A City Like No Other
When Canadian travel content creator Joshua Guvi visited Chongqing for the first time in November, he worried the city might not live up to the hype he’d seen online. Perched in the mountains of southwestern China, this sprawling metropolis is often dubbed China’s “8D city” for its dizzying, multi-level design. Including its vast rural outskirts, Chongqing covers an area the size of Austria. With little flat land and a booming population, the city has grown upward in astonishing ways — one building even has a working train line running straight through it.
Guvi left impressed. In his YouTube video, he described Chongqing as “peering into the future… neon-soaked and alive with motion,” a city that “has its own pulse.” Getting lost in its maze of streets, stairways, and sky bridges, he says, is part of the fun.
Tourism Surge Driven by Social Media
Chongqing is fast becoming a must-see destination for international travelers. According to official figures, the city welcomed about 1.3 million inbound tourists in 2024, up 184% from the year before. In the first two months of 2025, foreign arrivals through city ports jumped 60% year-on-year. Much of this interest has been fueled by viral content — such as a clip of a building where the “ground floor” is actually the 12th — which has attracted millions of views.
Travel agencies have responded with tours in English, Spanish, Thai, Japanese, and Korean. Most visitors stay about five days, with large numbers arriving from Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea, as well as a growing contingent from Europe, Australia, and the United States. American visitors have seen the sharpest rise, despite only one direct weekly flight from the US.
Layers of Life in the ‘Mountain City’
With over 32 million residents, Chongqing stretches across gorges, river valleys, and steep hillsides, creating dramatic elevation changes that make traditional city planning impossible. Instead, the city’s infrastructure is stacked vertically: transportation networks, residential complexes, commercial areas, and public plazas layered on top of one another. A single building might have entrances on the 1st, 12th, or 20th floor, depending on the surrounding terrain.
One of the most famous examples is Liziba Station, where a monorail runs directly through the middle of a residential tower. This functional necessity has become an urban icon. For visitors, such scenes — along with massive overpasses, outdoor escalators, and rooftop plazas — are the definition of “cyberpunk.”
Culture, Cuisine, and Economic Power
Chongqing’s appeal extends beyond its skyline. The city is famous for its fiery hotpot, late-night street food, and lively, outspoken locals. It is also one of China’s four provincial-level municipalities and, as of last year, the country’s fourth-largest economy. Its history as a wartime capital during World War II, when its mountainous terrain provided natural defenses, adds a layer of cultural depth.
Recent investments have boosted its profile further. In June 2025, Chongqing opened what may be the largest high-speed railway station in the world, covering 1.22 million square meters. The city’s dazzling nightscape — developed over decades and enhanced by large-scale lighting projects since 2019 — now includes regular drone shows, light displays, and illuminated building outlines.
With China expanding visa-free access to 47 countries, the number of foreign visitors is set to keep rising. As Guvi puts it, Chongqing offers “a vibe that can’t be replaced anywhere else in the world” — a city that feels at once futuristic, chaotic, and irresistibly alive.