#Shancheng Lane Historical and Cultural Area Travel Recommendations for 2024 (Updated in May)
Featured Neighborhoods
Address:
Chongqing-Yuzhong District-Zhongxing Road Shancheng Lane (Entrance to the Shancheng Trail next to Yuzhong District People's Court)
Opening times:
Open year round, 24/7Open
Recommended sightseeing time:
2-3 hours
Phone:
023-61755666
Zhao Liying's must-visit "Mountain City Alley" and the Gaiwan Tea are not to be missed|
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Mountain City Alley, the only traditional street in Chongqing named after "mountain city"
Encapsulates the bygone times of Chongqing and the memories of renewal
Walking on the narrow bluestone paths, through the misty and affectionate alleys
Feel the scattered historical old buildings, as well as the spicy and noisy marketplace atmosphere
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Super practical route without climbing
Exit from "Jiaochangkou Station Exit 5", navigate to Tongyuanmen
Just go downhill along the city gate to reach Mountain City Alley, the whole journey is downhill and effortless~
Tour duration: The whole journey is 5km, about 2-4 hours
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Recommended spots & experiences to check in
1️⃣Changle Old Teahouse
Next to the Qing Dynasty Changle Yongkang stone archway in Mountain City Alley
There is also a retro teahouse hidden
The simple stage, the elegant square tables
Filled with leisurely guests drinking tea, watching operas, playing cards, and chatting
There are performances of Bayu local operas and quyi (Chinese folk art forms) that integrate intangible cultural heritage every day
Performers on the stage show the unique passion and boldness of Bayu people
This is the story of the mountain city, and also the atmosphere and memories of old Chongqing
Come here, have a bowl of tea, and experience the daily life of old Chongqing
💰Gaiwan Tea: 25 yuan/bowl
📣Intangible cultural heritage performance times
1:30 pm First show
3:30 pm Second show
Extra show on weekends at 11:00 am
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2️⃣Former site of Jinma Temple Primary School | Time Inside Library
Jinma Temple Primary School and the nearby Ren'ai Hall were both built by French missionaries last century
The first floor retains the appearance of a century-old classroom, instantly transporting you back to childhood
The second floor has been transformed into the Time Inside Library, housing 30,000 old books
Big friends find memories here, little friends learn history here
⏰Opening hours: 10:00-19:00
💰Time Inside Library ticket price: 5 yuan
🗺Tour route: Tongyuanmen City Wall → Consulate Alley → Ren'ai Hall → Wilderness Garden → Former site of Jinma Temple Primary School → Tixintang → Changle Old Teahouse → Mountain City Trail
VentureSeeker
Explore the mountain city trail and understand the traditional Chongqing style
The mountain city alley was originally named Tian Deng Street, where a 'sky lantern pole' was erected during the Qing Dynasty. Festive lanterns were lit to pray for peace, hence the name. In 1972, Tian Deng Street was renamed to Mountain City Alley, which is the only traditional street and style area in Chongqing named after 'mountain city'.
The Mountain City Alley area extends from Tongyuan Gate in the north to Mati Street in the east, South District Road in the south, and Daqiangba in the west, covering an area of about 15 hectares. Among them, the traditional style area of Mountain City Alley is 5.19 hectares. The region contains 2 national key cultural relics protection units, 2 municipal cultural relics protection units, 6 district-level and undetermined cultural relics protection units, and 5 historical buildings.
Within the historical district of Mountain City Alley, there are five main pedestrian roads that branch out like tree limbs, including Mati Street, Tixin Tang Street, Lei Jia Po Street, Mountain City Alley, and the Third Mountain City Trail. There are also many side alleys extending from the main road into residential spaces. The terrain of the entire site is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, gentle from east to west, and steep from north to south, with a maximum elevation difference of 71 meters, making it a treacherous and winding terrain.
In 2015, Mountain City Alley was designated by the municipal government as a traditional style area of Chongqing. In 2016, the Yuzhong District government initiated the renovation of the shanty area here. In 2018, social investment enterprises were introduced to start the protection, repair, and operation management of the style area. In 2021, the renovation of the traditional style area of Mountain City Alley was completed, and it was fully opened for operation. In December 2021, Mountain City Alley was included in the 'Second Batch of Historical Place Names Protection List of Chongqing'.
Mountain City Alley is known as the 'architectural museum' of Chongqing. Here, there is the old city wall built in the early Ming Dynasty, foreign consulates and churches built during the opening of Chongqing at the end of the Qing Dynasty, as well as stilted buildings, Siheyuan, air-raid shelters, and Shikumen buildings in the Shanghai style from the war period, and schools and residential houses built at different times after the founding of New China. It is one of the few original residential architectural clusters in Chongqing with an area of over 20,000 square meters.
After the opening of Chongqing in 1890, France, England, and Germany successively set up consulates in the northern part of Tian Deng Alley, which was the main office area for Chongqing's foreign affairs institutions, hence the name Consulate Alley. Tian Deng Alley, adjacent to the embassy area, became a residential area. In 1902, the French built a large complex of buildings near 12 acres at the top of Tian Deng Alley, including the Ren Ai Tang Hospital, church, and monastery (Figures 1-6), and in 1909 established the 'Ren Ai Tang Girls' School' of the Catholic Diocese of Chongqing, becoming the earliest consulate area in Chongqing.
Mountain City Alley is built against the mountain and offers a view of the Yangtze River (Figures 11-17). The famous viewing and photography platform 'Third Mountain City Trail' is located here.
As you ascend, some paths are door-to-door alleys (Figures 7-8), some are half-streets with the old city wall on one side (Figure 9), all very characteristic of old Chongqing. Each time you enter a narrow alley perpendicular to the main road, there is a different world inside (Figure 10).
Our walking route was: Tongyuan Gate City Wall - Consulate Alley - Ren Ai Tang - Mountain City Trail, and we also visited the 'Mountain City Alley Memory Hall' to further understand Mountain City Alley.
CAMERON BOWERS
One-day tour of Chongqing Mountain City Alley Historical and Cultural Scenic Area
For many visitors, the impression of Chongqing may only linger on very popular places such as Jiefangbei, Hongya Cave, or Ciqikou, as these spots are extremely popular on various platforms and are highly recommended by many tourists. However, apart from the old Chongqing residents, few people may know about this place called Mountain City Alley, which is also one of the most representative streets of old Chongqing. If you come here at night, you will find that it is just like a street market in heaven. Mountain City Alley is located in Yuzhong District, very close to the Eighteen Steps, but it is an old street with more of a down-to-earth atmosphere. It is recommended to exit from Exit 1 of Qixinggang Station, as the whole journey is downhill and not strenuous, suitable for a slow-paced free trip. There are many creative shops along the way, and you can check in at various points such as Chongqing City Wall Teahouse—Tongxuan Building, open-air 'Ba Ba' tea, Ren'ai Hall, Wilderness Theater, Cliff Plank Road, etc. The environment along the way is very good, and it is not very crowded, giving a feeling of being away from the bustling city and relaxing. Mountain City Alley is a street in Chongqing named after the mountain city, located in the Liangtingzi Community of Nanjimen Street, Yuzhong District, stretching from Chongqing Rest House in the north to Nanqu Road in the south, connecting with Zhongxing Road in the east and extending to Shibangpo Overpass in the west. The total land area is 5.15 hectares, of which the core protection area is about 2.34 hectares, and the scenic area is about 2.81 hectares. Mountain City Alley is known as Chongqing's architectural museum. Here you can find the old city wall built in the early Ming Dynasty, foreign consulates and churches built during the late Qing Dynasty when Chongqing opened as a port, as well as stilted buildings, Siheyuan (courtyard houses), air-raid shelters, and Shichaomen buildings in the Shanghai style from the wartime period, along with schools and residential houses built after the founding of New China at different times. It is one of the few remaining original residential architecture clusters in Chongqing with an area of over 20,000 square meters.
CuriosityCove
Come to the Chongqing Mountain City Trail to experience the heavenly street markets and the earthly fireworks
Promise me that when you come to Chongqing for a visit, you must take a trip to the Mountain City Alley.
This street hidden on the cliff is full of the breath of life.
If you don't know where to go for the Spring Festival, friends,
you can come here to climb the slopes and experience the charm of the mountain city culture.
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🔥About check-in tips
It is recommended to go around 4:30 in the afternoon, and on a sunny day, you can also enjoy the sunset.
As evening approaches, the lanterns will gradually light up,
hundreds of lanterns meander and distribute, instantly filling the atmosphere with the New Year vibe.
Walking on the stilted buildings built along the river,
you can also enjoy the view of the Nanjimen Rail Bridge opposite,
with a very open view.
Continue down the alley, and you will see various street vendors,
very lively, with a sense of déjà vu of a heavenly street market.
Various Chongqing specialty foods, oil tea, iron cake, covered-bowl tea, rush cake, cultural and creative shops, and antique shops
are all old memories of Chongqing people.
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📷About photo check-in
Love Alley, with colorful lanterns hanging high, looks even more romantic under the warm light.
Mountain City Ba Ba, an open-air teahouse where you can boil tea around a stove and also enjoy ear-picking services, very Chongqing.
Mountain City Time Library, a very nostalgic bookstore, with a flight of stairs with fresh flowers next to it, very suitable for photo check-ins.
A bit of green, an antique shop stumbled upon unintentionally, with many exquisite vintage clothes, great for gifts or personal use.
It is said that from February 2nd to February 24th, Mountain City Alley will hold the third Lantern Festival event, and it must be said that Mountain City Alley's sense of ceremony is really full.
There will also be a lighting ceremony on the evening of the 2nd, with coser performances, national style shows, and other wonderful performances, so friends who like the atmosphere should not miss it.
📍Navigation: Mountain City Alley Traditional Style Area
diplomaticleona
I finally found the CityWalk destination in Chongqing!
The lanes of Mountain City are known as Chongqing's 'architectural museum', where there are old city walls built in the early Ming Dynasty, foreign consulates and churches built during the late Qing Dynasty when Chongqing opened its ports, as well as stilted buildings, Siheyuan (courtyard houses), air-raid shelters, and Shikumen buildings in the Shanghai style from the wartime period, and schools and residential houses built after the founding of New China at different times, making it one of the few remaining original residential architectural sites in Chongqing with an area of over 20,000 square meters.
🌟 At the entrance of the Mountain City lanes, there is a super friendly 🐱 cat welcoming visitors - you can pet it!
🌟 You must visit the library in Mountain City Time 📖! It's a place transformed from a school, and it still retains the classrooms from that time, with the old and worn desks really taking you back to primary school days~
🌟 On the way to the library, you can experience the local tea culture with 'Ba Ba Tea' 🍵~
🌟 The small shops along the street are great to browse, and there's a grandpa selling 'matang' on the road, which is also a childhood memory. There's also a baked cake shop 🫓, I recommend everyone to try the sweet ones, we used to call them 'big footprints' when we were kids, so delicious 😋
🌟 It's recommended to walk from top to bottom, and at the end, you can reach the Line 1 🚇 subway entrance.
🌟 If you want to make a round trip, on the way back you can walk from the Ren'ai Wilderness Theater to the Linjiang Walkway and go back, the path through the 🌳 dense forest has a unique charm~
JOLIE CALDWELL
In Chongqing! This street is super super super nice to stroll around
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Ah! Help! The festive atmosphere in the mountain city alleys is just too strong!
Where to go for the Lantern Festival? This wave of mountain city alleys is simply unbeatable!
The scene is really lively~ So many people...
The walkway is filled with red lanterns🏮, and it looks super beautiful in photos at night🤳
There's also a huge cute pink dragon!
Joined the Lantern Festival riddle party with my sisters, and the riddle master is an intangible cultural heritage inheritor from Chongqing!
The bustling mountain city 'Ba Ba Xi', where feasts are held every nine days, with Sichuan opera face-changing performances heating up the place~
Sisters, hurry and bring your family and friends to the mountain city alleys to experience the atmosphere of Chongqing!
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NICHOLAS WASHINGTON
The atmosphere is incredibly intense!! Chongqing has really won big this time!!!
This Lantern Festival, I was truly amazed by the charm of the mountain city alleys!!
When the activities of guessing lantern riddles, releasing sky lanterns, dragon dancing, and eating sweet dumplings
are all presented before your eyes
you will be profoundly shocked by the folk culture passed down from our ancestors. All the lantern riddles on site were organized and planned by Teacher Zhang Jian, who has 30 years of experience in creating lantern riddles. As a representative inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of lantern riddles, he has created lantern riddle events for 32 districts and counties in Chongqing. This personal experience was indeed full of fun
The hundred-meter dragon dance this time also has a significant background. The dragon head was crafted by Teacher Lu Dejun, known as the 'most beautiful industrial worker.' It is a continuous improvement and upgrade based on the original Tongliang dragon, bringing everyone an 'artistic' dragon head viewing experience
In addition, the sky lanterns were lit up together at the venue, with the twinkling candlelight in the sky carrying everyone's beautiful wishes for the New Year. This Lantern Festival is very beautiful, and the mountain city alleys are well worth it👍
DEVIN TODD
In Chongqing!! Regret not coming here earlier to stroll around!!
The locals will tell you: Isn't this much better than Hongya Cave, Jiefangbei and the like!! Experience the worldly atmosphere of old Chongqing mountain city, it's really beautiful!
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Mountain City Lane is the only hundred-year-old street in Chongqing, the stairway roads have not changed, it really has a lot of feelings, especially during the Spring Festival, you can experience the feeling of walking around the streets when you were a child. There are also many literary and artistic small shops and special snacks, dam tea, iron cake, sugar painting... You can spend a whole day here! From 2.2 to 2.24, there is also the third Lantern Festival event🏮 The opening ceremony has a lighting ceremony, national style show, coser performance, etc., it's very lively🔥 You must participate in the dam feast!!
GraceBeaumont14
Chongqing Mountain City Lane | Century-old street lane, Ren'ai Hall, Houlu, Budo Old Hot Pot
Mountain City Lane is the only street in Chongqing named after the 'Mountain City'. It is built along the mountain and rises along the cliff, starting from the South Ji Gate of the lower half of the 'Mother City' Yuzhong District in Chongqing, and the green stone steps of one slope after another extend along the mountain to the Consulate Lane of the upper half of the city, and the outside of the stone steps is the rolling Yangtze River.
This is the 'most Chongqing' century-old alley, the streets and walls of the city here, the landscape of mountains and rivers, retain the local customs and fireworks of old Chongqing. A walk in Mountain City Lane will give you an understanding of old Chongqing.
On this old street, there are various architectural styles before and after the period of the accompanying capital, such as Haipai, stilted buildings, Chinese style, and European style scattered among them. Walking in Mountain City Lane, you can still see the 'Ren'ai Hall' with a history of hundreds of years, and the 'Houlu' with the architectural characteristics of Shanghai Shikumen.
The history of Mountain City Lane can be traced back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In 1900, French missionaries erected poles and lit lamps on the slope of this lane to illuminate the way for pedestrians, hence the name Tianlan Lane and Tianlan Street, which was renamed Mountain City Lane in 1972.
Ren'ai Hall was built by the French Catholic Church in Chongqing to spread the gospel of Christ, with the aim of saving the world and saving people. In 1900, it built a church, hospital, and priest's residence in the original Erxian Temple (now 80.82 Mountain City Lane), named Ren'ai Hall. The mottled wall still has the words 'Sichuan Province Chongqing Chinese Medicine Clinic'.
There are also the most authentic hot pots, ironing cakes, baked cakes, ice powder, tangyuan, small noodles, bacon sausages, pickles and other delicacies in old Chongqing. On the way up the slope, you can encounter them station by station.
Budo Old Hot Pot is a nameless hot pot that has been opened in Mountain City Lane for more than 20 years. At first, it was just two square tables set up next to the trail, with all the prices written on the door panel, and the customers were almost all the neighbors around. Now the menu is still handwritten on the door panel, and the two square tables have gradually increased to more than a dozen.
📍Detailed address:
Mountain City Lane: No. 7 South District Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing
Ticket: Free admission
Ph03n1x_@rc@n3
Chasing the light in the mountain city, capturing the charm of Chongqing at night - A photography guide to the mountain city lanes
Dear photography enthusiasts, have you ever been attracted by the night of the mountain city lanes in Chongqing, have you ever dreamed of capturing the fascinating interplay of light and shadow? Today, I will lead you into this magical mountain city, let us together in the night of the mountain city lanes to find the most beautiful moments.
The mountain city lanes are a business card of Chongqing. It carries the history and cultural heritage of Chongqing, witnessing the changes and development of this city. It is not only a geographical symbol of Chongqing, but also an emotional sustenance for the people of Chongqing. And the night of the mountain city lanes is even more beautiful, as if you are in a vivid painting.
Photography is the art of light and shadow. In the night of the mountain city lanes, the use of light is particularly important. The light here not only comes from the lights, but also from the lights of distant buildings, and even the contour light of the mountain city, making people feel as if they are in the ocean of light. When shooting, we can use different light effects to highlight the characteristics and charm of the mountain city lanes. For example, using contour light to outline the contour of the mountain city, making the picture more three-dimensional; using light to illuminate the details of the buildings, showing the history and culture of the mountain city lanes; using the lights of high-rise buildings to create a bustling city atmosphere, making the picture more modern.
In addition to light, angle is also the key to photography. When shooting in the mountain city lanes, we can choose different angles to show its beauty. For example, you can shoot from a high place to get a panoramic view of the entire mountain city lanes; you can also shoot from a low place to highlight the steepness and majesty of the mountain city; you can also shoot from the side to show the curves and levels of the mountain city lanes. Different angles will bring different visual effects, making people's eyes bright.
Of course, in addition to skills, the emotions during shooting are also very important. Only those who truly love photography and this city can capture the most beautiful moments. When shooting, we can integrate our feelings for this city into the picture, making the photos more soulful. For example, when shooting the night view of the mountain city lanes, we can choose a slow shutter speed to make the lights present a dreamy effect; we can also choose a high-speed shutter to capture the moment when the night falls; we can even choose time-lapse photography to record the day and night changes of the mountain city lanes. Different ways of expressing emotions will bring different visual effects and feelings.
Finally, what I want to say is: photography is not only a skill, but also an attitude. When shooting the night of the mountain city lanes, we need to learn to use the lens to discover beauty, record beauty, and express beauty. Let's chase the night of the mountain city lanes with our lenses together!
In conclusion, the night of the mountain city lanes in Chongqing is a beautiful painting, and only through photography can we truly capture its charm. By using light, choosing different angles, and expressing our own emotions, we can make the photos more lively and interesting. If you are a photography enthusiast or a friend who is interested in Chongqing culture, why not try shooting the night view of the mountain city lanes? I believe you will gain a lot of beautiful memories and works.
Photography equipment: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5