Chongqing Hongyadong | 4A Scenic Area with Stilted Buildings & Night Views

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Historical Evolution

I. Ancient Hongyamen and Hongyadong

The history of the Hongyadong area can be traced back to the Warring States period. According to the "Huayang Guozhi·Bazhi," the capital of the Ba State, Jiangzhou (now Chongqing), was built against the mountain with city gates. In the fourth year of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty (1371), Dai Ding, the commander of Chongqing's garrison, expanded the city and set up seventeen gates, among which "Hongyamen" was located in the west of the city, facing the river outside the gate with steep cliffs. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Erjian, the magistrate of Baxian County, listed "Hongya Drip Green" as one of the Twelve Scenes of Bayu and wrote a poem praising it: "Hongya's shoulder is ready to be patted, the ancient cave is hard to find. Bring a bottle of wine to see the five-colored floating." Hongyadong was originally a natural cave, and there was a temple inside with flourishing incense, but it gradually fell into disuse due to wars and river erosion.

II. Modern Changes and Development

At the beginning of the 20th century, after Chongqing opened as a trading port, the Hongyamen area became a dock and commercial district, with many stilted buildings built along the river for boatmen and merchants to live in. These stilted buildings were built against the cliff, with wooden pillars slanting, forming a unique mountain city residential landscape. In the 1990s, with urban renewal, the dilapidated stilted buildings faced demolition. In 2002, the Chongqing municipal government decided to build a folk custom scenic area with "Hongyadong" as the core, invested by Chongqing Little Swan Group with 385 million yuan, and after four years of construction, it officially opened on October 1, 2006. The design team restored the traditional Bayu stilted buildings on the basis of preserving the original terrain, while incorporating modern commercial functions.

III. Becoming a City Landmark

After its opening, Hongyadong quickly became a hot tourist spot in Chongqing due to its unique architectural style and night views. In 2015, Hongyadong was rated as a national AAAA tourist attraction. In 2018, due to the spread of short video platforms, Hongyadong's night view was called the "real-life version of Spirited Away" by netizens, causing a surge in visitors, with annual reception exceeding 10 million. In 2020, Hongyadong started upgrading and renovation, optimizing the flow and landscape, and launched the "Hongyadong × Spirited Away" themed light show, further consolidating its status as a city card of Chongqing.

Core Highlights

I. Stilted Building Complex

The main buildings of Hongyadong are antique stilted buildings, built against the mountain with terraced layers, reaching up to 13 floors. The buildings adopt a column-and-tie wooden structure, with green tile roofs, white walls, and gray columns, decorated with carved doors and windows and lanterns, reproducing the style of riverside dwellings in late Qing and early Republic of China. The building complex is divided into four parts: Zhiyanhe Street, Tianchengxiang Street, Hongyadong Street, and City Balcony. Each floor has different functions: floors 1-3 are commercial streets, floors 4-8 are dining areas, floors 9-11 are hotels and viewing platforms, and floors 12-13 are the city balcony, overlooking the Jialing River and Jiangbeizui.

II. Hongya Drip Green

"Hongya Drip Green" is one of the Twelve Scenes of Bayu, located on the cliff in the middle of the Hongyadong scenic area. In ancient times, a waterfall cascaded from the top of the cliff, splashing water droplets that sparkled like emeralds in the sunlight. The modern scenic area has installed artificial waterfalls and a mist system on the cliff to simulate the "drip green" landscape, which is especially cool in summer. Below the waterfall, there is a viewing platform where visitors can feel the mist up close.

III. Night Lighting

The night view of Hongyadong is its biggest highlight. Every night from 19:00 to 22:00, the building outline lights, lanterns, and spotlights are turned on simultaneously, illuminating the stilted buildings in warm yellow light, reflecting in the Jialing River, creating a dreamlike scene of a "street in the sky." The best viewing spots are on the riverbank of Jiangbeizui opposite, at the Chongqing Grand Theater, or on the Qiansimen Bridge. The scenic area has a "Hongyadong Night View Photography Point" with professional lighting control.

IV. Folk Performances

The scenic area regularly hosts Bayu folk performances, including Sichuan opera face-changing, fire spitting, puppet shows, and folk song duets. The performances are held at the "Bayu Theater" on the 4th floor, three times a day (11:00, 15:00, 19:30), free of charge. In addition, during holidays, there are large parade activities such as the "Hongyadong Temple Fair" and "Lantern Festival."

Architecture and Art

I. Architectural Style

The architectural style of Hongyadong is a new Chinese antique style, based on the traditional Bayu stilted buildings, combined with modern construction techniques. Stilted buildings are a unique type of pile-dwelling architecture in southwest China, built against mountains and near water, with the ground floor elevated and supported by wooden pillars to adapt to steep slopes. The stilted buildings of Hongyadong use a reinforced concrete frame structure with wooden components on the exterior, preserving the traditional appearance while meeting modern safety requirements such as fire prevention and load-bearing. The building colors are mainly gray, white, and red: gray tile roofs, white walls, red lanterns, and wooden pillars, creating a strong visual contrast.

II. Spatial Layout

The spatial layout of Hongyadong embodies the concept of a "three-dimensional city." The scenic area takes advantage of the elevation difference, with the entrance on the 11th floor (Cangbai Road) and the exit on the 1st floor (Jiabin Road). Visitors can take elevators or walk down floor by floor. Each floor has platforms and corridors, forming the "Four Streets and Eight Scenes": the "Four Streets" refer to Zhiyanhe Street (floors 1-3), Tianchengxiang Street (floors 4-6), Hongyadong Street (floors 7-9), and City Balcony (floors 10-13); the "Eight Scenes" include Hongya Drip Green, Confluence of Two Rivers, Jialing Sunset, Qiansi Night Moon, etc. This design allows visitors to constantly change perspectives during the tour, experiencing the unique "climbing up and down" of the mountain city.

III. Decorative Art

The scenic area is decorated with a large number of traditional Bayu elements: door and window carvings feature auspicious patterns such as bats, sika deer, and magpies; bronze bells hang from the eaves; blue and white porcelain pieces are inlaid in the walls; and the ground is paved with bluestone slabs. On the 4th floor, "Bayu Folk Custom Street" recreates scenes of old Chongqing's teahouses, wine shops, medicine shops, and pawnshops, with old objects such as stone mills, windmills, and sedan chairs placed to create an immersive experience. In addition, the scenic area has the "Hongyadong Art Museum," displaying intangible cultural heritage works such as Bayu woodcarving, bamboo weaving, and Shu embroidery.