Chongqing: China’s cyberpunk city

Posted On December 20, 2025December 20, 2025

There’s been a boom in tourism to China with huge numbers looking to experience the country and enjoy its truly unique culture, one which is arguably very different to how it has been portrayed.

When a country is the size of a whole continent, it’s no surprise that there is plenty to see, and naturally, China has incredible diversity. From the history of Beijing, with Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, through to Xi’an and the terracotta warriors and the multiculturalism of Shanghai, the Russian influence in Harbin, as well as the special administrative regions of Macao and Hong Kong, the place gives you so many reasons to visit, and that’s before you even mention the food.

However, there’s one city that’s really grown popular in recent years, and that’s Chongqing, which has been seeing a huge boost in travelling numbers, thanks in part to virality on TikTok and Instagram, and it’s easy to see why the place appeals to the reels generation.

It looks like a cyberpunk fever dream, with bright lights illuminating dark skies, making for a frighteningly futuristic city that I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t intrigued about after seeing it popping up on my timeline, but the reality is far different to what you see online.

The city sits where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet, which is what made it a great hub for trade. Moreover, it’s a mountainous city, with peaks and buildings climbing up hills, a geography which meant it could be used for defence, and is one of the reasons why it served as the provisional capital city for the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

In the late 1990s, it saw huge investment, which led to a boom in housing and transportation, and it’s now home to 36,000,000 people, plus interspersing all the buildings, and even going through one, are trains, with the monorail that weaves throughout the city.

The buildings climb the slopes, which leads to some interesting situations where you can get an elevator up to the top of a tower block, only to come out in a city square. Alongside this, there are elevators, bridges and stairs everywhere, such that you’re never quite sure what level floor you’re on.

The hills also allow for fog to get trapped in the valley, drowning buildings and creating an atmosphere that, when combined with darkness and the many lights, creates the famous cyberpunk look. It’s a city that’s grown at pace, and feels hugely modern and futuristic with hundreds of tower blocks standing tall, broken up with raised highways, interchanges and billboards, on top of which it’s all so bright, leading to it feeling dystopian, echoing the likes of Blade Runner and The Running Man.

Along the banks of the river, it’s at its most cyberpunk with buildings so brightly lit, even at midnight, that the sky barely looks dark, making for a visually striking image that gives the perfect neon backup to photos, unsurprising that the city has broken through into the western consciousness via social media.

However, this megacity is a place of contrast, wherein the illuminated facades and the Baixiangju tower blocks might grab the eyes as you scroll online, but in person, they’re soulless, feeling fake and artificial, plus during rush hour, the streets along the river are so crowded that you can barely move, making for an uncomfortable and unpleasant experience.

That isn’t to say Chongqing isn’t worth visiting, it is, but not for the reasons you see on your screen; the old alleyways and temples are eye-catching and beautiful, and despite being in the heart of this hectic city, Guanyue Temple is calm, quiet and peaceful, with its stunning yin-yang symbol in the courtyard. The city’s food is amongst the best in the world, let alone China, with the hugely spicy cuisine from the Sichuan tradition and the hotpot being the speciality.

You might go for the bright lights and cyberpunk aesthetic, but don’t be surprised if you want to stay for everything else beyond the neon dystopiascape.

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