When it comes to the most popular attractions in Chongqing, it is definitely Hongya Cave. Because it resembles the "oil house" floating in the famous Japanese animated movie "Spirited Away", Hongya Cave quickly became popular on the Internet, and its scene of red lights hanging high has become a classic impression of Chongqing in the hearts of foreign tourists.
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, Chongqing City was built with a total of 17 gates with nine openings and eight closings, and Hongya Gate was one of the closed gates. Hongya Cave refers to a concave rock cavity near the Jialing River on the edge of the cliff outside the Hongya Gate. At that time, the forest was verdant here, and there was a small stream seeping out from the mountains and forests, and it turned into a waterfall near Hongya Cave. In the rainy season, the water flow is dripping down little by little, like green pearls and jasper, so it is called "Hongya Dripping Cui" by the literati, and it is also one of the famous "Twelve Views of Bayu" in ancient times. During the Ming Dynasty, Chongqing was divided into the upper and lower half of the city, because the upper half of the city had fewer residents, so the stream water retained a clear texture. Later, due to the increasing number of residents in the upper half of the city, the impact of domestic sewage on the stream water should not be underestimated, and the "Hongya Dicui" gradually disappeared. At that time, many poor families had nowhere to live, so they built stilted buildings with heavy houses and stone stairs on the mountain outside the Hongya Gate gate.
In the 21st century, Hongya Cave has been renovated on a large scale due to its poor environment, frequent fires and rock collapses. Today's Hongya Cave, from Cangbai Road to Jiabin Road, has become an antique cultural commercial street.
The landscape of Hongya Cave is mainly composed of a group of stilted buildings that follow the slope, and the lower part of the stilted buildings is overhead, forming a linear road space. Because Hongya Cave has a total of 11 floors, there are as many as 4 commercial streets in the buildings on this mountain: dynamic bar street, Bayu style street, feast street food street, and city balcony exotic style street. Most of the Bayu Style Street in Tiancheng Lane on the first floor are small commodity sales stalls, which are similar to small commodity commercial streets in various places; The feast food street on the fourth floor is paved with bluestone slabs and is 100 meters long, where diners can find special delicacies such as Dandan noodles, pig baba, Geyue Mountain spicy chicken, and old Chongqing Mao Xuewang; On the 5th floor, there are chain bars from many countries; The 11th floor of Hongya Cave is connected to the top road, and visitors only need to walk down the 1~2nd floor from the platform to the exotic street on the 9th to 10th floors, where you can choose from restaurants with international cuisines.
But the most praised thing about Hongya Cave is not these homogeneous commercial streets, but the dazzling night view of the stilted building complex when night comes. Standing on the platform on the first floor, tourists can see the sparkling surface of the river, hundreds of boats competing for the stream, and enjoy a lot under the evening breeze.
It should be noted that the Hongya Cave Scenic Area will adopt a flow restriction strategy on holidays, and tourists need to queue up to enter the scenic spot. Even so, the flow of people in the scenic area is very large. Whether it is an elevator or a staircase, the space margin is obviously insufficient, and the more cluttered environment also makes people feel less good about Hongya Cave. If you just want to have a glimpse of the night view of Hongya Cave, it is recommended to go down to the platform on the first floor directly from other places, or to the Qianguomen Bridge not far away.
Admission: Free
Opening hours: All day (the lights will be turned off after 10 o'clock in Hongya Cave, and the lights will be turned off appropriately on holidays)
