ChinaRegions & prefectures

Chongqing

A city built on cliffs, where the metro runs through a residential block.

Capital: Chongqing
Status: Municipality
Region: Southwest China
Must-see: Hongya Dong hanging on the cliff
Local specialty: Spicy hotpot, xiaomian noodles, chilli chicken

Split off from Sichuan in 1997 to manage the displacements caused by the Three Gorges Dam, the Chongqing municipality covers an area the size of Austria and administers more than thirty million people. The city core clings to slopes at the confluence of the Yangtze and the Jialing, producing a dizzying vertical urbanism, without bicycles and with addresses on several street levels. Capital of Nationalist China during the war, it was bombed for five years.

What to see there

Places, dishes and traditions tied to this territory.

Hotpot (Huoguo)Chinese fondue where ingredients are cooked in spicy broth.The Dazu Rock CarvingsFifty thousand figures cut into the cliff, where Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism share the wall.

In the magazine

Articles that cover this topic.