Remember how in The Fifth Element, Bruce Willis’ character worked as a flying taxi driver, and the ground level in the colossal metropolis of the future was simply impossible to see? We have good news for you – the future is already here. Without flying taxis and warlike humanoids – but otherwise, welcome to Chongqing!

The TikToker @journeyofjackson tells about life in one of the most amazing cities in China in his videos, and a recent video has gone incredibly viral, gaining 34 million views. Well, 2 million more than the nominal number of residents in Chongqing… So, what is a typical work commute like in this city?

More info: TikTok

The author of the video lives in Chongqing, China, and his recent video of a typical work commute became incredibly viral

Image credits: journeyofjackson

The city is located on multiple levels, and the height difference may be around 20 floors or even more

The Original Poster (OP) is walking down the eighteenth floor of his house without an elevator – fortunately, he doesn’t have to go down many stairs, because the ground floor is on the 12th floor. No, there are floors below, too, it’s just that to get to this level, the folks living there have to go upstairs.

Then our hero enters a subway station, which really looks like the entrance to a fallout shelter (an additional effect is achieved by dirty gray concrete everywhere – and no graffiti, usually indicating the presence of living persons!)

Image credits: journeyofjackson

Image credits: journeyofjackson

The subway – or is it a high-speed city tram, moving high above the ground – really resembles a roller coaster, and periodically, the cars pass right through residential buildings. And finally, after a long ride, the guy comes out to the city square…

Finally solid ground under his feet? No way! Our hero approaches the fence at the edge of the square – and it turns out that in fact people are located at about the 22nd floor, and far below, cars drive and pedestrians walk. A bit surreal, isn’t it?

Image credits: journeyofjackson

Image credits: journeyofjackson

The city transport goes on viaducts too – in order to avoid inevitable traffic jams

In the evening, leaving the office, the author decides that the subway looks too extreme, gets on a city bus – and immediately finds himself on a viaduct at a height of twenty floors above the city. And so it is every day, from dawn to dusk, in one of the largest cities in the world…

Image credits: journeyofjackson

Image credits: journeyofjackson

To be fair, Chongqing is indeed located in a valley and on the slopes of rather high mountains, so the differences in altitude here are largely due to the natural relief. On the other hand, viaducts right in the city and tunnels crossing multi-story buildings are an integral part of Chinese megacities.

At least, I regularly saw something similar with my own eyes in Guangzhou when I was there six years ago – and Guangzhou, unlike Chongqing, is located on a plain. However, Chongqing has its own unique feature – formally, it is the largest city in the world in terms of population and area, but only from an administrative point of view.

Image credits: ダモ リ / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

Image credits: L JY / Pexels (not the actual photo)

Image credits: zydeaosika / Pexels (not the actual photo)

Since 1997, the whole area around Chongqing was included in the urban area, making the city technically the biggest in the world

The fact is that the entire Chongqing agglomeration and all adjacent territories have been technically included in the municipality since 1997, and the dense urban development itself occupies a small part of this area: an area that is comparable to a European country like Austria. Or approximately equal to South Carolina.

The result is what is officially called the ‘main urban area’ in Chinese parlance (which itself has a population of eight million people), and other areas, much of which are simply rural ones. But Chongqing is still a unique metropolis, where thousands of years of Chinese history are intricately intertwined with classics of cyberpunk.

You can watch the original video here

@journeyofjackson Why is commuting to work in Chongqing so hard? #chongqing #重庆 #chinatravel #cyberpunk ♬ original sound – Jackson

People in the comments were also incredibly amazed by the video, and couldn’t even decide what feelings it actually evoked in them. “I can’t decide if it’s cool or terrifying,” one of the responders sincerely wrote. “I’ll be honest, it looks so dystopian but so cool at the same time that I haven’t decided if I hate it or love it,” another person pondered.

In any case, the commenters can’t help but admit that the city looks both damn futuristic and not so. “What a futuristic but not so futuristic city. I’d die from anxiety with those heights alone,” someone admitted. And what do you, our dear readers, think about such an urban practice?

People in the comments were in two minds about the scene, and couldn’t even specify their feelings from awe to anxiety

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