Experience the images that could come out of a movie of a subway station inside an apartment building. It seems unreal but it is a place that you can visit while traveling.
An image of a train literally running through a building has gone viral. This surreal scene is not straight out of a movie: the train line has indeed existed for almost 20 years in Chongqing, China. Moreover, the building is not just a simple decoration on the train route. It’s also home to Liziba Station, which has become an unofficial tourist hotspot in the city since its existence first sparked a stir on the web between 2012 and 2013.
Ye Tianyi, the engineer behind this project, told Chinese media CGTN in 2022 that Chongqing Monorail Line 2 is located in a very special place in the city, on the banks of the Jialing River. The land had been acquired in the 1990s by a real estate developer who intended to build a residential complex there.
However, town planning plans indicated that it was also the best location for a train station, as about 20 to 30 meters behind the land was a steep slope which prevented the tracks from moving. Thus, the real estate developer and the Chongqing Rail Transit Group began negotiations to find a solution: to build the two projects in the same place.
At the end of 1998, Ye took charge of the design of Liziba station, which lasted two years. Because of this, the monorail does not literally pass through a building – the station and the rest of the construction were designed and built together.
Thus, the building was equipped with a considerably greater number of beams on the floor where the line platform is located, since they support the upper floors of the residence. The engineer also indicated that the building has benefited from extensive soundproofing work, so that the noise of incoming and outgoing trains does not disturb the residents. They would hear no more than 60 decibels – the sound of a washing machine – when passengers board and alight, according to British newspaper Metro.
The entire station, commissioned in 2006, occupies the 6th to 8th floors of the 19-story building, with food vending machines, ticket offices, restrooms and of course, the two travel platforms. Today, the complex is recognized as a historical heritage of China.
To accommodate the large number of tourists who started visiting the resort over the past decade, Liziba set up a viewing platform at the front of the resort in 2018, according to the Chongqing tourism authorities. To discover this unusual attraction, go to Lizibazheng Street, at number 35, in the Yuzhong district.