Raffles City Chongqing 来福士

Welcome, everyone! You've arrived at the point where Chongqing's modern architecture and ancient river history converge — Raffles City Chongqing. Today we'll follow the classic route through the complex: Chaotianmen Square → Shopping Mall Atrium and Mountain City Garden → Crystal Link at 250 m (Explorer Pod · Observation Deck) → Explorer Pod · Sky Park. We begin at the historic waterfront and work our way up, step by step, to the sky — discovering what makes this city one of the most visually extraordinary places on Earth.

We are standing right now in Chaotianmen Square. For those visiting Chongqing for the first time, this is the best place to understand where the city came from. Chaotianmen was first established in 314 BC and was once the largest of ancient Chongqing's city gates. Look out ahead of you. This is where the Jialing River meets the Yangtze. On a clear day you can see it with your own eyes: the greener water of the Jialing on the left collides with the yellower, siltier Yangtze on the right, and for a stretch the two streams run side by side without mixing — a sharp, visible boundary line drawn by nature itself. And rising behind us is Raffles City Chongqing, designed by master architect Moshe Safdie. The eight towers lean and curve in a gentle arc, shaped like the great sails of an ancient vessel. Paired with the rivers stretching out before them, they speak to Chongqing's momentum — a city that has always faced forward, sails full, heading into the future.

Now, follow me through the grand entrance into the podium at the base of Raffles City — the shopping mall atrium.

The moment you step inside, the scale of the space tends to stop people in their tracks. Look up. A vast glass canopy spans the ceiling, drawing natural light deep into the interior while the crossing metalwork gives the whole hall a sleek, industrial-futuristic character. Chongqing is a mountain city, and the architects carried that idea inside. As we climb the indoor steps together, we arrive at what's called the Mountain City Garden — a terrace that connects directly to street level outside. It's planted with cascading greenery and punctuated by small streams and tumbling fountains. The whole circulation path is a deliberate echo of Chongqing's famous staircase streets and hillside lanes — so even here, surrounded by steel and glass, you still feel the rhythm of a city that was built vertically, layer by layer, up the side of a mountain.

Now for the highlight of the day. Follow the signs to the high-speed elevators, which climb several metres per second. In just a few dozen seconds, you'll be 250 metres above the ground, stepping out onto the Crystal Link — the sky bridge that spans the tops of four skyscrapers.

The Crystal Link stretches 300 metres in length and weighs tens of thousands of tonnes. It has been called one of the great engineering achievements in the history of construction — a skyscraper, essentially, turned on its side. For visitors, it offers more than a view; the first section is the Explorer Pod exhibition hall, created in partnership with National Geographic, which uses digital interactive installations to tell the story of humanity's exploration of the Earth and the cosmos. Pass through the exhibition and step out onto the outdoor all-glass viewing platform. Look down — beneath your feet there is nothing but a thick panel of specially engineered tempered glass, suspended 250 metres in open air. From here, a 270-degree panorama unfolds with nothing in the way: the modern financial towers of Jiangbei directly across the water, the historic lanes of Danzishi on the far bank, and the full sweep of the Chongqing Peninsula below. The cruise ships on the river look like toys. This is the ultimate camera position for Chongqing's legendary three-dimensional cityscape.

To close out the tour, if you're after something even more visceral, come with me one level higher — above the Crystal Link, into the open-air extreme experience zone: the Sky Park.

This is the closest any part of the Raffles City complex gets to the sky. Look at the transparent walkway extending out ahead of you — it's called the Sky Mirror. Harnessed in professional safety equipment and guided by trained staff, you can walk right to the outermost edge of the building, and if you're feeling bold, swing out on the suspended high-altitude swing, more than 200 metres above the ground. The things to take in here: the clouds drifting at eye level above you, the river wind rushing in off the mountain city around you, and the completely unobstructed view of the two rivers meeting far below. At sunset, or after dark when the neon lights along both riverbanks switch on and the four-bank panorama ignites in colour, standing up here makes you feel — in a way that's hard to describe — exactly what it means for a great natural landscape and a great work of modern engineering to truly become one. This is a Chongqing experience you won't forget. Thank you all for listening, and enjoy the rest of your visit!