Finally, I convinced one of my friends to join me on a trip. Chongqing was the destination and we chose to go over the National Holiday in China. We’d been told that Chongqing was quite difficult to navigate around and that maps were quite useless at times.
We arrived together, landing in Chongqing Jiangbei Airport and the first major task was finding the subway to get from the airport over to our hotel. Luckily, the subway line from the airport ran down to close by our hotel with just a 10 minute walk from the subway. We chose to stay in an Atour Hotel which was one of our favourites to use and had a decent location. However, we did get lost trying to find the hotel as it wasn’t located on the main road as expected but instead behind the main road.
We actually managed to see a lot while we were in Chongqing. Here’s the itinerary we followed:
Day 1 in Chongqing
Food!
People’s Monument/Jiefangbei
Hongyadong Cave
Food in Chongqing is hot! Spicy, spicy hot! If like us, you want to opt for the more usual style of food, when you first arrive it can be quite problematic. We managed to take a DiDi to the closest mall ‘Park 108’ which was also close to Jiefangbei. We found a nice small Japanese restaurant on the lower level of the Mall and had food there.
After that, we walked along Jiefangbei and saw the People’s Monument and Grand Theatre. The weather wasn’t great unfortunately, but we did decide to walk over to Hongyadong from Jiefangbei. This should have taken around 20-30 minutes but we got lost 3 times, stopped to take many photos and the rain started getting heavier.
Day 2 in Chongqing:
Liziba Station
Zhongshuge (Bookstore)
Banana Brunch
Dongshuimen Bridge
Huangjieping Graffiti Street
Guanyue Temple
Hong’en Temple
Liziba Station – We took the subway from the hotel to Liziba, it was only a few stops on the line from near the hotel. We got off the subway and took the numerous steps down to the main road area to take photos before heading back up to the subway and continuing our day. Definitely worth catching the photos!
Zhongshuge – We got lost again! Chongqing really is a maze. We knew the subway station was about 10 minutes walk to the mall but rain, and general inability to understand the maps of Chongqing meant we took 20 minutes. Once inside the mall, its empty, the mall is almost unused. The bookstore is on the 3rd floor on the left.
Banana Brunch – This is a short DiDi ride away but worth trying. The food is western to a degree with a cool brunch spin on standard meals. The area this is in is quite nice and the bridge view is great! Prices at Banana Brunch are standard 30-60RMB for a meal.
Huangjieping Graffiti Street – Next stop, a graffiti street. I’m not sure what I had imagined this would be like but it definitely exceeded expectations. The street is longer than you would expect, with a school also lay out there. Small shops line the street and the further in you go, the less path you find. People were still adding to the graffiti while we walked to show how fresh the artwork is.
Guanyue Temple – This was the temple I had heard about and been told that not many people visit. It’s situated out of the way and is accessible through subway and walking but, being lazy, I took a DiDi from the graffiti street area to the temple which cost about 30RMB. Once you arrive, it looks empty, but you can walk down to have a viewpoint from above parts of Chongqing. Head up to visit the temple, it has around 3 ‘layers’ with the Yin-Yang floor at the highest point.
Hong’en Temple – A must see for those visiting Chongqing. Daytime and nighttime views are completely different but we opted for nighttime. It was crazy how clear the sky was up the hill to see the lights in the night. If only I had taken a stand for photos in front of the temple.
Day 3 in Chongqing:
The Ring (Shopping Mall)
Ciqikou Ancient Town
Drinks in The Ring
The Ring – This is a newly built shopping mall up north of the main city area. We went here as my friend was heading back to the airport at this point to leave for Ningbo. The mall has an amazing selection of food places. We found a nice brunch place outside. You can also go inside a ‘outdoor experience’ park within the mall, fully equipped with a garden and a waterfall.
Ciqikou – I spent the rest of my day in Ciqikou town. This area gives real old style China vibes and is full of the smells of China. Stinky tofu to spice, you can smell everything here. The Ancient Town itself is a maze of side streets and little alleys, veering off in every direction. If you search well, you can find independent cafes built within people’s homes. This is definitely a place to buy your souvenirs though.
Day 4 in Chongqing:
Eling Park
Last day, just time for Eling Park. I visited here in the morning just after checking out. It’s easy to access from the subway lines. Eling Park was so quiet and calm at 9:30am, it was also free to enter. Many locals had started to pack up their exercise routines and head home and most families hadn’t started to come out. I went up to the peak to see out over Chongqing before leaving.
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