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Tucked among the soaring cliffs of southwestern China is Chongqing—a sprawling metropolis renowned as one of the planet’s most densely populated and extensively monitored urban centers, also responsible for manufacturing over half of the world’s laptops.
Largely unknown to many in the Western world, Chongqing sits near the Yangtze River’s headwaters, boasting a history stretching back over 3,000 years. However, its transformation into a megacity has occurred primarily within the past four decades.
An Urban Behemoth
The city boasts an immense population of 32 million residents, sprawled across an area of 31,815 square miles, which is almost the size of Austria, and earning it the nickname “Mountain City.”
The metropolitan region’s rapid vertical expansion has led to a unique urban landscape, with multiple-level streets, all of which has sparked fascination and confusion among visitors.
A compilation of images of the city nestled among the hills
A Technological Powerhouse
Nicknamed China’s ‘Cyberpunk city,’ Chongqing has emerged as a key player in laptop production, and the broader electronics industry—an expansion that began in earnest in 2009 when Hewlett-Packard established its manufacturing base within the city.
The city produced more than half of the world’s laptops
Chongqing has been one of the fastest urban revolutions in the world
Major Players in Electronics
- Foxconn
- Quanta Computer
- Lenovo
- Asus
These corporate giants have since established successful operations across Chongqing’s landscape, contributing to its status as a global information technology center. The city’s growth is further fueled by advancements in big data and artificial intelligence development.
The Urban Revolution
Chongqing’s skyline is marked by towering skyscrapers, bustling highways that crisscross at different levels and an extensive metro system that often weaves through residential buildings. This vertical urbanism has led to intricate networks of streets and alleyways, earning it the title, “The City of Steps.”
The city was placed on the map after Hewlett-Packard set up a manufacturing plant there in 2009& Dunk
The entire urban sprawl is built on multiple levels
Yet, for all of its advanced technology and innovative urban development, many of its residents have to navigate tube-like alleyways in order to get to their apartments
Conversationally dubbed “The City of Steps”: A compilation of images showcasing the endless layers of stairs located throughout the bustling urban metropolis
The frenzied layout of the city means that the city also has its own microclimate, replete with high humidity and sweltering temperatures up to 40C degrees
Foggy Chongqing
Trains that go through apartment blocks and makeshift towns located inside gigantic concrete towers have highlighted the city’s dizzying qualities
Sarah says the lack of sunlight can reap serious repercussions on a person’s mental health. She said it was difficult to function at the lowest levels due to the overwhelming amounts of pollution
One of the lowest levels of traffic in the city
The city’s teensy residential buildings set between sheer cliffs and waterways contribute to an urban web that includes tower-like structures, twisting subterranean tunnels illuminated by wires and weathered signs, a vast web of shoot-steep stone staircases with variable heights and both steep climbs and abrupt dead-ends, along with a smog-filled air that exacerbates the city’s outlook.
Sky bridges weave the city’s boxes into a complicated maze, connecting buildings across both valleys and streets to keep residents closer from door to door, though the distances across the bridges may seem tenuous
Computer programmer Diego Andrea posited “that Intercity chicken wings were one of Chongqing’s culinary staples…”
“Thanks to their location, Chongqing residents tend to have less access to sunlight and green spaces than residents in flat cities. Its extreme geography means that the city’s lower layers shelter on steep mountainsides from which urban greenery simply cannot take root…”
Dangers Lurking Beneath
The vertical nature of Chongqing’s urban landscape means that many residents rely on narrow staircases and steep escalators
This tiered living arrangement, coupled with the persistent atmosphere of fog, poses unique challenges, particularly for emergency services. The unusual layout of Chongqing means firefighters cannot simply throw out ladders to rescue stuck high-rise occupants. Instead, they often rely on helicopters, the number of which the city is increasing.
The futuristic look of the city has sparked inquiries on social media in recent years
Sunlight is a rarity for most of Chongqing’s residents who live among graffiti-laden steep alleyways
Navigating the Megacity
“In Chongqing, we never know which floor we’re on,”
The video of Mr. Zhong has amassed a whopping 3.2 million likes
“It looks like I’m on normal square: the street is over there. But if we go there now we’re on the 22nd floor. The layout can make it tough to detect vertical differences in the urban environment- and, we might travel downwards to the 12th floor…”
“Then we might take the elevator to the eighth floor, and walk through this garage and then we will be on the street. Go inside back inside the building, and ascent up to the 13th floor.”
The video highlights a common issue in Chongqing—navigation apps may direct residents to their destinations but could also trivialize the city’s vertically complex nature by not accurately displaying the levels that users are on.
The megacity’s several layers and extraordinary buildings ensure that vast portions of Chongqing’s citizens navigate daily routines in the dim, casting an expandable shadow. The absence of daylight makes it especially difficult to live there. Influencers visiting the city, such as local resident Jackson Lu, have stated unequivocally that “if you live in Chongqing, that’s something you get used to.” After all, sunlight is a luxury for those situated in Chongqing’s lower floors.
The Sun’s beams often struggle to shine down into Chongqing’s valleys, many of which are severely shadowed by mountaintops and high-rise buildings–which, impedes on the quality of life for the roughly 7 million residents that call it home
The fog, combined with the densely built environment, dims the already faint sunlight, resulting in an atmosphere enveloped in near-constant twilight. This is compounded by elevated to excessive humidity and bone-melting temperatures, which matches the warmth of the Dead Sea. The temperature coupled with the lack of air circulation and sunlight makes Chonqging the world’s muggiest metropolis.
Janet Newenham, recently shared a TikTok video of Chongqing’s foggy atmosphere
An aerial shot of the city, highlighting the soul crushing fog which covers it for many months out of the year
Capturing the stark contrast between the city’s mountainous terrain and its ultracraphite pattern of tall skybridges. The slight variation in color between the mountains and concrete jungles is nightmarishly lyrical