Urban architects have found a creative solution to bring transport close to locals without sacrificing residential space. Chongqing, a massive city in southwest China, features one of the most unique monorail stations in the world – which goes through a high-rise building.
The Liziba station, part of the Chongqing Rail Transit 2, was launched in 2005 and can be found between the sixth and eighth floors of a 19-storey building including several apartments.
The monorail at this station, which features toilets and vending machines, doesn’t cut through the building due to poor planning. Rather, the station and the bloc of apartments were planned and built together as one structure.
The high-rise is composed of two distinct areas: seven storeys on the lower part of the building are part of the station, while the other 11 storeys make up the residential area.
The first floor of the building is occupied by the Chongqing Rail Tourist Service Centre and Liziba Cultural and Creative Theme Museum, where visitors can learn more about, among other issues, the development history of Chongqing rail transit.
To make the lives of residents easier, the high-rise has been equipped with noise reduction systems able to isolate the sound created by the light trains crossing through.
The unique location of this station has made Liziba a tourist attraction in its own right and earned several online reviews from holidaymakers who visited Chongqing over the years.
One review written on travel website Tripadvisor read: “This is not a tourist attraction but its uniqueness is due to the fact that this subway station is located in the middle of a building.
“Best way to catch this unique sight is to take train #2 to this station and then get down to ground level (eight floors down). Get across the street and you will see many others looking upwards to the train station.”
Aware of the attention this unique station can get, the city opened in August 2018 a viewing platform, fitted with a tourist bus drop-off area, from which visitors can admire the trains going in and out of the high-rise.
Chongqing, known as the Mountain City due to the extremely hilly terrain on which it was built, is considered one of China’s most populated cities.
In 2022, the urban population alone was of 22.80 million people, and reached 30 million when considering the rural population surrounding Chongqing’s centre.
Chongqing is an important city for China’s heritage and history, having served as the country’s capital between 1937 and 1945, during the years of the Sino-Japanese War and World War 2.
A memento of the conflict between China and Japan can be found not too far from the Liziba station, at the city’s Anti-Japanese War Relics Park.
