Discover Chongqing
Liziba Monorail Station
李子坝轻轨站
A metro line that runs straight through the sixth to eighth floors of a residential tower block, with the station built inside the building. It is a genuine piece of mountain-city engineering that became an internet phenomenon.
The story
What makes this place special
Liziba is a station on Chongqing Rail Transit Line 2, which opened on 18 June 2005 as China's first monorail. The station occupies the 6th to 8th floors of a 19-storey residential block — and the important point, usually lost in the internet version of the story, is that the station and the building were designed and built together as a single structure. The train was not driven through somebody's flats as an afterthought; noise-isolation equipment separates the station from the apartments above and below.
What you’ll discover
Trains enter one face of the apartment block, stop at platforms inside it, and emerge from the other side onto elevated track above the Jialing. If you ride through, you see very little — the interesting part is from outside. A purpose-built viewing platform sits below and to the side of the station on the river side, free to use, where you stand and watch a two-carriage train vanish into the building every few minutes. The whole experience takes about fifteen minutes unless you are waiting for a specific shot.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Riding the train through is the least interesting way to do this. Get off, leave the station, and go to the viewing platform outside — that is where the sight is.
- The viewing platform is free. People offering a paid shortcut or a 'better angle' near the station are touts.
- Early morning is the only reliable way to get a clear shot. By mid-morning the platform is three deep and you are photographing other people's phones.
- Trains run every few minutes, so if you miss one you lose no time. Decide your framing first, then wait for the next one rather than panicking at the first.
- Combine it with Eling Park, which is one stop away and the better viewpoint of the two — most visitors do Liziba and then leave the area entirely.
When to come
Within the first hour or two of service in the morning, for light and for space on the platform. Avoid weekend afternoons and any public holiday entirely.
Getting around
The station itself has lifts between concourse and platform. The outdoor viewing platform is reached from street level and is broadly flat once you are on it, but the approach from the station exit involves some steps and the slope typical of Chongqing. It is a short distance, so a bad knee will cope; a wheelchair user should check the specific exit on arrival as the step-free route is not obvious and staff direction helps.
Worth knowing before you go
A purpose-built viewing platform sits beside the tracks. Go before 10:00 or after 16:00 on a weekday; in the middle of the day the queue for a photo is enormous.
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