Day 6: Chongqing, Friday 26th September 2025
Standing on the Rooftop Plaza of the Kuxing Building, Chongqing
24°, cloudy with drizzle, clearing later
NZ$1 = Y4
Y1=NZ$0.25
Up at 7am, headed downstairs for breakfast at 7:30am. Breakfast at the Walling was included in the price, but this breakfast was a bit different to what we were used to ( no western style buffet for us today! ). We sat down and were served with a bowl of noodles in a broth each, with an egg, and then we were brought 2 cups of warm sweet soy milk. The noodle dishes weren’t spicy and had no meat in them but were very filling and tasty. Again because we clearly had no idea what to do we got special treatment; everyone else had to go get there food from the servery counter and get their own soy milk, while ours was brought to us at the table.
Went back up to the room at 8am, chilled for a bit ( the weather outside was a bit damp so we were in no rush to go out ) and we did some washing ( free machines in the hotel, and the machines had an attendant to help ). When Liz went down to get the washing out of the dryer she found that it had already been taken out and put into our bag by the attendant; great service for the price.
While this is only day six of our trip we have noticed something; lot of people doing ‘service work’ ( eg sweeping floors, working in the laundry of a hotel etc ) are older ( eg 70+ ) and this seems to be part of the culture of China; everyone has a job to do and just because you get old doesn’t mean there isn’t something to be done, and I would imagine the older folk are happy to keep active.
Out at 10am, we walked along to the Kuxing Building which was next to the metro station we arrived at yesterday ( Linjiangmen ). This building exemplifies the extreme vertical nature of Chongqing. We walked from the road level ( Linjiang Rd where our hotel was ))onto a large plaza which felt / looked like any pedestrian plaza you would find at ground level, but the plaza was actually on top of a 22 storey building. We walked to the far side of the plaza away from the road and looked down 22 floors to the street below. There was a bridge across to the building on the opposite side of this street, and this bridge entered that building at level 22, and there were another 10 floors above.
After looking around a bit we went into the metro station and caught the metro Line 2 to Liziba Station. We got out and walked down to street level ( about 6 floors down ) and exited to the road beside the river. Liziba Station is built at level 6 of an apartment building ( that was built at the same time as the metro line ) and takes up the whole of the 6th floor of the building. The building is built in such a way that the apartments above are effectively isolated from the parts of the structure of the building that support the metro line/station to eliminate vibrations and noise. Again the footpath was crowded with hoards looking, taking photos, talking to their tiktok audiences and others just selling stuff.
Back up into the station at 11:15am and onto a train to the west on Line 2, a change to Line 5 then north to Hongyancun Station. This station is supposed to be the deepest metro station in the world, so we headed up to the surface; it apparently takes 9 minutes to get up from the platform to the surface. Not sure if we exited through a ‘secret’ shallow exit but it didn't feel that deep to us. Back down again and headed on the metro towards Nanping; due to a combination of stations being closed and transfer points being closed between lines we had to exit the Line 9 station at Guanyinqiao ( which is north of the river ) and walk a short distance to the Line 3 station. But when we exited the station we found that Guanyinqiao had a large pedestrian street and malls. So we went into a food street / mall entrance to look for some lunch ( it was 12:30pm ) Walked into mall and had Starbucks for lunch ( sometimes just you have to ). The downside to Starbucks is the price ( Y150 for a croissant, a hotdog, cheesecake and 2 coffees ) the upside is they are a haven of quiet in a noisy world that is China.
Back out into the pedestrian street at 1pm and walked along to Mixi Mall, Liz bought makeup at Sephora ( to replace a damaged one (Y35)). Walked around some more, looked in some malls then down to metro station for Line 3, and back to Linjiangmen ( via 3 line then 2 ), arriving at 2:40pm, and walked back to the hotel. Rested for a bit.
Headed out again at 3:15pm to the World Financial Center ( WFC ) building, bought tickets and headed up to the observation floor on the 73rd floor ( Y250 for 2 ) . Level 73 is an enclosed floor with 360 degree views, but there isa also an open skydeck on the next level ( up with the radio masts and building maintenance cranes ). Put our bags in a free locker ( no bags allowed up on the sky deck ) then up the stairs to the skydeck. Amazing views over Chongqing despite a bit of gloom around. The building is 339m tall but this is billed as the highest observation floor in China at 590m above sea level( the base of the building is 250m above sea level ); Shanghai Tower is 550m above sea level and is the tallest observation floor in China. Looked around then back down at 4pm, got some supplies at a shop then back to hotel for another rest.
Out at 5:45pm, ordered a Didi to take us to the other side of the river ( we were a bit slow getting down to the street from our room so there was a bit of confusion trying to find our Didi, but after a few messages we found him…or he found us as he knew what we looked like! ). We crossed the Qiansimen Bridge and were dropped off next to the Grand Theatre ( Didi was Y15 ). We walked down the hill to the edge of the river where there was a park and part of an old stone wall. After wandering around we found a spot where we could see the bridge and the Hongyadong building beyond, and the skyline of the city behind. It looked like the river level was high as part of the parK was closed off and there were a couple of police keeping people out. We set up our cameras and waited for sunset and for the city lights to come on. We had a few chats with people curious about what we were doing, asked some locals what time the light came on ( there was mixed views from 7pm to 8pm ). When the lights finally lit up the bridge at 8pm ( although the bridge light switched off again after a couple of minutes ) we got our shots and walked back up to the Grand Theatre, ordered another Didi ( Y19 ) and headed back across to other side of river to the hotel ( a bit busy with traffic and people out wandering the streets, dropped off our camera gear and headed a couple of doors along the street for dinner ( the restaurant was “Zhou Ping Mei Noodles”, we had pork dumplings, beef noodles and 2 beers for Y80 ). Back up to room at 9pm, coffee then bed.
Zoomable Map ( pin is located on the Walling Hotel )