141 POIs · 黑珍珠 Black Pearl 2026, Must-Eat List 2026, Dianping and local press · no Eater coverage
Tap a route and it gets drawn on the map, stop by stop.
Tap a pin to see photos, rating and how to get there by metro or on foot. Turn on a route to follow the numbered path.
This interactive map of Chongqing (China) brings together 141 hand-picked places: 50 attractions, 40 restaurants, 26 cafés and 25 shops. It also includes 5 walking routes with their stops in order. For every place you get what it is, a practical tip and how to get there by public transport. It is free, works on your phone and needs no sign-up.
· Curated by the HOLASIM team · How we make the maps
Tap a route to see it drawn on the map, stop by stop.
4-5 h on foot, almost flat by Chongqing standards · start at 16:00 and finish with the Hongyadong lights at 19:00 · book the cable car 2 days ahead · 7 stops
5 h, all steps and gradients · not accessible and not doable with a suitcase · start at 09:00 at Liziba to film the train without the crowd, and always walk down, never up · 7 stops
6 h including the bus up Nanshan · buy the Yikeshu ticket online the day before and go up before 21:00, because the floodlights switch off at 22:00 · 7 stops
Full day · all free, but Zhazidong and Baigongguan need a named WeChat booking and they are TWO separate registrations: get both the same morning · 7 stops
5-6 h with one metro hop between Shapingba and Guanyinqiao · do Ciqikou before 10:00 or after 19:00; at midday you cannot walk it · 6 stops
洪崖洞 · Yuzhong
Eleven floors of illuminated stilt houses clinging to the Jialing cliff — the night shot that made Chongqing go viral.
Tip: It is not an ancient town: the complex was built in 2006 in diaojiaolou style. Entry is free but needs a named booking; lights come on around 19:00 and go off near 23:00. The best shot is not inside but across the water, from Qiansimen bridge or the Jiabin Road riverbank.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6) or Linjiangmen (Line 2)
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026 · prensa local
Show on map洪崖洞观景点 · Jiangbei
The mirror-image lookout: from here all of Hongyadong fits in frame, with both rivers and Qiansimen bridge.
Tip: Get there 20 minutes before the lights to claim railing space: between 19:00 and 20:00 it fills with tripods. It is free and fully open-air, so heavy rain kills it.
🚇 Dajuyuan / Grand Theatre (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map李子坝站观景平台 · Yuzhong
The monorail enters a residential block on the 6th floor and comes out the other side. No trick: that is Liziba station.
Tip: The city-built platform is free and open all day; a train passes every 3-8 minutes. Go 9:00-11:00 or after 20:00 to dodge the crowd, and film from the lower deck: the upper one shoots into the afternoon sun.
🚇 Liziba (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Chongqing Rail Transit
Show on map长江索道 · Yuzhong-Nan'an
Crossing the Yangtze hanging from a 1,166 m cable: it started as neighbourhood transport and is now the river's most photographed ride.
Tip: 2026 fares: 30 yuan one way, 50 round trip (bundles exist with an audio guide and with the Cloud Eye deck). Book on the official WeChat account up to 2 days ahead and you get a queue number; without a booking the peak-season wait tops an hour. Refunds carry a penalty.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6) on the north side
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026 · operador oficial
Show on map嘉陵江索道 · Yuzhong
The famous cable car's older brother: opened 1982, closed 2011, and its cabin and tower are now the city's cableway museum.
Tip: Heads up: this cableway does NOT run, do not come to buy a ticket. What you visit is the structure and the small museum beside it; it is a 15-minute stop on the way to Hongyadong, not a plan in itself.
🚇 Grand Theatre (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map十八梯传统风貌区 · Yuzhong
The historic stairway from the upper city down to the port, demolished and rebuilt as a museum-quarter: eighteen flights, seven levels of city.
Tip: Free and open all day; shops shut between 21:00 and 22:00. Walk DOWN from Jiaochangkou and exit at the bottom toward the river: climbing the eighteen flights back up in the heat is penance.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026
Show on map山城记忆馆 · Shibati, Yuzhong
Inside Shibati: models, photos and objects from the Chongqing of porters, bang-bang men and alleys that no longer exist.
Tip: Indoors, and the ideal excuse to break the Shibati descent when the sun or the rain hits. Labels are almost all in Chinese: bring a camera-translation app.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Chongqing Bendibao
Show on map重庆中国三峡博物馆 · Yuzhong
The Yangtze's national museum: what was rescued before the dam drowned the Three Gorges, plus the wartime-capital hall.
Tip: Free, 9:00-17:00 with last entry at 16:00; closed Mondays except public holidays. The booking rule has flip-flopped more than once: bring your passport and check the same morning whether registration is required, because online slots vanish fast.
🚇 Dalitang (Line 10)
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026 · museo oficial
Show on map人民解放纪念碑 · Yuzhong
The 1947 obelisk that names downtown: once the tallest thing in the city, now dwarfed by 300 m towers.
Tip: Free, open-air and permanently busy. It is the natural meeting point: Bayi food street, Hongyadong and the cableway station are all walkable from here.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map八一好吃街 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Two hundred metres of stalls beside the obelisk: suan la fen, bingfen, skewers, chilli seafood and the smell-chaos that defines the city.
Tip: It starts filling at 18:00 and peaks at 21:00. Nearly every stall takes QR codes only: without Alipay or WeChat Pay loaded with an international card you will just be looking. Order the bingfen last — it cools your mouth down.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map重庆云端之眼观景台 · Yuzhong
High-level deck over the Yuzhong peninsula: both rivers, the bridges and the tower forest in one sweep.
Tip: Sold in bundles with the Yangtze cableway and with the Huguang Guild Hall, which works out well below buying each separately. It is enclosed: a solid plan B when the sky blots out the street-level view.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026
Show on map朝天门码头 · Yuzhong
The tip of the peninsula, where the green Jialing hits the brown Yangtze and you can see the seam between the two colours.
Tip: The seam between the rivers shows far better in the low-water season, October to March, when the Yangtze drops and exposes the sandbank. The two-river night cruises leave from here.
🚇 Chaotianmen (Line 1)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map湖广会馆 · Dongshuimen, Yuzhong
Three walled Qing guild halls above the Yangtze, holding China's only museum of the great Huguang-to-Sichuan migration.
Tip: Admission 32 yuan, 9:00-18:00 with last tickets at 17:00. Bundles exist with the Zuibayu opera show and with the Cloud Eye deck. It is neither free nor pre-booked online: the physical box office is enough.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026
Show on map东水门 · Yuzhong
One of the seventeen Ming city gates still standing, with the 2014 suspension bridge springing right over it.
Tip: Free and always open. Shoot the old-new contrast from under the gate looking up at the bridge deck; it is a steep walk down from the Huguang Guild Hall.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map通远门 · Yuzhong
The wall's only landward gate: this is how you entered Chongqing when everything else was river and cliff.
Tip: Free, with a small park on top of the wall where locals play mahjong at dusk. Chains on foot with Shibati and the Shancheng trail.
🚇 Qixinggang (Lines 1 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map山城步道 起点 · Yuzhong
The path that runs along the ledge of the Yuzhong cliff, past old houses, staircases and balconies hung over the river.
Tip: Free and open 24 hours, but it is pure staircase: not wheelchair- or suitcase-friendly, and slippery when wet. Wear trainers and walk it north to south so you descend rather than climb.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map枇杷山公园 · Yuzhong
The peninsula's highest point at 345 m above sea level: the Hongxing pavilion is the classic lookout from which Chongqing was photographed for decades.
Tip: Free, open late and nearly empty next to the paid decks. The climb from Zhongxing Road is all staircase: bring water.
🚇 Qixinggang (Lines 1 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map鹅岭公园 · Yuzhong
A 1909 private garden turned public park on the narrowest neck of the peninsula: from Kanyi tower you see both rivers at once.
Tip: The park is free; climbing Kanyi tower costs a small extra fee. Pair it with the old Erchang printing works, ten minutes on foot along Eling Zhengjie.
🚇 Eling (Line 1)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Chongqing Bendibao
Show on map佛图关（佛图夜雨） · Yuzhong
A fortified pass with rock carvings on the ridge: in spring the monorail runs through a tunnel of blossom the city calls the train to spring.
Tip: Free. The train-through-blossom shot belongs to March and April, not now: October brings the fog that fills the valley and leaves the ridge floating.
🚇 Fotuguan (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map李子坝抗战遗址公园 · Yuzhong
Wartime-capital mansions from 1938-1946, rescued and re-set on terraces right below the station that pierces the building.
Tip: Free and nearly empty: most people shoot the train and leave without going down the hundred metres of steps to get here. The quietest good half-hour in Yuzhong.
🚇 Liziba (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map周公馆 · Zengjiayan, Yuzhong
The house at 50 Zengjiayan where the communist delegation lived and negotiated through the war, metres from the Kuomintang's own offices.
Tip: Free, indoors and part of the Hongyan circuit: a rain refuge between the Great Hall and the Three Gorges Museum. Rooms are restored with the original furniture.
🚇 Zengjiayan (Lines 2 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Hongyan Museum
Show on map桂园 · Zengjiayan, Yuzhong
The garden house where Mao and Chiang Kai-shek signed the Double Tenth Agreement in 1945: a small building with an outsized table of history.
Tip: Free and done in twenty minutes. Same block as Zhou Gongguan: do both together and you get the whole 1945 story in an hour.
🚇 Zengjiayan (Lines 2 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Hongyan Museum
Show on map史迪威博物馆 · Yuzhong
General Joseph Stilwell's headquarters on the Jialing Xincun hill: the China war seen from the Allied side.
Tip: One of the very few museums in town with full English labelling, because the story is binational. Shares a garden with the Flying Tigers museum: one entrance, two museums.
🚇 Liziba (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map飞虎队博物馆 · Yuzhong
The story of Chennault's squadron told through uniforms, fuselage and the letters of the pilots who flew the Hump.
Tip: Small but very well told, with bilingual material. Forty minutes together with the Stilwell, and it is downhill to Liziba station.
🚇 Liziba (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map磁器口古镇 · Shapingba
The old porcelain port on the Jialing: a dozen bluestone lanes of Ming and Qing houses, now the busiest snack street in the city.
Tip: Honestly: the main street is a souvenir mall with tiled roofs. The real thing is in the side lanes and on Cihengjie, where genuine teahouses survive. Free, no booking except on major holidays.
🚇 Ciqikou (Line 1)
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026
Show on map渣滓洞 · Geleshan, Shapingba
A secret prison in an abandoned coal mine at the foot of Geleshan, where the political police held the inmates of the novel Red Crag.
Tip: Free but with a mandatory named booking through the Hongyan Museum's official WeChat account: no QR code, no entry, and the daily quota sells out. Open 9:00-17:00, last entry 16:30.
🚇 Lieshimu (Line 1) then the uphill bus
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026 · Hongyan Museum
Show on map白公馆 · Geleshan, Shapingba
A country villa the SACO turned into a high-security prison: cells in the bedrooms, a lookout on the roof.
Tip: Same WeChat booking system as Zhazidong, but they are two separate registrations: get both the same morning or you will be locked out of one. They sit 2 km apart, with a shuttle.
🚇 Lieshimu (Line 1) then the uphill bus
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026 · Hongyan Museum
Show on map重庆歌乐山革命纪念馆 · Shapingba
The museum that makes sense of the two Geleshan prisons and of the massacre of 27 November 1949.
Tip: Start here and then climb to the prisons: without the museum, Zhazidong and Baigongguan are two empty houses. Indoors, inside the same free circuit.
🚇 Lieshimu (Line 1) then the uphill bus
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Hongyan Museum
Show on map一棵树观景台 · Nanshan, Nan'an
The city's official balcony: from the south mountain, the whole Yuzhong peninsula lit up like a circuit board.
Tip: Admission 30 yuan, pre-booked via WeChat mini-program, Meituan or Ctrip; open 9:00-22:30 with last admission 22:00. Key detail: the city floodlights switch off at 22:00, so get up there before 21:00 or you will see nothing.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6) then bus 364 or 384
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026
Show on map南山植物园 · Nan'an
Four hundred hectares of mountain above the city: glasshouses, the orchid garden and the woods where the fog gets snagged.
Tip: Nanshan's red leaves only turn from mid-November: what is building now is the fog season, which with luck gives you a sea of clouds at dawn. The glasshouses save a rainy day.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6) then the Nanshan bus
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Chongqing Bendibao
Show on map涂山寺 · Nanshan, Nan'an
Chongqing's oldest temple, on the Nanshan slope: 1,800 years of incense with the whole city as backdrop.
Tip: Free and still working: the monks serve vegetarian lunch for a donation. Cover shoulders and knees, and no flash inside the halls.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6) then the Nanshan bus
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map龙门浩老街（龙门浩月） · Nan'an
The south bank's old foreign concession, restored: consulates, brick houses and the best promenade facing the Yuzhong skyline.
Tip: Free and open all day; the golden hour is 17:00-19:00, when the towers opposite light up while there is still light on the old houses. It is a slope: walk down from the Shangxinjie cableway station.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Chongqing Bendibao
Show on map故宫文物南迁纪念馆 · Nan'an
The house where the Forbidden City's treasures were stored while they crossed China escaping the war.
Tip: Free, indoors and inside Longmenhao: the south bank's natural rain stop. Ask at reception for the English sheet — they have it even if it is not on display.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map东水门大桥景观步道公园 · Nan'an
Nineteen zigzag ramps climbing from the bank to the bridge deck: a sculpture-staircase with a view of both rivers.
Tip: Free and always open. These are ramps, not steps, so it is one of the few steep bits of the city you can do with a stroller. Fully lit at night.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆大剧院 · Jiangbeizui, Jiangbei
A 100,000 m² slab of translucent glass planted on the tip of Jiangbeizui, right where the two rivers join.
Tip: No ticket, no interior, but the perimeter is public and it is the best low angle to shoot Hongyadong and Qiansimen bridge in one frame. Check the programme: cheap weeknight concerts turn up.
🚇 Grand Theatre (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆科技馆 · Jiangbeizui, Jiangbei
Four floors of hands-on experiments, with a whole hall on how you build bridges over a river that rises eight metres.
Tip: Free with prior registration, closed Mondays, and weekend slots sell out early. The best rain shelter in town if you travel with kids.
🚇 Grand Theatre (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map江北嘴中央公园 · Jiangbei
The financial district's lung: lawns, fountains and the Jiangbeizui skyline right on top of you.
Tip: Free, flat and open: one of the few bits of Chongqing you walk without steps. Ideal for resetting your legs between the planning museum and the theatre.
🚇 Grand Theatre (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map罗汉寺 · Yuzhong
A Song-dynasty temple hidden among skyscrapers, with a corridor of rock carvings and 500 arhat statues two blocks from the obelisk.
Tip: Cheap entry and a working temple. The carving corridor is under rock, so it works in rain. Scenes of Crazy Stone were shot here: if you saw the film you will recognise it.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆国泰艺术中心 · Yuzhong
A cube of crossed red beams quoting the traditional dougong bracket: downtown's most photographed building after the obelisk.
Tip: The plaza is public and free, and at night the beams light up. Inside there is a theatre and the Chongqing Art Museum: check the programme before coming.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆奥林匹克体育中心 · Jiulongpo
Yangjiaping's 58,680-seat stadium, the city's football home until its club vanished.
Tip: Do not come looking for a Super League match: Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic was dissolved on 24 May 2022 and the city lost its top-flight club. The venue still hosts concerts and athletics.
🚇 Olympic Sports Center (Loop Line)
Featured in: Wikipedia · prensa deportiva
Show on map四川美术学院 黄桷坪 · Jiulongpo
The old campus of the southwest's great art school, with the 1.25 km graffiti street its own students painted.
Tip: Free and walkable: get off at the Line 18 station named after the school and follow Huangjueping Main Street. The district is still workers and artists, not souvenirs.
🚇 Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (Line 18)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Chongqing Bendibao
Show on map坦克库艺术中心 · 黄桷坪, Jiulongpo
Army fuel tanks turned into galleries and studios: Chongqing's first independent art space.
Tip: Free when a show is on, and the studios are often open: knock and if someone is working they will usually let you look. Ask before photographing work in progress.
🚇 Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (Line 18)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map慈云寺 · Nan'an
The only temple in China where monks and nuns lived under one roof, hung above the Yangtze on the south bank.
Tip: Token entry, and from the terrace you watch the cable car cross the river right below. Ten minutes on foot from Longmenhao: do them together.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map大金鹰 · Nanshan, Nan'an
A 30 m bronze eagle atop a pavilion on the Nanshan summit: the south mountain's other lookout, less famous and less packed.
Tip: If Yikeshu is jammed or sold out, this is plan B, 3 km away. It charges its own entry and the stair up to the eagle's base is steep.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6) then the Nanshan bus
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆动物园 · Jiulongpo
Chongqing's giant panda zoo, with a settled colony and far shorter queues than Chengdu.
Tip: There is a monorail station literally called Zoo. Pandas are liveliest 9:00-11:00, which is feeding time; in the afternoon they sleep.
🚇 Zoo (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆1949大剧院 · Shapingba
A theatre purpose-built for one show: the audience turns on a rotating stall while five stages tell the story of 1949.
Tip: Book days ahead; the show is entirely in Chinese, though the staging reads fine without it. Ten minutes on foot from Ciqikou: chain them.
🚇 Ciqikou (Line 1)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map三毛故居 · Nanshan, Nan'an
The house where the writer Sanmao was born, on the Nanshan slope, now restored with her library and garden.
Tip: Small and quiet, with a café next door named after her. If you are going up Nanshan for the night view, come here first in daylight.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6) then the Nanshan bus
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map法国水师兵营旧址 · Nan'an
The 1902 French naval barracks above the Yangtze, brick tower and all: the last of the treaty-port years.
Tip: Exterior view only, and it chains with the Nanbin Road riverfront. Floodlit at night, it is an odd counterpoint to the skyline opposite.
🚇 Danzishi (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map苏家坝观景平台 · Nan'an
The platform over the Sujiaba spiral viaduct, where the expressway coils on itself across five levels.
Tip: Free and little known: if you came for the impossible stacked-level city, this shot explains Chongqing better than Hongyadong does. Lit at night.
🚇 Tongyuanju (Line 3, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map凯旋路电梯 · Yuzhong
A 1986 public lift joining two streets separated by a cliff: five jiao and forty seconds between city levels.
Tip: Costs coins and is real transport, not an attraction: locals ride it to work. It is covered, and links the Shancheng trail to Shibati without climbing stairs.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map桥头火锅 南滨路 · Nan'an
One of the founding names of Chongqing hotpot, its beef-tallow recipe listed as municipal intangible heritage.
Tip: Order the jiugongge, the nine-grid pot: the centre boils hard and is for offal, the outer squares run gentler for meat. If you cannot take the heat ask for weila, not yuanyang: the milky broth ruins the tallow.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6 and Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping · patrimonio inmaterial municipal
Show on map秦妈火锅 · 南滨路, Nan'an
One of the city's major hotpot houses, among those that set the beef-tallow red-broth standard in the nineties.
Tip: Ask for a window table: the Nanbin Road frontage looks straight at the Yuzhong skyline. Book after 20:00 if you want the towers already lit.
🚇 Shanghao (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map德庄火锅 · 南滨路, Nan'an
The house that industrialised Chongqing heat and measures its mala in degrees: pick a level and they will deliver it.
Tip: Start at the lowest level even if you eat chilli at home: the mala here does not burn, it numbs, and the scale is different. The sesame-oil-and-garlic dip puts the fire out.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map地下之城老火锅 · Jiangbei
Hotpot served inside a wartime air-raid shelter: a constant 18 degrees, rock walls and a tallow pot.
Tip: The tunnel trick is natural air conditioning, but also poor ventilation: you leave smelling of beef tallow. Bring a washable jacket and skip the good clothes.
🚇 Wulidian (Lines 6 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map防空洞北楼社区食堂 · Jiangbei
A community canteen tucked into an air-raid tunnel: hotpot and daily dishes at neighbourhood prices, with actual neighbours.
Tip: This is a social canteen, not a themed restaurant: go at midday, point at what you want on the tray and pay by weight. QR payment only, so have Alipay or WeChat Pay already set up.
🚇 Wulidian (Lines 6 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map枇杷园 · Nan'an
Courtyard hotpot on the south slope, outdoor tables under the trees and the tallow pot in the middle.
Tip: October is the patio's moment: exactly cool enough to eat chilli outdoors. If it rains the indoor rooms are few and fill fast: book or eat early.
🚇 Chongqing Jiaotong University (Line 3, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map重庆海棠老火锅 · 南滨路, Nan'an
Old-style laohuoguo on Nanbin Road: thick tallow broth, fresh offal and no concessions to tourist palates.
Tip: The cuts to order are maodu (beef tripe) and yachang (duck intestine): seven seconds in the boiling broth and out, not one more. Ask whether they use recycled laoyou: the law requires them to declare it.
🚇 Shanghao (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map赵二火锅总店 · Yuzhong
The flagship of a neighbourhood laohuoguo that grew without losing the pot: plastic tables, dark broth and a queue on the pavement.
Tip: There is no English menu and there will not be: photograph the board and translate it with your phone camera. The classic order is eight plates for two — it all goes.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map凤霞老火锅 · Guanyinqiao, Jiangbei
Laohuoguo in the middle of Guanyinqiao, two blocks off the pedestrian strip: the neighbourhood option in Jiangbei's most commercial zone.
Tip: This is the post-shopping hotpot in Guanyinqiao: step off the pedestrian strip and in five minutes you are eating at half the Nanbin Road price.
🚇 Guanyinqiao (Lines 3 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map素素福福养生火锅 · Yuzhong
The vegetarian take on hotpot, done seriously: mushroom and spice broth instead of tallow, same pot, same ritual.
Tip: This is the real way out if you are vegetarian: classic Chongqing hotpot has beef tallow in the broth and there is no way around it. Still specify no bone stock.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map陶然居 · 南滨路, Nan'an
The house that turned chilli river snails into a national dish and went from street stall to one of China's top chains.
Tip: The house dish is lazi tianluo, river snails stir-fried with dried chilli. This is not hotpot: it is jianghu cai, Chongqing's roadside cooking, and it is eaten with rice.
🚇 Shanghao (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping · prensa gastronómica
Show on map渝信川菜 · 南滨路, Nan'an
Sit-down Sichuan cooking with the classics done right: laziji chicken, maoxuewang and pickled-chilli fish.
Tip: If you are two and do not want hotpot, this is the plan: order maoxuewang, a stir-fried green and rice, and you are set. The menu has photos, which solves the language.
🚇 Shanghao (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map梁平张鸭子 · 南滨路, Nan'an
Lacquered duck from Liangping county, Chongqing: crisp skin, salted meat and a chop on the counter in full view.
Tip: Sold by weight and to go: half a duck plus a beer on the Nanbin Road riverfront is a perfect dinner with no table wait. Ask them to chop it.
🚇 Shanghao (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map顺水鱼馆 · 南滨路, Nan'an
River fish in a chilli pot, the Yangtze's other great dish: you pick it alive and they cook it in chilli or pickle.
Tip: Price goes by the fish's weight, so confirm the grams before they kill it or the bill will surprise you. Suan cai yu, with pickle, is less fiery than maoxuewang.
🚇 Shanghao (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map球溪老妈鲶鱼馆 · Jiulongpo
Qiuxi catfish in a pickled-chilli pot: one of the mother dishes of jianghu cai, the region's roadside style.
Tip: Jianghu cai literally means rivers-and-lakes cooking: trucker food, brutal portions and a single pot in the middle. Order for two even if you are three.
🚇 Yangjiaping (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map大浪村尖椒鸡 重庆第一家 · Shapingba
The house that invented jianjiaoji, chicken stir-fried with fresh green chilli: it bills itself as Chongqing's first and the queue backs it up.
Tip: It is a village house on the Shapingba fringe, not a downtown unit: take a taxi and go at lunchtime. The heat comes from fresh chilli, not oil: a different kind of burn.
🚇 Dazhulin (Line 6) then a taxi
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map勇娃大排档 · Jiulongpo
A proper dapaidang: pavement tables, a wok on full blast and the menu chalked on the wall.
Tip: It is in Dadukou, the steel district reinventing itself around the hotpot riverfront. Opens late and eats cheap: cold beer and grilled fish is the combo.
🚇 Mawangchang (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map丘二馆 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
A historic house recognised as a laozihao, famous for its clear chicken soup and rice plates since the 1930s.
Tip: The perfect antidote to three days of mala: the chicken soup here has no heat at all. It is listed in the Ministry of Commerce's digital laozihao museum. Opens early; there is a queue near midday.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · 老字号 (Ministerio de Comercio) · Dianping
Show on map超级李板凳面 总店 · Yuzhong
Stool noodles: you sit on a low bench on the pavement with the bowl on your knee, exactly as Chongqing breakfast demands.
Tip: Xiaomian is eaten between 7:00 and 9:30 and then it is gone. Order er liang (two liang, the standard portion) and say shao la if you do not want to be destroyed.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map回头火老街小面 · Jiangbei
Neighbourhood xiaomian in Jiangbei, the kind that opens at six and shuts when the dough runs out.
Tip: Chongqing xiaomian has no meat by default: for the topping, ask for zajiang (minced pork) or paipai (belly). You pay at the till before eating.
🚇 Mahuangliang (Line 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map十八梯豆花馆 · Yuzhong
Douhua: hot soy curd with spicy dip and a bowl of rice, the two-yuan lunch that kept the working city going.
Tip: You eat douhua by dipping the curd in the chilli dish, not by mixing. It sits inside the Shibati precinct, so it is the natural lunch stop on that descent.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map南山泉水豆花 · Nanshan, Nan'an
Douhua made with Nanshan spring water, served on the mountain with the city below: the classic of the climb.
Tip: This is the lunch stop before going up to Yikeshu: eat on the mountain, then wait for dark for the view. Closes early, around 19:00.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6) then the Nanshan bus
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map梯坎肥肠 · Jiulongpo
Braised pork intestine served at the foot of an old-city staircase: the dish that defines Chongqing's appetite.
Tip: Tikan means step: the place is literally on a staircase and is not accessible. Order the feichang with rice plus a douhua: that is the local combination.
🚇 Xietaizi (Line 1)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map李老五口水鸡 · Nan'an
Cold chicken drowned in chilli oil and Sichuan pepper: the name means mouth-watering chicken and it is not exaggerating.
Tip: Order it to go and eat it cold: the best snack to take to the riverfront or onto the train. Ask for a half portion if you are alone — the full one is huge.
🚇 Nanping (Lines 3 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map四妹串串香 · Nanping, Nan'an
Chuanchuan: hotpot on skewers — you raid the fridge, cook it yourself and pay by counting sticks at the end.
Tip: Chuanchuan is the cheapest and most sociable hotpot format, and Chongqingers eat it in the small hours. Keep the sticks: they are the bill.
🚇 Nanping (Lines 3 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map牛香阁串串香 · Jiulongpo
Beef chuanchuan in Dadukou: a hundred skewers in the fridge and a tallow pot waiting.
Tip: Dadukou is the district of the Hotpot Carnival the city runs from September to November on the riverfront: if you come to the festival, eat here afterwards.
🚇 Mawangchang (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map山和诗的院子餐厅 · Nanshan, Nan'an
Chef-driven cooking in a Nanshan courtyard, mountain produce and a menu that moves with the season.
Tip: Book without fail: few tables and they are up the mountain. Dinner here followed by the Yikeshu view is the best single evening on Nanshan.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6) then the Nanshan bus
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map鮨誌·割烹 · Yuzhong
A Japanese kappo counter downtown, imported produce and an omakase menu: the exact opposite of hotpot.
Tip: Expensive for the city and you must book days ahead. Worth it as a mid-trip break from the chilli: after three days of mala the palate needs a reset.
🚇 Lianglukou (Lines 1 & 3)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map北平机器 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Proper craft beer right in Jiefangbei: exactly what your tongue needs after a pot of mala.
Tip: Cold beer is the antidote locals do not use: here they drink hot tea with hotpot. Order an IPA and you will see why foreigners insist.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map江小白酒馆 · Yubei
The bar of the baijiu brand born in Chongqing that reinvented it for young drinkers: distilled sorghum in a short glass.
Tip: This brand's baijiu is far softer than the traditional stuff: the sensible way in if you have never had it. Ask for the juice version if it is still harsh.
🚇 Guangdianyuan (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapDaydreamer Taproom · Nan'an
A small taproom on the south bank with rotating taps and English-speaking staff: the human scale of the local beer scene.
Tip: This is where to ask what is on in the city this week: the bar staff speak English and know. Afternoons and evenings only.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6 and Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map纳溪沟烤鱼 · Nan'an
Kaoyu: fish butterflied on the grill and then simmered in its own chilli sauce at the table. The other great pot format.
Tip: Kaoyu is ideal for two if hotpot feels like too much: one fish is enough. Order the potato and bean-sprout sides for the broth.
🚇 Danzishi (Loop Line) then a 15-minute walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Dianping
Show on map段记烤鱼 · Yuzhong
Kaoyu downtown, the grill in plain sight and the sauce to taste: pickle, green chilli or house mala.
Tip: The fish takes 25 minutes: order cold starters the moment you sit or you will wait hungry. It is on the way to the Three Gorges Museum.
🚇 Dalitang (Line 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map周家大连水饺 · Yuzhong
A shuijiao house — northern boiled dumplings — served here with Chongqing chilli oil: the fusion nobody calls fusion.
Tip: The safe option if you travel with someone who cannot take heat: order the dumplings in clear broth with the chilli on the side. Open at lunch and dinner.
🚇 Niujiaotuo (Lines 2 & 3)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map胡记蹄花汤 · Jiulongpo
Pork trotter soup with beans, white and not spicy at all: what you eat in the small hours, or when the mala has gone too far.
Tip: It is in Huangjueping, the art-school district: pair it with the graffiti street. The soup comes with a separate chilli dish in case you want to spike it.
🚇 Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (Line 18)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map荣昌卤鹅坊 · Jiulongpo
Spice-brined goose from Rongchang, a Chongqing county: chopped at the counter and eaten with your hands.
Tip: Buy half a goose to go: the best picnic for the train or the hotel room, and it keeps for a few hours. Ask for the chilli separately.
🚇 Caiyunhu (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map城南夜市 · Chayuan, Nan'an
The southern night market: skewers, snails, noodles and beer in plastic cups well past midnight.
Tip: Starts at 19:00 and the good part happens after 21:00. Carry small cash as well as a QR wallet: some of the back stalls have no code.
🚇 Changshengqiao (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map民心佳园夜市 · Yubei
A working-class night market up north: stall food at neighbourhood prices, not one tourist in it.
Tip: It has a metro station with the same name, so you arrive directly. Watch the last train around 23:00: the market keeps going long after.
🚇 Minxinjiayuan (Line 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map菜园坝水果市场 · Yuzhong
The city's wholesale fruit market at the foot of the old station: Liangping pomelos, Fengjie mandarins and seasonal loquats.
Tip: October and November is the season for Liangping pomelo and Fengjie mandarin, the municipality's two flagship fruits: buy half a dozen for nothing. Opens before dawn.
🚇 Lianglukou (Lines 1 & 3)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map蟠龙荟美食街 · Jiulongpo
A Dadukou food street with twenty units side by side: hotpot, grill, noodles and chilli seafood, all local.
Tip: It is the eating plan of the district where the Hotpot Carnival sets up: if you cross to Dadukou for the festival, eat here before riding the monorail back.
🚇 Mawangchang (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map四囍茶馆 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
An old-style teahouse metres from the obelisk: long benches, lidded cups and nobody rushing you.
Tip: Specialty coffee is new in Chongqing; the chaguan is the real institution. You pay for the cup and they top up the hot water as often as you like: three hours is fine.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map浮云茶馆 · Nan'an
A teahouse on the south bank, picture windows to the Yangtze and tea served in a gaiwan as it should be.
Tip: Order a Yongchuan green tea — it is grown in Chongqing's own municipality and almost nobody takes it home. The perfect rainy plan in Longmenhao.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map云台茶 · Yuzhong
A modern tea room in the old city, leaves weighed by the gram and brewing done in front of you.
Tip: You can buy tea to take away and they vacuum-pack it, which is what you want for the plane. Ask them to explain the difference between Sichuan green and dark tea.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map第二茶世代 · 上清寺, Yuzhong
Chinese tea served with third-wave coffee codes: tasting by origin, measured timings and a communal table.
Tip: It is the bridge between the grandfathers' chaguan and specialty coffee: if Chinese tea intimidates you, start here because they explain it at the table.
🚇 Niujiaotuo (Lines 2 & 3)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map惜缘叙坊 · 南滨路, Nan'an
A teahouse on Nanbin Road, terrace facing the Yuzhong skyline and mahjong in the background.
Tip: The local custom is to hold a table all afternoon on a single pot: nobody will hurry you. Sit on the river side and wait for the city to light up.
🚇 Shanghao (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map憩茶 · Yuzhong
A neighbourhood teahouse on the Eling slope: lidded cups, newspapers and the slow pace of the Chongqing of always.
Tip: This is a neighbours' teahouse, not an Instagram spot: you will be the only foreigner and that is exactly the point. Point at whichever tea tin you like.
🚇 Eling (Line 1)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map江北茶园 · Jiangbei
A tea courtyard in Jiangbei where mahjong starts at noon: the clack of the tiles is the city's soundtrack.
Tip: If they invite you to watch a game, accept and do not bet: the fastest way to get somebody to explain the city to you. Ask before photographing players.
🚇 Liyuchi (Line 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map手工冰粉 · 黄桷坪, Jiulongpo
Handmade bingfen: cold fig-seed jelly with rose syrup, peanuts and osmanthus. The dessert that puts out the mala.
Tip: Shougong means handmade: the jelly is rubbed from the seed with no industrial gelatine, which is why it wobbles differently. Have it after hotpot, not before.
🚇 Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (Line 18)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map入饮甜汤 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Tangshui: hot sweet soups of bean, black sesame and glutinous-rice tangyuan. The real Chinese dessert.
Tip: With the damp cold arriving in October, hot black-sesame tangyuan is exactly what the body asks for. It is on the food street: come in at the end of the crawl.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map小李胆水豆花 · Jiangbei
Douhua set with bittern water, the old technique: firmer, tastier and served with a dish of chilli.
Tip: Douhua is breakfast, snack and dessert at once: eaten hot in a small bowl. They open early and close mid-afternoon.
🚇 Guanyinqiao (Lines 3 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map一只酸奶牛 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Drinking yoghurt with purple rice and nuts: the brand was born in Chongqing in 2015 and half of China now copies it.
Tip: The rescue drink after hotpot: cold yoghurt cuts the oil and the mala better than water does. Order the purple-rice one, which is the original.
🚇 Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 & 6)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · prensa local
Show on map沁园 · Yubei
Chongqing's historic bakery: the cream cake and the walnut biscuit three generations grew up on.
Tip: Buy a box of walnut biscuits for the journey: they keep, and they are the standard gift a Chongqinger takes when visiting someone.
🚇 Ranjiaba (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapM Stand · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Chinese specialty coffee with gallery design: Yunnan beans, short espressos and a room that photographs itself.
Tip: Order the Yunnan single origin: China is now a producer and Pu'er beans get here in days, not months. The best air-conditioned wifi downtown.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapOrka Cafe · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
A small specialty bar on the food street: filters, flat whites and the pause downtown needs.
Tip: Chongqing's specialty scene is small and recent: almost everything mapped as a café is actually chain bubble tea. This one is the real thing.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapFORLONG · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
A modern patisserie on the food street, with laminated pastry and tarts that look to Europe but fill with sesame and walnut.
Tip: The escape hatch if you travel with kids who cannot take chilli: croissants, custards and nothing hot. Indoors and open all day.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapMint Gelateria · Yuzhong
An artisan gelateria on the Eling slope, with flavours that include Sichuan pepper and Yongchuan green tea.
Tip: Try the huajiao, Sichuan pepper: it numbs your tongue like hotpot but cold, the most Chongqing thing you will eat in a gelateria.
🚇 Eling (Line 1)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map三毛咖啡 · Nanshan, Nan'an
A café on the Nanshan slope beside the writer Sanmao's birthplace, terrace over the treetops.
Tip: The waiting stop before dark if you are heading to Yikeshu: have a coffee while the sun drops, then go up for the view.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6) then the Nanshan bus
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapTZL Coffee · 南滨路, Nan'an
A café with a picture window to the Yangtze on the south riverfront: own beans and the best seat for watching barges pass.
Tip: From October to March the river drops and from here you see the exposed stone beach: the only time of year Nanbin Road has a beach.
🚇 Shanghao (Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapZhiRun Coffee · Guanyinqiao, Jiangbei
Specialty coffee in Guanyinqiao, the area where Chongqing's third-wave scene is genuinely growing.
Tip: Guanyinqiao is where to look for good coffee in this city, not Jiefangbei. It is blocks off the pedestrian strip: leave the mall and walk two streets.
🚇 Guanyinqiao (Lines 3 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map银杏咖啡 · Jiangbei
A neighbourhood café under the Jiangbei ginkgos: filter coffee, home-made cake and leaves that turn yellow in November.
Tip: Chongqing's ginkgo yellow arrives mid-November, same as Nanshan's red leaves: in October they are still green, do not be fooled by the photos.
🚇 Huaxinjie (Line 3, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapUnprofessional · Jiangbei
Coffee and cake in a small Jiangbei room with an ironic name and very good filter: the antithesis of the mall next door.
Tip: Plugs, wifi and nobody moves you on: the place to sort out travel admin on a solid connection before going back outside.
🚇 Guanyinqiao (Lines 3 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapB Bakery & Café · Liziba, Yuzhong
Bakery and café steps from the Liziba platform: sourdough, filter coffee and a window onto the monorail.
Tip: The best wait in the city: have breakfast here and step out to the platform when you see it empty. Opens at 8:00, before the first tour bus.
🚇 Liziba (Line 2, monorail)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map85号创意楼咖啡 · 上清寺, Yuzhong
A café inside a creative-studio building in Jiangbei: rotating shows on the walls and long tables.
Tip: Ask what is up on the floors above: the studios are often open and it is the cheapest way to see local art without a commercial gallery.
🚇 Zengjiayan (Lines 2 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map惠诚滋知 · Jiangbei
A modern Chinese patisserie in northern Jiangbei: taro tarts, dried-meat breads and full display cases.
Tip: Rousong bread — shredded dried pork on a sweet bun — sounds wrong and is addictive: China's best-selling bread and almost no tourist tries it.
🚇 Dashiba (Line 5)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map亚爷冰室 · Guanyinqiao, Jiangbei
A Cantonese-style bingshi in Jiangbei: milk tea, toast and shaved ice in a formica room.
Tip: The bingshi is Hong Kong's neighbourhood café transplanted: strong milk tea, condensed-milk toast and air conditioning at full blast. Cheap and fast.
🚇 Guanyinqiao (Lines 3 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map麒麟大口茶 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Leaf tea brewed Chinese-style but served to go in a big cup: the format Chongqingers drink while walking.
Tip: Ask for it unsweetened (wu tang) so the leaf shows: by default it comes quite sweet. The cheap alternative to the chain bubble tea that dominates the area.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆来福士广场 · 朝天门, Yuzhong
Eight towers like sails planted on the peninsula's tip, joined 250 m up by a glass sky-bridge shaped like a liner.
Tip: The mall is free; the glass skybridge deck costs 120 yuan, open 10:00-22:00 with last entry 21:15. If you only want to see the building, the best shot is from the Jiangbeizui bank.
🚇 Chaotianmen (Line 1)
Featured in: Chongqing Bendibao 2026 · OpenStreetMap
Show on map朝天门商场 · Yuzhong
The port's historic wholesale market: floor after floor of clothing, fabric, costume jewellery and goods at source prices.
Tip: It is genuinely wholesale: many stalls sell only by the lot and the single-unit price is negotiable. Always haggle, start at half, and go early — they close mid-afternoon.
🚇 Chaotianmen (Line 1)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map大正小商品市场 · Yuzhong
A small-goods market beside Chaotianmen: gadgets, toys, cables, decorations and everything you did not know you needed.
Tip: This is where you solve trip logistics: adapter, umbrella, charger or an extra bag for the way home, all at half the mall price next door.
🚇 Chaotianmen (Line 1)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map造物Zaowu · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
A craft workshop-shop right downtown, with pieces hand-made by artisans from the municipality.
Tip: Chongqing lacquer and Shu embroidery carry no visible official stamp on the label: the only way to know is to ask who made it and where. Always ask before paying, never assume.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map解放碑时尚文化城 · Yuzhong
A shopping centre below street level in the heart of Jiefangbei: young fashion, Chinese brands and food downstairs.
Tip: It connects by passages below street level to three other Jiefangbei centres: in rain you can cross the whole downtown without getting wet. Ask which exit drops you closest.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆国泰广场 · Yuzhong
The retail complex attached to the red-beam arts centre: shops, cinemas and downtown's busiest plaza.
Tip: The cinema here screens some international films in the original version: if it rains all afternoon, that beats another mall.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆时代广场 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Jiefangbei's luxury-brand mall: the shop window where the city measures its new spending power.
Tip: If you buy luxury brands, ask for the tax-refund form on the way out: China refunds VAT to foreigners at the airport with your passport and an invoice in your name.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map日月光中心广场 · Yuzhong
A large mall on the Yuzhong slope with direct access on several street levels: 8D architecture applied to retail.
Tip: Enter on floor 1 and leave on floor 5 onto another street: use it as a free lift up the slope instead of taking the stairs. That is the local trick.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map大融城 · 观音桥, Jiangbei
The mall on the Guanyinqiao pedestrian strip, the liveliest retail zone in Chongqing outside the historic centre.
Tip: Guanyinqiao is where Chongqingers shop and Jiefangbei is where tourists shop: same prices, shorter queues and better restaurants around it.
🚇 Guanyinqiao (Lines 3 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map新世界百货 · 观音桥, Jiangbei
A classic department store in Guanyinqiao: cosmetics, Chinese brands and the gift floor to take home.
Tip: The Chinese cosmetics floor is the best souvenir nobody buys: local brands with museum-grade packaging you cannot find outside China.
🚇 Guanyinqiao (Lines 3 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map龙湖·星汇天街 · Jiulongpo
A big western-side mall with a vast food court: the shopping circuit of the residential districts.
Tip: This is where you see the real city doing its Saturday shopping, without a tourist camera in sight. Chinese clothing prices are the same as downtown.
🚇 Shixinlu (Line 5)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map南坪万达广场 · Nan'an
Nanping's Wanda, the south bank's retail pole: cinema, brands and Nan'an's biggest pedestrian strip next door.
Tip: Nanping is the south bank's transport knot: the buses to Nanshan and Yikeshu leave from here. Shop first, then head up the mountain.
🚇 Nanping (Lines 3 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map重庆书城 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Downtown's big bookshop: several floors, a map section and the illustrated books on the city's architecture.
Tip: Look for the Chongqing photography books: the best souvenir of the trip and no Chinese needed. There are paper maps of the metro network too.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map西西弗书店 · Shapingba
The bookshop chain born in southwest China, with a café inside and interiors that turned reading into an outing.
Tip: Shapingba is the university district: bookshops, cafés and student prices. This chain is from southwest China, not Beijing or Shanghai, and the selection shows it.
🚇 Shapingba (Lines 1 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map旧书市场 · Shapingba
An open-air second-hand book market: old editions, eighties magazines, posters and city postcards.
Tip: Hunt for propaganda posters and old Chongqing postcards: they cost coins, weigh nothing and beat any fridge magnet. Haggle — it is expected.
🚇 Shapingba (Lines 1 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map军哥书屋 · 黄桷坪, Jiulongpo
A bookshop-refuge in the art-school district, built from salvaged furniture with books to the ceiling.
Tip: It is in Huangjueping, on the graffiti street: combine it with the art school and Tank Loft. Leave a tip if you stay to read — that is part of the deal.
🚇 Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (Line 18)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map匿名书店 · Jiangbei
An independent Jiangbei bookshop with essays, art and translated fiction: the kind of place downtown lacks.
Tip: They usually carry bilingual editions of Chongqing architecture and photography books, the hardest thing to find outside the country.
🚇 Hongtudi (Lines 6 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map小悟循环书店 · Nan'an
A second-hand bookshop on a circular-economy model on the south bank: bring a book, take a book.
Tip: If you are travelling with a finished novel, leave it here and take another: the cheapest way to refresh your reading on a long China trip.
🚇 Shangxinjie (Line 6 and Loop Line)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map董家溪跳蚤市场 · Jiangbei
Jiangbei's flea market: old porcelain, watches, tools, records and objects from industrial Chongqing.
Tip: Starts before dawn and the good stuff goes before 9:00. Nothing comes with a guarantee of authenticity: buy because you like the object, not because of what you are told it is.
🚇 Wulidian (Lines 6 & 9)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map野水沟市场 · Jiangbei
A Jiangbei neighbourhood market: vegetables, live fish, spices and the dried chillies that make hotpot broth.
Tip: Buy a bag of huajiao, the red-husk Sichuan pepper: weighs nothing, clears customs and is the flavour you will not replicate at home without it.
🚇 Guanyinqiao (Lines 3 & 9)
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Show on map学田湾大阳沟菜市场 · Yuzhong
Downtown's produce market: the one that supplies Jiefangbei's restaurants and the best place to see the local pantry.
Tip: Go between 7:00 and 9:00, when the chefs buy. The best spot in town for photographs, but ask first: plenty of stallholders dislike it.
🚇 Zengjiayan (Lines 2 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map南岸区农贸市场 · Nan'an
The south bank's farmers' market: fruit from Chongqing's counties, fresh tofu and pickles by weight.
Tip: October is Liangping pomelo season: ask them to cut it there and eat it as dessert after hotpot. QR is the norm, but several stalls still take cash.
🚇 Nanping (Lines 3 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map周大福 · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
Chinese-style gold jewellery: gold sells by the gram at the day's price and the workmanship is charged separately.
Tip: In China gold is bought by weight and the per-gram price is posted in the window daily: ask to see the day's price before looking at anything, so you know what you are paying in workmanship.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map名创优品 LAND · Jiefangbei, Yuzhong
The chain's multi-floor flagship, with the big collaborations and the full character sections.
Tip: A foolproof rainy-day plan with kids: the plush toys and licences cost triple back home. Open until 22:00.
🚇 Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 & 2)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map百盛 · 南坪, Nan'an
A south-bank department store with cosmetics floors and mid-range international brands.
Tip: Check whether the store has a tax-free desk before buying: not all do, and without the form there is no VAT refund at the airport.
🚇 Nanping (Lines 3 & 10)
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
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