Inspiration
Local guides, seasons, food and neighbourhoods — everything we'd tell a friend planning their first trip to Chongqing.
Built across steep hills where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet, Chongqing stacks streets on top of streets. A building's 1st floor and its 22nd floor can both be street level — and the metro really does run through an apartment block at Liziba.
March–May and September–November are the sweet spots: mild, misty and green. July and August are famously hot, but that's also when the mountains around Simian and Wulong are at their most beautiful and coolest.
The metro covers most of the city and is cheap and easy in English. Add cable cars across the river, long escalators and ferries — in Chongqing, transport is part of the sightseeing.
Chongqing hotpot deserves its fame, but locals also live on xiaomian noodles for breakfast, jianghu-style river fish, laziji chicken and cold noodles from a lane-side stall.
Wulong's karst bridges, Simian Mountain's waterfalls and forest trails, and the old fishing towns along the Yangtze are all within a day of downtown — and far quieter than the headline attractions.
Carry a light rain layer, expect fog, download an offline map (the hills confuse GPS), and don't over-plan: half the city's charm is the alley you didn't intend to walk down.