Chongqing lights: spice, neon and stairs in the cyberpunk city
Five days in Chongqing, the cyberpunk city of southwest China: stairs instead of streets, neon on every facade, red bridges and chillies at the hotpot doors.
Chongqing was the second half of our China trip: five days in southwest China, after ten in Shanghai. Our first night was in a hotel with a hot spring, right in the city. Then we moved to a palace hotel in a tower.
A city of stairs
Chongqing is built on hills, and the hills only have stairs. Walking it is demanding, a heavy BPM all day, but it is really beautiful. Old tiled roofs sit at the bottom, skyscrapers and bridge pylons rise behind them, and the whole thing is stacked level after level. That is Multi-floor city. When the smog comes, it swallows the city: in Blurred by pollution, the skyline over the river is lost in a brown haze, one tall tower barely standing out.
Why cyberpunk
The neon, the food, the modern cars, the high tech everywhere. Trendy things on every corner, street performers. And the architecture: we saw the metro go straight through a building. We didn't ride it, or the cable car, but we saw them.
At night, the hotpot streets are covered in red and gold signs, every facade lit (City of LEDs). Hongyadong, the stilted houses on the cliff, glows gold above the traffic with the towers above it. Under the bridges, its lights spread on the water.
Là means spicy
Drying sausage is a curtain of dried red chillies hanging in front of a hotpot restaurant at night, the neon behind. Là is the Chinese word for spicy, the one in Chongqing LA. The street food was awesome, and the food was spicy but really good. I can handle it.
The smallest bridge in town
Chongqing is a city of bridges, lit in red at night. A cable-stayed giant with a white pylon and a cruise boat passing under it. An arch bridge crossing the river in red. I called that one Smallest bridge in town, and it's ironic: it is small compared to the other bridges here, and it would be huge in France.
Photographer's notes
Most of the album was shot on the X-T5 with the 25mm. At night I stayed at f/1.7 or f/2 and ISO 125 to 200, going down to 1/15s for the arch bridge. The 56mm came out for the sunset and the view under the red bridge, both at f/1.8, and for the skyscrapers over the harbour, at f/11, 1/4s and ISO 1000.
AlbumChongqing lights
Practical tips
- Bring good shoes: in the hilly parts, stairs replace streets.
- Come back at night: the city is even better then.
- Look for the metro going through the building, even if you don't take it.
