Liziba Light Rail Passing Through Building 李子坝轻轨穿楼

Welcome, everyone! Thank you for joining us at Liziba Station on Chongqing Rail Transit Line 2 — China's first straddle-type monorail elevated station built and coexisting with a mixed-use residential and commercial tower. Today we'll move in order: Exit 1 → Viewing Platform → Soul of Rock Relief Wall → Culture and Tourism Service Center → Bayu Historical News Museum → Rail-Through-Building Main Structure. Together we'll take in this engineering marvel and cultural landmark known as the defining symbol of Chongqing's "8D fantasy metropolis."

Liziba Station was completed in March 2004 and officially opened for trial operations on June 18, 2005. The building rises 19 floors in total: floors 1–5 are commercial retail, floors 6–8 are the rail transit zone, and floors 9–19 are residential apartments. The design seamlessly embeds the monorail track into a residential tower, with trains running through floors 6 to 8 — a globally rare "rail-through-building" phenomenon. This was no architectural whim but a natural response to Chongqing's dramatic terrain, and a testament to the ingenuity of its people. The station and the tower were designed, built, and put into service simultaneously using a "station-bridge separation" structural system, keeping the rail bridge and the building's load-bearing structure entirely independent of each other — effectively eliminating any structural force transfer or vibration between the two.

We'll now exit through Exit 1 and make our way down to the viewing platform for our first stop — the Liziba Viewing Platform.

We've arrived at the Liziba Viewing Platform — a purpose-built observation space designed for photographing the full panorama of the train passing through the building. The platform covers approximately 1,367 square meters and comes fully equipped with a tour-bus drop-off zone, a photography plaza, a glass walkway viewing area, and pedestrian paths.

Look ahead — that tall mixed-use tower in the distance, with the monorail train threading right through it: that's the "station within a building, building within a station" effect that makes this place so surreal. This scene could only have been born from Chongqing's rugged mountain-city terrain, and it stands as a perfect example of rail transit and urban architecture in complete harmony. The ground lighting here is synchronized with train arrival and departure times, creating a rhythmic light display — the "lights move with the rails" effect — that pulses in visual sync with passing trains.

The platform features two themed lighting modes: "Warm Neighborhood" and "Forest Song." "Warm Neighborhood" uses warm tones to capture the cozy atmosphere of Chongqing community life, while "Forest Song" runs in blue-green tones that echo the forest-green livery of the monorail trains, conjuring a sense of nature and city blending into one. The glass walkway viewing area also offers sweeping views of the Jialing River alongside the spectacular sight of the train piercing the building.

Trains run every 5 to 7 minutes. Burst mode is the best way to catch the moment the train nose clears the building's edge. For the sharpest shot, stand at a 45-degree angle to the direction of travel. 10 a.m. is the sweet spot for light — the sun hits the building at an angle that produces crisp, dramatic shadows.

We'll now walk roughly 120 meters along the footpath toward Fotuguan, cross at the zebra crossing there, and head to our next stop — the Soul of Rock Relief Culture Wall.

We're now standing in front of the Soul of Rock Relief Culture Wall beside Liziba Station. This monumental relief was created by celebrated Chinese artist Jiang Bibo and stretches approximately 300 meters in length with a height of about 15 meters.

Work on the relief began in 2001, running in parallel with the construction of Liziba Station itself, making it an integral part of the rail-through-building attraction as a whole. The work employs nearly 40 colors and depicts more than a dozen faces — people of various skin tones and hair colors, some carrying bamboo baskets on their backs, others with briefcases in hand — vividly capturing the diversity of Chongqing's culture and the textures of its everyday city life. The original contour of the slope was kept intact, and the upper sections of the relief follow the natural shape of the rock face to create large portrait heads, expressing the deep bond between people and the land.

When designing the piece, Jiang Bibo deliberately preserved the uneven surface of the slope so that the relief would merge organically with the natural mountainside. She explained: "The unique form of the slope's rock face is a treasure in itself. It stands guard on the high ground above the Jialing River, a witness to Chongqing's history. This city of heroes gave birth to the Red Crag spirit, and its people carry a will as unyielding as stone."

The relief wall was conceived and built as an attraction in its own right — it was, in fact, already famous before Liziba Station ever opened. When the monorail began its sightseeing runs in December 2004, the relief wall had already drawn the attention of artists from China and abroad, becoming one of Chongqing's most striking landmarks. Since then, after multiple rounds of renovation and upgrading, it has grown into an important gateway for visitors to discover Chongqing's ancient Bayu culture.

We'll now head back to Liziba Station for our next stop — the Culture and Tourism Service Center.

We've arrived at the Liziba Culture and Tourism Service Center, located on the ground floor of the Liziba Station tower, with a floor area of approximately 500 square meters. It opened for business in January 2020.

The center provides tourist information and showcases cultural and creative products, serving as a key hub for the "rail plus culture-tourism" integration model. It has also served as a filming location for the movies "Us and Them" and "Cook Up a Storm," adding to its cultural significance. The center features a train-carriage photo zone, a model-train display area, and interactive digital screens that recreate the real rail environment and showcase scenery along the line.

In December 2025, the Chongqing Rail Transit Visitor Service Center and Liziba Cultural Creative Theme Hall project was selected as a "Model Case for Integrated Transport and Tourism Development" — recognized as an innovative example of public transit and cultural tourism integration at the national level. The center's range of cultural and creative products has now expanded to over 900 items, including brass bookmark rulers shaped like the rail train, buildable block sets, and "monorail-through-building" refrigerator magnets, all reflecting the cultural depth and regional character of Chongqing's rail transit.

We'll now take the elevator upstairs to our next stop — the Bayu Historical News Museum.

We're now inside the Bayu Historical News Museum, situated on the upper floors of Liziba Station. This cultural space is dedicated to the history of Chongqing's rail transit development and its connection to Bayu culture. The museum is open daily from 06:30 to 20:30.

Through rare old newspapers and historical archives, the museum traces the full journey of Chongqing's rail transit from planning through to construction. The spotlight falls on the landmark 1998 decision to simultaneously plan, design, and build Liziba Station and the residential tower above it — a case study in the ingenuity and boldness with which Chongqing's people tackled the challenge of fitting urban transit into a city of limited space.

The museum is divided into three zones: the Rail Transit Stories exhibition zone, the Bayu Culture special exhibition zone, and an interactive experience area. In the Rail Transit Stories zone, visitors can explore old newspapers and historical records documenting the debates and solutions surrounding the 1998 planning process. The Bayu Culture zone presents findings from Three Gorges cultural heritage protection work. The interactive area features touchscreens and other modern technology, inviting visitors to explore how rail transit and urban culture have intertwined over the decades.

The Bayu Historical News Museum is a living embodiment of the "one line, one culture" philosophy guiding Chongqing's rail transit development. Since its renovation and upgrade in 2023, the museum has welcomed over a thousand visitors, enriching the journey for everyday commuters while deepening the cultural resonance of Liziba Station as a whole — making it an important window onto Chongqing's heritage.

We'll take the elevator up once more to our final stop — the Rail-Through-Building Main Structure.

We've reached the Rail-Through-Building Main Structure, occupying floors 6 through 8 of the mixed-use tower at No. 39 Liziba Zhengjie. Floor 6 is the concourse level, floor 7 houses equipment, and floor 8 is the platform level. The structure covers a footprint of 3,100 square meters with a total floor area of 6,000 square meters. Each floor is approximately 3,500 square meters with a ceiling height of about 3.6 meters, and the train travels 132 meters through the building.

The structure uses a "station-bridge separation" system in which the rail bridge and the tower's structural columns are completely independent, with a 20-centimeter safety gap between them. The six pile foundations supporting the rail track beam reach approximately 38 meters down to bedrock, while the tower itself rests on more than 90 piles, each approximately 69 meters deep. The two systems share no load path whatsoever.

Trains run on low-noise pneumatic rubber tires with air-spring suspension, keeping operating noise between 50 and 75 decibels — well below the average noise level on urban arterial roads. Measured data shows indoor noise levels in the residential units remain below 45 decibels during the day and below 35 decibels at night, fully meeting — and in many cases exceeding — national residential standards.

The monorail threading through floors 6 to 8 of a residential tower not only solved the unique topographical challenges of a mountain city but also maximized land efficiency and the use of limited urban space. Station and tower were designed, built, and put into service at the same time — a reflection of the Chongqing spirit of "carving roads through mountains."

You're now free to explore the concourse level up close and take in the details of where track meets building. Please follow staff directions and move through the space in an orderly way so as not to disrupt fellow passengers.

Liziba Station stands as a landmark moment in the history of China's urban rail transit — and a crystallization of the Chongqing people's creativity. This innovative "rail-through-building" solution didn't just resolve the tension between transit infrastructure and built space; it created a one-of-a-kind urban spectacle that has become a symbol of Chongqing itself.

Thank you so much for joining us today. We hope this tour has given you a real feel for Chongqing's extraordinary blend of fantastical transit and vibrant city culture, and that it leaves you with memories to treasure. We wish you safe and happy travels ahead.