Jiangbei: the Airport, North Station, Jiangbeizui and Guanyinqiao

A 1960s Jiangbei textile-mill warehouse and its lane turned into cafés, bookshops and craft studios, 'a stone's throw' from Paradise Walk (city government, December 2025) and about 800 m behind the Guanyinqiao malls — the district's own description is a 'literary enclave in the middle of the bustle' with the old factory fabric kept (Jiangbei District press conference). Free, no gate, an hour's pause between shopping and the riverbank; Line 3 'Guanyinqiao', then walk north past Paradise Walk.

The free wide-angle view of Hongyadong: across the Jialing from the stilt-house mall stands the Grand Theatre (2009, the green-glass 'ship'), and below it the Jiangbeizui riverbank park — about 6 km of terraced river steps opened in 2021-22 along the north bank from Chang'an wharf under Qiansimen Bridge round to the Yangtze. From the theatre forecourt or the 'Wangjiang' platform east of the bridge you get Hongyadong, Qiansimen Bridge and the peninsula skyline in one frame at lights-on; on the bridge itself you get it close up. The theatre is a working venue — go in for a performance, not a tour. Metro Line 6, Grand Theatre station.

The one terminal that matters: since 23 December 2025 every domestic and international flight at Chongqing uses T3, and T3 is where the 240-hour visa-free transit is processed on arrival (city public security bureau). Line 10 runs from the T3 station to Chongqing North station and the peninsula (weekdays: first 6:30 and last 23:49 towards Wangjiazhuang, first 6:38 and last 23:23 towards Lanhua Road — airport group timetable); the K01 airport express to Jiefangbei is ¥15 and about 65 minutes, but it now runs only when there are passengers. T3B, the satellite concourse opened in 2025, is reached by an automated people-mover after security: check-in and security stay in T3A. Line 3 still stops at 'Airport T2' — the terminal that no longer handles passengers.

The busiest of the city's 'one airport, four stations' and the one closest to the peninsula (25-30 minutes to Jiefangbei), with a trap that has its own local joke: it has a South Square and a North Square, and the metro stops are named after them. Since the January 2021 rebuild either square leads into the same waiting hall, arriving passengers can leave by either square through the underground concourse and walk straight into the metro without re-screening, and tickets do not name a square; the square only matters for which metro line you want. Line 3 and the Loop stop at 'Chongqing North Station South Square', Lines 4 and 10 at 'Chongqing North Station North Square', and 'Longtousi' is a third station nearby. Line 10 from here reaches the airport's T3 directly.

Line 2 and Line 3 are straddle-type monorails (the trains that run through a building at Liziba and along the cliff above the Jialing), and the rest of the network is metro; officially it is all 'rail transit' (轨道交通) and one ticket system, ¥2-10 by distance (¥2 for the first 4 km). The gates take a QR code from Alipay or WeChat (with a foreign card linked), a UnionPay contactless card, a physical single-journey ticket from the machine, or the city's own 'Yukuaima' code — but not a foreign Visa or Mastercard tapped at the gate: unlike Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu or Shenzhen, Chongqing has published no such service (checked September 2026). Since July 2024 you can at least buy the paper ticket with a foreign card at the staffed ticket window of every station (People's Bank of China Chongqing branch via city government). The airport station is on Line 10; the three big railway stations all connect without a second security check.

The city's science museum on the Jiangbeizui waterfront, two blocks from the Grand Theatre — free, 400-odd hands-on exhibits from aerospace to Chongqing's own bridges, and the family stop on a Jiangbeizui evening before the lights come on. It was one of the six sites the city kept on a booking list in July 2024, but the museum dropped reservations from 1 October 2025: you now scan an ID card at the entrance gate and walk in. 9:30-17:00, closed Mondays. The 4D and giant-screen cinemas charge ¥20-30 a film.

The north bank's shopping district — 600,000 people a day on average, over a million on the busiest (district government) — and, for a foreign visitor, the most useful mall zone in the city: two of Chongqing's five 'instant tax refund' centralised counters are here (Paradise Walk, added May 2026, and Starlight 68, added September 2025). That means anything bought at any of the 363 tax-refund shops in the city can be refunded in cash on the spot before you get near the airport (State Taxation Administration, July 2026). Line 3 'Guanyinqiao' station, 15 minutes from Chongqing North station; Beicang, the warehouse café lane, is 800 m behind the square.