Chongqing in China is known as 'The 8D City' due to its complex, multi-dimensional urban layout, which creates a stacked experience. The city sprawls across a series of steep mountainsides and valleys , which make the city appear as if it is on multiple layers. Some neighbourhoods even hang on cliff sides, others are elevated up 20 storeys into the air.
On one side, the plaza appears two storeys above road level; however, when travellers look at the other side, it appears 22 floors above road level. Due to the city being multi-layered, Google Maps essentially becomes useless, as many of the paths to different places are vertical and stacked ontop of one another.
Another popular tourist spot is one of the city's train stations. It is no ordinary train station — instead, it is in the middle of an apartment block. Reportedly, city planners accidentally approved two planning applications at the same time — one for the railway and one for the apartment block.
In the end, both were built, with the station being located inside the apartment block itself. This theme-park of a city has become a tourist hotspot, with many people — especially domestic tourists — fleeing to the city's most shocking spots to catch a glimpse of city life on multiple levels. Chongqing is also home to the deepest underground station in the world.
Hongyancun station is metres below the ground, which is equivalent to 40 storeys. The station originally opened in and is built into a mountain. Because the platform is so far from ground level, it takes passengers between 10 and 15 minutes to reach, even using several escalators. On TikTok, residents in the city have posted about their daily work commutes. Some start off on the 18th floor of their building, to head to the 12th floor — which is supposedly the ground floor — they will enter another building at the same level, except this may be that building's 8th floor.
