. I was still baffled. What exactly is Hongya Cave? I had no clue.

I spotted an 'internet-famous ice jelly' stall. Feeling hungry, I bought a bowl. The toppings were plentiful and it was way tastier than the brown sugar ice jelly I had a decade ago in some small town near Chengdu. The first mouthful was absolutely stunning—the combination of hunger and the cold, sweet-smooth texture made it taste divine. But toward the end it got a bit cloying, too sweet; I managed to finish it with some effort.

Walking on, I realized Hongya Cave is actually a single building, somewhat reminiscent of Shanghai's Jing'an Joy City in its internal layout—though not as fun to wander around. Its biggest feature is probably being built into the hillside, with two entrances on upper and lower levels. Only these two spots were bustling, because they're snack streets. The floors in between were nearly empty, filled with identical small commodity shops selling middling-quality wares. I finally found a souvenir shop that looked a little less tacky and had a bit of character; they even offered to mail postcards (Hey? I still haven't received mine!). I bought fridge magnets and other keepsakes—mission accomplished.

There were plenty of restaurants. As a solo traveler, I had to negotiate for a half portion at the street stalls. The granny selling brown sugar-glutinous rice cake was good-natured and gave me a half portion for 10 yuan—tasty, too. The 'ancestral ear-cleaning' service was a bit of a rip-off: 45 yuan for about five minutes, and I barely felt anything. I wonder if they took advantage of me because I was a young girl on my own.

Exiting from the ground floor and crossing the overpass, I hit the liveliest area in the whole zone—so jam-packed you could barely walk. That's where the best photo spots are. Besides tourists snapping away, there were people with professional cameras and night-photography gear touting 'free test shots'—no idea how much they actually charge per photo. As for whether their photos can match the samples, that depends on the model! And models were posing right on the busy road with traffic flowing around them—very dangerous! Occasionally traffic police would warn them off, but even at 10 p.m. people were still streaming into the area.

I thought I could reach the metro from the riverside, but I walked further and further, realized something was off, and had to double back. It turned out the riverside opposite Hongya Cave was where the foot traffic was thickest—hard to move. After a tough backtrack (I didn't dare try any alternate routes and had to climb flights of stairs), I missed the last regular bus. Fortunately there was a late-night line, and I got back to the hotel close to midnight. Across from the hotel, a large street-food stall was still merrily buzzing.

A week earlier I'd called to reserve an outdoor riverside table. Worried about rain, I called again to confirm, but the person on the phone couldn't understand Mandarin—or perhaps I couldn't understand his Chongqing dialect. That left me fretting about whether I'd actually secured a riverside spot. So on the day, I arrived half an hour early. The outdoor seats were great, but we were so into the meal that we didn't really take in the night view. Rain wasn't an issue anyway, thanks to a glass canopy overhead.

For the hot pot, you could choose between a nine-grid pot and a half-and-half pot. For the nine-grid pot you select mild, medium, or extra spicy. We picked mild. For someone from the south, the heat was just right—despite all those chillies floating on top. The pot looked like it had nine compartments, but they were actually connected; I still have no clue what the nine-grid design is for. As for the hot pot dishes, you order the usual items. My favorite here was the duck blood—absolutely delicious, even more than their 'long-plank beef'. It was silky, smooth, and a little sweet in the mouth.

While eating hot pot, you also get a view of the river and plenty of entertainment: Sichuan opera face-changing, clowns giving out old-fashioned ice lollies... Those ice lollies were great for cutting through the grease. I recommend this hot pot place, though my boss thought the service was just so-so.

1891 Shiguang Dao is a huge shopping mall, split into several buildings. Since Tong Xiao Guan is right on the street-level ground floor, I never saw what was inside the mall. Tong Xiao Guan has both indoor and outdoor seating; we'd reserved a private room. At first we booked two tables, but our group shrank—two tables would leave too much empty space, but one table felt a bit tight. The staff were practical and warm, suggesting we all squeeze around one table and swap the big chairs for smaller ones—it ended up being jolly. The service at Tong Xiao Guan really impressed, except that the dishes came out way too fast! Now I get why there was an option like 'pace the serving' when ordering.

A standout dish was the 'furong chicken nao'—a supposedly lost Sichuan recipe. I used to think all Sichuan food was spicy, but they say originally it wasn't; chillies only reached China in the late Ming dynasty, so earlier Sichuan cuisine would have been mild. Furong chicken nao is a traditional dish. It tasted quite delicate; I thought it was just stir-fried egg white, but after looking it up I learned it's incredibly labour-intensive: the chicken must be pounded into a paste and mixed with egg white. The result had no trace of chicken texture at all.

Their homemade 'guoba pork slices'—since I love crispy rice crust, this really won me over. It's a dish you find in many restaurants, but here the seasoning was perfectly savoury and the guoba had a beautifully crisp mouthfeel. Couldn't fault it.

Gongbao chicken (kung pao chicken): I'd always thought this was a Shanghai dish, along with my husband's favourite yuxiang shredded pork. As it turns out, these two are actually representative Sichuan dishes. Again, nothing to complain about.

Another crowd-pleaser and memorable item was their homemade sauced pork buns. Unlike the big or fresh pork buns you get for breakfast in Shanghai, the filling here is well seasoned, packing plenty of flavour, and you can easily polish one off even when you're full. A very enjoyable meal. Highly recommended!

The hotel was a bit dated, but still a landmark in Chongqing, it seemed. The lobby was grand, European style, with soaring ceilings, opulent décor, and thick Roman pillars. The lobby bar was spacious too. Unfortunately, between meetings, getting to know Chongqing, and heading out to eat, I saw almost nothing beyond the lobby, the eight-hours-a-day meeting room, and my room where I slept for a few nights.

The hotel is on Nanbin Road, right by the river, with an incredible view across the water anytime—like living on the Bund in Shanghai. At the front desk there were cute panda dolls, but they were pricey; I hesitated and in the end didn't buy one. The rooms were also decked out in European style. The pillows were very comfortable—just the right softness and height for me. The bowl of Chongqing xiaomian (small noodles) I had each morning for breakfast still brings back fond memories—it was better than any I've had in Shanghai. The room rate wasn't expensive, and overall the hotel comes recommended, though sadly it's not right next to a metro station.

I stayed four days and three nights in Chongqing, but it was all meetings. What left the deepest impression were the amazing high-rises. How can they build so many skyscrapers in a mountainous city like this?! And there are so many bridges over the river. You can see how advanced Chongqing's urban construction is, truly at the forefront nationally. My husband never likes visiting cities, because he thinks modern cities all look alike. But every city has its own character, doesn't it? As for all those up-and-down roads, plenty of cities have them—Hong Kong, for instance; I really admire people who climb those steep steps every day, and Hong Kong's tower height and density are also plain to see. So perhaps to truly grasp the magic of Chongqing, I'll need to go back and explore more deeply.

Travelogue Contents

1. Hongya Cave

2. Jiu Ge Jiu Wei

3. Tong Xiao Guan

4. Sheraton Chongqing Hotel

5. In Closing