"Chongqing - the mountain city " a Chongqing Travel Page by tremendopunto

Chongqing is much better than most guidebooks say. They call it a grey moloch full of smog and most travellers only go there to get the next ferry down the ChangJiang. But there is much more to see and to do. Give it a try and enjoy the vivid city life, or the other sights of the district, like Dazu with the famous Grottos, BeiBei with the Lions Peak and so on.

Chongqing is exploding because the government wants to built up a counterbalance to the attractive, well-developed east coast of China with places like Shanghai, that makes all the people abondon the western areas. So if Shanghai is the head of the dragon (the ChangJiang River), Chongqing is the tail of it. This city is growing so fast that whenever I get there again - loads of things have changed in a short time. It is so amazing if you think that none of the skyscrapers of Jiefangbei/Yuzhong Area is older than 10 years!!! But it goes on and on and on.....there is either a new skyscraper growing into the sky or holes are digging into the ground for the next tower.

Here is a quick look at the city center: Trailer1 and Trailer2 thanks to NYTerrence for the link!

The nightview picture of the skyline of downtown CQ is taken from Nan'an District. You can conviniently take the cable car to the other side of the ChangJiang. On this side there is a boulevard full of restaurants and bars. Enjoy your fried snake along the bank of the Jangtse or try the typical HotPot Chongqing is so famous for - with a beautiful nightview over Chongqing!
From Nan'an you can go up to NanShan to get an even better view over the mountain city!

This is the entrance of the Luohan Si or Arhat Temple. It is supposed to be more than 1000 years old and yes, if Chinese leave a central place between all theses skyscrapers unused, it must be something special!

PS: in 2006 they renovated the temple, the entrance gate has a blue instead of yellow touch now!