chongqing: where my legs are permanently tired
i honestly don't know where to start with this place called chongqing. it's like nothing i've ever experienced before, and i've been to some weird cities, trust me. first off, i just checked and it's...well, the temperature is around 15°C but it feels like 14°C, with humidity at 54% and pressure at 1016. there right now, hope you like that kind of thing. it's not exactly tropical, but it's also not freezing, so i guess it's fine.
this city is huge. like, seriously, it spans about 82,400 square kilometers-roughly the size of austria! it's china's largest municipality by area and population, with over 32 million people. that's more than many countries! the urban core is compact but surrounded by satellite towns and rural belts, so it's like a giant urban-rural hybrid that just keeps expanding.
they call it the "mountain city" and "river city," which makes sense when you see the place. it's built on a hilly promontory between the yangtze and jialing rivers. the terrain is all steep hills, parallel mountain valleys, karst landscapes with stone forests and limestone caves. the central city occupies this hilly peninsula of red sandstone and shale. someone told me that historically it was surrounded by walls and gates, though only two gates remain today.
the urban development here is something else. it's like a vertical city with tiered skylines and high-density infrastructure. they call it an "8d spatial experience" because the multi-level topography is so disorienting. it's hard to navigate, with steep streets that go up and down, bridges connecting different levels, buildings that seem to be built on top of each other. it's cyberpunk-like, really, with this unique "mountain and river" topography creating a wavy, multi-elevation urban form. honestly, my legs are still tired from all the walking up and down.
if you get bored, hubei and hunan provinces are just a short drive away to the east, sichuan and shaanxi to the north, and guizhou to the south. i didn't get to explore those, but they're there if you need a change of scenery.
someone told me that the city experiences regular landslides and flooding due to its riverside location. they've implemented these "sponge city" resilient designs for water management, which is probably a good thing. i didn't notice any flooding while i was there, but i wasn't here during the heavy monsoon rains they get in late spring and early summer.
the climate is subtropical with frequent monsoon rains, especially night rains. they call this the "night rain in the ba mountains" in chinese poetry. i didn't get to experience that particular phenomenon, but it sounds atmospheric.
major tourist attractions include the three gorges along the yangtze (qutang, wu, and xiling), the longshuixia gap with its three natural bridges, karst stone forests and caves, danxia landforms with red cliffs and bizarre peaks. the central city's hilly promontory offers panoramic night views of rivers and mountains, which are pretty cool to see.
the city has served as a leading river port, transportation hub, and commercial center, gaining strategic importance in national initiatives like the western development strategy, belt and road initiative, and yangtze river economic belt. it's clearly important, even if my little tourist brain didn't fully grasp all the economic implications.
the population is spread across hyper-urban core districts (yuzhong, jiangbei, nan'an), satellite towns, rural belts, and reserves, fostering a diverse mix of urban, rural, and mountainous lifestyles. the "central city + satellite town + rural belt" model reflects adaptive governance, whatever that means. the culture is shaped by its river-mountain landscape, inspiring poetry and earning it those nicknames about the 8d experience.
someone told me that chongqing stands out as the world's most complex vertical city, with tiered skylines, high-density infrastructure, and a unique "mountain and river" topography creating a wavy, multi-elevation urban form unmatched globally. it exemplifies integrated urban-rural planning amid karst mountains that apparently inspired avatar's landscapes, serving as a global model for mountainous megacity development. sounds impressive, right?
i tried to find out about the local cuisine, but the search results don't provide specific details on chongqing's cuisine. bummer. i was looking forward to trying some authentic local dishes. hopefully next time.
i also didn't identify any specific notable individuals from chongqing during my research. maybe i'm not looking hard enough, or maybe they're not as famous as i thought.
the things to be aware of when visiting or living here are the regular landslides and flooding due to its riverside location, and the steep, hilly terrain that demands compact vertical development and can challenge navigation. the city's vast scale includes varied rural and urban zones, so it's not just one big urban jungle.
overall, chongqing is a fascinating place, chaotic and complex, with its own unique rhythm. it's not the most tourist-friendly city i've ever visited, but it's definitely memorable. if you're into vertical cities, mountain-river landscapes, and the occasional night rain, this might be your kind of place. just wear comfortable shoes and bring a good map...or maybe a gps, because the 8d experience can be disorienting.
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