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Photo: Baycrest, CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
The center of downtown Chongqing. Jiefangbei, or the People’s Liberation Monument, formerly known as the Monument of Victory in the War of Resistance (World War II), is a 27.5-meter-high structure. Around the monument is a broad, paved pedestrian square lined by numerous glassy office skyscrapers and highrise hotels, reminiscent of New York's Times Square or Tokyo's Shibuya district. Jiefangbei Shopping Square, completed in 1997, has a 400-by-350-meter footprint. Around the square are more than 3,000 stores of various kinds, including more than two dozen large malls and shopping centers, dozens of star-graded hotels, and offices such as banks, stock markets, trade and finance companies, postal and telecommunication services, and places of entertainment.
Jiefangbei Central Business District (CBD) (simplified Chinese: 解放碑中央商务区; traditional Chinese: 解放碑中央商務區; pinyin: Jiěfàngbēi Zhōngyāng Shāngwù Qū), also known as Jiefangbei Business Walking Street (Chinese: 解放碑商业步行街; pinyin: Jiěfàngbēi Shāngyè Bùxíngjiē), is the ultra-dense, urbanized downtown core and one of several central business districts of Chongqing, China. It is anchored by a large pedestrian mall with a landmark monument tower (its namesake, "Jiefangbei") and surrounded by collections of tall skyscrapers.
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重庆环球金融中心
At 339 m tall, the Chongqing World Financial Centre is the city’s third-highest skyscraper, towering above the Jiefangbei skyline. Inside you’ll find the WFC Huixianlou Skyview, an observation deck that arguably delivers the most jaw-dropping panorama of Chongqing’s endless sea of high-rises, rivers, and bridges. Tickets can be bought online or at the lower ground floor, which is also where the high-speed elevators whisk you skyward. Unlike Guangzhou’s Canton Tower, the WFC’s skydeck is refreshingly uncrowded—leaving you plenty of space to soak in the view that many would say is even more spectacular.
重庆美术馆
Features works by both local and international artists. Mainly focused on contemporary art.
重庆大轰炸“六五”隧道惨案史实展馆
The museum is at the site of a former air raid shelter where hundreds (some say thousands) of people lost their lives on June 5th, 1941 due to a stampede that occurred during a Japanese bombing raid that day. After visiting the exhibition hall, you can take a guided tour of the tunnel where the tragedy took place.
大唐广场
A gravity-defying square perched atop a building—street level on one side, but dropping an astonishing 22 storeys on the other, a true showcase of Chongqing’s wild topography.
Arhat Temple; 罗汉寺
A Buddhist temple dating from the Song Dynasty, which used to be known as Zhiping Temple (治平寺). During the Qing Dynasty, the temple was extensively renovated and it was during this time that it was renamed Luohan Temple. Luohan (罗汉) is the Chinese word for the Sanskrit term 'arhat', which in the Chinese Buddhist tradition basically means a person who has reached a certain stage along the path of enlightenment. Not surprisingly, the temple is filled with statues of arhats, though these are fairly new, as all the original statues were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.
洪崖洞
Near Jiefangbei, a recreation of the old Chongqing, clinging to the side of the mountain with many small shops. A tourist place but you can find recreations of old local crafts here and genuine local food.