Hongya Cave

Chongqing is built on steep ground where the Jialing meets the Yangtze, and diaojiaolou, houses on stilts stepping down the slopes, are the traditional response. Hongya Cave is a modern complex built in that idiom in the 2000s: eleven storeys of timber-fronted galleries climbing a cliff face beside the river, with restaurants, shops and hotpot floors inside, and streets entering it at several different levels so that the ground floor on one side is the eighth on another. At night the whole face is lit in gold, which made it one of the most photographed views in China after appearing constantly on short-video apps.

What you actually see

• The lit facade - eleven storeys glowing gold above the river at night.
• The multi-level entrances - streets meeting the building at different floors.
• The interior galleries - shops, food floors and hotpot restaurants.
• The riverside view - the Jialing and the bridges from the terraces.

When to go

Year-round; the lights come on around dusk and are the point of a visit. Chongqing summers are extremely hot, autumn and spring more comfortable. Weekends and holidays are extremely crowded.

Honest expectations

It is a modern shopping and dining complex, not a historic building, and interiors are commercial. Crowds at night are dense and the best photo spots on the bridge are jammed.

Nearby

Jiefangbei is above; Ciqikou lies west along the river.