All about China

The city of Chongqing (China) has some peculiarities: buildings of different shapes are located on different floors, making it impossible for residents or visitors to know which floor they are on.

Traveler and content creator Marina Guaragna showed what it’s like to walk around there in a video she posted on social media. It can be confusing for those who aren’t from there. Why? For example, she visits a square on top of a 22-story building. Watch:

I have never seen anything like this city anywhere in the world. Just when you think you are on the ground floor, you look down and realize you are on the roof of a skyscraper. Even leaving the hotel is a challenge as there are multiple exits that lead to different streets at different levels.

Marina Guaragna, traveler and content creator

How a Chinese city became a Tetris game

Since 2006, Chongqing has been considered one of the most populated megacities in the world, as it has an urban center with more inhabitants than the entire territory of Peru or Iraq. Therefore, the city and its architects looked for creative solutions for the circulation of its current over 31 million inhabitants. As UOL recalls, one of the results of this brainstorming was a subway that runs through a 19-story building. In an article by Tomorrow City, held as part of the Congress of the World Expo on Smart Cities, it was explained that this surreal format also has to do with the distribution of the city’s surface area. This is because Chongqing has a large population and also a large territory: it is more than 82,000 km² (almost the size of the whole of Austria), making it the largest city in the world in terms of area. Nevertheless, the built-up area is “only” 5.5 thousand km², as a large part of the city consists of smaller, clustered districts and the suburbs are considered rural. @hughchongqing Which floor is the ground floor in Chongqing? #China #Chongqing #Cyberpunk #重庆 #Travel ♬ Original sound – Hugh Chongqing

This phenomenon is due to the urbanization boom in the 20th century, which brought with it various forms and challenges caused by the disorderly growth and migration of the population to rural areas, which led to a sharp increase in population density in the center of these areas.

The irregular topography of the region in which Chongqing is located also affects the confusing distribution of floors. The city has plains in the Yangtze River basin and others crossed by mountains. Therefore, literally someone can be at the bottom and someone else at the top.

According to Tomorrow City, many residents live in apartments, especially on the upper floors, as the buildings are usually mixed-use, with the lower floors housing offices and services. One example is Liziba station, which is located between the sixth and eighth floors.

A negative consequence of the fact that Chongqing has buildings of different sizes and shapes is that not all people always get sunlight.

To integrate the city, the Chinese opted for bridges that connect buildings that are not only on different levels, but also have different designs. While some buildings have their first floors underground, others extend above ground and beyond.

@lydonong Chongqing is one of the most unreal cities in the world, from its cyberpunk cityscape to its crazy architecture #chongqing #cyberpunk #chinatravel ♬ No Reason – Ryan.B & effie

In recent years, this unique architecture, with its bridges and overpasses as well as buildings with colorful neon lights, has become a tourist attraction and part of Chongqing’s identity.

Futuristic design is also praised by architects from other countries who have decided to place their own works of art there. This is the case of the Israeli Moshe Safdie, who designed the Teaching and Research Center of the Albert Einstein Israeli Hospital in São Paulo (SP), Brazil.

Aerial view of Raffles City Chongqing (Image: Courtesy of Moshe Safdie)

In 2020, the architect completed Raffles City Chongqing, a horizontal skyscraper supported by three other buildings with a height of 250 meters. It has offices, apartments, a hotel, housing, a shopping center, a leisure area and more than 30,000 m² of communal open space with some green areas, given the lack of parks in the city.

The project includes multiple access points tailored to the city’s hilly topography, an innovative traffic diversion system, and a new public walkway that runs through five floors of the mall, connecting the park to Chaotianmen Square.

Website of the architect Moshe Safdie

The entire Raffles complex features eight towers, bars, restaurants, function rooms, a lobby and a club with a 50-metre infinity pool.

The Raffles complex has eight towers, bars, restaurants, event spaces, a lobby and a club with an infinity pool (Image: Disclosure/Moshe Safdie)