Chong Qing

Chongqing is built on cliffs above the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, and the terrain shapes everything about how the city looks and feels — this is a place where escalators substitute for streets, where a light-rail line famously runs straight through the middle of a residential tower (Liziba station, now one of the most photographed subway stops in the world), and where the layout is confusing enough that even locals joke about it. Combined with the near-permanent haze that gives Chongqing its nickname as one of China's historic "furnace cities," the overall effect is a skyline that looks more like science fiction than anywhere else in the country, especially after dark when the cliffside towers along the rivers light up.

This is also, by most measures, the spiciest city in China — Chongqing hot pot is the original, most intense version of the dish that Chengdu's is often compared against, built on a scarlet, numbing beef-tallow broth loaded with dried chilies and Sichuan pepper. Xiao mian, a bowl of thin noodles in chili oil and sesame paste eaten for breakfast, and fuqi feipian, a cold-dressed beef and offal dish that's far more elegant than it sounds, round out a food scene that takes its heat as seriously as Chengdu's, if not more so. Hongyadong, a stilted building complex stacked up the riverside cliffs and lit up at night, and Ciqikou, an old town of Ming- and Qing-era streets, are the two most walkable sightseeing anchors within the city itself.

Chongqing's climate is humid subtropical and genuinely harsh in summer — July and August bring some of the highest heat and humidity of any major Chinese city — while winter is mild but persistently grey and damp rather than cold. Spring and autumn are far more livable. Chongqing is also the standard departure point for Yangtze River cruises through the Three Gorges, and pairs naturally with Chengdu, two to three hours away by high-speed rail, for a combined Sichuan-basin trip.