Guide to Kuixinglou, Chongqing: The 22nd-Floor Square That Feels Like Ground Level
People often describe Chongqing online as an “8D city”. Hear it often enough, and the phrase can start to feel like a tired tourism slogan. At Kuixinglou, though, it actually makes sense: it feels like you’re standing at ground level, until you cross a short pedestrian walkway and find yourself connected to the 22nd floor of the office building across the road.
I was near Jiefangbei Food Street recently, so I stopped by Kuixinglou as well. Even as a Chongqing local, I made a point of approaching Kuixinglou the way most visitors would. It helped me better understand what might confuse someone coming here for the first time.
Think of this as the route I’d give a friend visiting Kuixinglou for the first time: how to get there, what to look for, and where the route can get confusing.
Getting There
Parking around Kuixinglou is tricky, so I’d suggest taking a taxi or using the metro.
Take Metro Line 2 to Linjiangmen Station, take Exit 2, and walk about 300 meters to Kuixinglou.
The signs in this area are easy to miss, so I’ll walk you through the route I followed.
After getting off the escalator inside the metro station, turn left. Keep walking straight when you see the sign in the photo below.
At the intersection in the photo below, turn right.
The final sign is the one shown below. It does not clearly say “Kuixinglou,” so just follow the signs for The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Kuixinglou sits within the hospital complex.
If you take a taxi or drive, set your destination as “Kuixinglou.” That will take you to Kuixinglou Square, which is where most visitors stop for photos.
If you set your destination as “Gaosheng Chuangfu Center” instead, you’ll arrive at the ground floor of the office building. That is not wrong, but it means you need to enter the building first and take the elevator up to the 22nd floor before reaching Kuixinglou Square.
Tickets and Opening Hours
Kuixinglou is a free public space rather than a ticketed attraction. There is no admission fee, and you can visit at any time.
I’d still avoid going at night. Kuixinglou works best when you can clearly see the shift in elevation: the square, the walkway, the office building, and the street far below all in the same view. After dark, the space below mostly disappears, and the visual impact is cut in half.
How to Visit Kuixinglou
I came by Line 2 and got off at Linjiangmen Station. After following the route through the underground passage, I first reached a traditional-style gate marked “Kuixinglou.”
This is the part where it is easy to make the wrong move. Don’t walk straight through that gate. The area inside is part of the hospital’s outpatient section. Instead, take the stairs on the right side up to the square. This is where Kuixinglou’s spatial mismatch really begins.
The square itself is small. There are traditional-style buildings around it, but I don’t think the square alone is the reason to come. The interesting part is the pedestrian walkway connecting the square to the office building across the road.
When you’re standing on the Kuixinglou side, it feels like you are still at ground level. But look across the walkway, and the other end leads straight into the 22nd floor of the office building.
Once you step onto the walkway, the height becomes much harder to ignore. This is not a glass bridge or a tourist attraction built to scare people. It is just a normal pedestrian walkway. But the moment you look down, the drop beneath your feet suddenly feels very real.
When people pass by, you may also feel the walkway sway slightly. It is not dramatic, but it is enough to remind you that you are not standing on solid ground.
I also found a quieter angle for taking photos from above. Take the left-hand walkway into Gaosheng Chuangfu Center. From there, walk up the stairs and take photos through the stairwell window. This angle lets you fit Kuixinglou Square, the elevated walkway, and the street below into one frame.
On the walkway, you feel the height. From this window, that odd alignment becomes much easier to see: ground level on one side and the 22nd floor on the other somehow line up in the same view.
If your next stop is Hongyadong, enter Gaosheng Chuangfu Center, take the elevator down to the ground floor, and continue on foot from there. Hongyadong is only about 500 meters away.
This route saves some effort, and it also gives you a very typical Chongqing experience: you enter an elevator on one “first floor,” ride down, and step out onto another “first floor” in a completely different part of the city.
