It takes a while to get to Chongqing—six hours by train from Zhengzhou, exactly, thanks to the high-speed train.

The city has been on our list for a while, but it’s far and hard to get to. And the geographical location is only the first challenge because trust me, Chongqing is another world altogether.

I got off the train half asleep. At first glance, Chongqing looked like a Chinese version of São Paulo, with tunnels, bridges, tall buildings, and steep streets. The taxi sped to the apartment building. It was Sunday, and there wasn’t much traffic.

It was only after we washed up and took the elevator down from the 39^th floor that we realized we had stepped south of the Yangtze River. Well, kind of. Technically, our district was north of the Yangtze River—I could see it from the apartment window!—but culturally, we were definitely in southern China.

The Yangtze isn’t just a river flowing west to east across the country. It was the political boundary between North China and south China several times in history. Today, it remains a cultural and psychological divide between the two China—the north grows wheat while the south grows rice, the north has more political power while the southerners developed trade, northerners tend to speak Mandarin, while the south is home to hundreds of dialects.

I had never been that far west in China and neither had Feng.

We were in for an interesting cultural shock.

Chongqing makes you feel like you’re in a hotpot…

It’s hot in Chongqing, very hot, hotter than in Beijing or Zhengzhou, where it was sweltering. Real feel of 51°C—welcome to Chongqing, birthplace of the hotpot and a hotpot itself.

I can’t even describe how hot the weather is. You’re constantly drenched in sweat. And I like high temperatures!

We found out that many locals just spend the day in subway stations to escape from the heat. Like, you have dozens of people playing cards, eating takeout, or chatting, sitting on the floor at each subway entrance.

We survive drinking a lot of water, plus fancy iced tea from Chagee for Feng, and iced coffee from Luckin Coffee for me.

Chongqing is obsessed with xiǎo Miàn (小面) and spicy food

The first night, Feng and I stood in front of a bāo zi place, the only one still open on a Sunday night, unable to understand any of the steamed buns’ filling and unable to decipher what the seller was saying. Lesson learned, bāo zi fillings are different in the south—for instance, they seem to like méigāncài (dry pickled mustard, 梅干菜) better than the classic jiǔ cài (Chinese chive).

And this was just the beginning of the food culture shock.

This corner of China is particularly spicy. Everything is “là.” Don’t bother saying “just a bit spicy”, their level of spicy isn’t exactly standard.

Now, I can deal with spicy food. What I didn’t expect was that there are basically two kinds of restaurants—huǒ guō (hot pot, 火锅) or xiǎomiàn (local noodle dish, 小面), plus plenty of street food like… chicken feet and rabbit head.

I’m a noodle gal, so I went for xiǎomiàn, more specifically wānzá miàn (豌杂面), the most common version of the dish. Other twists include beef tripe, no thank you. A bowl of “little noodles” is basically boiled angel hair-like noodles, blanched leafy greens, a numbing red broth, minced meat and yellow peas.

The Chongqing xiǎomiàn are delicious but I got a little bit sick of them after a while. I ended up getting the classic “egg and tomato noodles” a couple of times just to get something not spicy—and still, Chongqing people put chili oil on it!

You can walk across the Yangzi River in Chongqing

Chongqing is surrounded by the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. We took the Dongshuimen Bridge to walk the 858 metres across the Yangze River from the Yuzhong and Nan’an districts.

The views leave you speechless, and the traffic is pretty good for pedestrians.

For a thrilling ride, there’s the “Ropeway Of Yangtze River”

Alternatively, the popular way to cross the Yangze River is to take the aerial tramway between the Xinhua Road Cableway Station and Shangxin Street Cableway Station.

It’s more of an attraction than a local transportation option, so expect a very crowded—but scenic—five-minute trip!

There’s an amazing temple hidden between skyscrapers

Chongqing is a vertical city built on mountainous terrain. The urban landscape is a multilevel madness with steep stairways, elevators, escalators, cliffs and more.

And in the middle of it, you’ll find gems like an old temple nested between skyscrapers.

There are entire fun neighbourhoods of old streets to explore

Chongqing isn’t a soulless sprawling city. It’s actually full of historic areas that feel a bit Disneylandesque but are very fun to explore. Plus, you can’t beat the views or the atmosphere.

Zhou Enlai, Mao, Lei Feng and other communist heroes are in Chongqing

We visited Zhou Enlai’s former residence and spotted a few Lei Feng, just like in Shenyang!

Chongqing is a fascinating mix of old and new

Chongqing is extremely modern, with efficient subway lines and a cyberpunk architecture style.

Yet, this is the only place in China where I’ve seen people using bamboo shoulder poles to carry fruits and vegetables or first-time escalator users!

The main streets are ahead by a century, the back alleys much less so.

Panda this, panda that, Chongqing loves pandas

The home province of pandas is Sichuan, next door, but Chongqing has a serious panda obsession as well.

The only place where we barely saw them was at the zoo, because it was so hot that they were hiding.

Wait, Chongqing lights up at night!

As soon as the sun sets, Chongqing lights up and turns into a completely different city. Crazy!