A city you have to walk to understand

You can see Chongqing from a cable car, a river boat or a rooftop bar, and all of those are fine. But you will not really get the place until you walk it. Chongqing is a city of hills and two rivers, and the old neighbourhoods were built as staircases. Some of those staircases are still there, restored and in use.

The best introduction is the Shibati area, which means "Eighteen Steps." It sits in Yuzhong, the peninsula between the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, a short walk from the Jiaochangkou metro station.

What Shibati is

Shibati was one of the old working-class quarters of Chongqing, a steep run of stone steps lined with wooden houses, workshops and teahouses. It was cleared and rebuilt a few years ago into a heritage district, which means some of the grit is gone and the shops are new. That is worth knowing before you go. It is not an untouched old town.

What remains is the geography, and that is not something a renovation can remove. You still climb a long flight of steps up a hillside, with terraces and alleys branching off at each level, and the river and skyscrapers visible between the rooftops. Come for the shape of the place rather than for authenticity, and you will enjoy it.

When to go

Late afternoon is best. The light softens, the crowds ease, and the lanterns come on as you climb. Mornings are quiet but flat and grey. Midday in summer is punishing, because there is very little shade on the steps.

The Mountain City Trail

If Shibati feels too polished, walk the Mountain City Trail instead, or as well. This is a marked pedestrian route along the old cliffside paths of Yuzhong, using staircases, alleyways and old stone walls. It is free, it is not commercial, and it passes through neighbourhoods where people actually live.

The signage is in Chinese and English, though the route is not always obvious and you will take a wrong turn at least once. That is part of it. Follow the painted markers on the ground and the small brown signposts.

Highlights along the way

• Old city walls and gate remains, some of them several hundred years old, built into the base of apartment blocks.
• Viewpoints over the Yangtze where you can watch barges and the cable car crossing.
• Small teahouses with plastic stools on the pavement, which is where I would stop.
• Residential stair streets where laundry hangs between buildings and cats sleep on motorbikes.

Practical advice

Wear proper shoes. This is not a city for sandals and smooth soles, and the steps get slick when it rains, which is often. Bring water, though there are convenience stores every few minutes.

The trail is not a loop, so plan where you want to end up. I usually finish near the Liberation Monument or down by the river, then take the metro home.

Getting there and away

• Metro line 1 or line 2 to Jiaochangkou puts you right by the Shibati entrance.
• Line 2 runs along the river on an elevated track and is worth riding for the views alone.
• Taxis are cheap but the traffic is not. On the peninsula, walking is often faster.
• Download an offline map before you start. Signal is patchy in the deeper alleys.

What to eat when you come down

Shibati has its own collection of snack stalls and small restaurants, and the food is decent rather than remarkable. I would save the real meal for afterwards. Walk ten minutes toward the Liberation Monument and you are in the middle of the city's best hotpot territory, where the queues at dinner time are a reliable sign of quality. If you want something lighter, the noodle shops around Jiaochangkou serve small bowls of spicy beef noodles for pocket change, and locals eat them standing up.

Chongqing has plenty of headline attractions, from hotpot to the famous monorail. The stairways are the one thing that explains why the city looks the way it does.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.