A YouTuber reveals fascinating details about Chongqing, a city with an extraordinary history.
Imagine a city so vast that it could comfortably hold the population of an entire small country. Yet, chances are, you may never have heard of it.
That’s right—this isn’t the largest country or even a region we’re talking about. It’s a single city.
While cities like New York and Tokyo often come to mind when we think of urban giants, this place far surpasses them.
In fact, its sheer size makes it larger than Austria. Can you picture what life would be like living there?
Home to a staggering 32 million residents, this mega city easily overshadows the most populous cities you’ve ever heard of.
What’s even more fascinating is its unique aesthetic—it’s in China and is often described as having a striking cyberpunk vibe.
This sprawling metropolis, captured in a video by YouTuber PPPeter, has been compared to the futuristic world of Cyberpunk 2077.
For anyone curious about what living in such a city feels like, this is your chance to explore.
The city is massive
YouTube/PPPeter
The city we’re talking about is Chongqing.
Situated in South Western China, Chongqing is steadily gaining international attention. Thanks to the increasing number of influencers visiting and documenting their experiences, more people are learning about this extraordinary urban marvel.
YouTuber PPPeter, who has over a million subscribers, shared a detailed video explaining that the city’s modern history can be traced back to 1997.
Standing in a bustling community space, PPPeter explained to his audience:
“The story of this Chinese mega city starts and also kind of ends in 1997. Back then Chongqing was just a big city somewhere in South Western China.”
Look at those layers
YouTube/PPPeter
It was through government intervention, however, that the city transformed into what it is today.
PPPeter elaborated: “To boost the economy and make administration smoother Chinese government added three districts of Fuling, Wanxian and Quanjiang to Chongqing. This step made Chongqing the biggest city proper in the world with a population of 32,000,000 people and the area of 82,403km2, which is about the size Austria.”
Even with such growth and development, there arose challenges due to the overwhelming number of people living within the city.
According to the YouTuber, “modern-day Chongqing has areas so densely populated that unique and innovative solutions for urban planning were required.”
One example that gained popularity on TikTok features a traveler attempting to find the city’s ground floor but constantly failing, highlighting its unusual structure.
PPPeter noted that Chongqing is built across multiple levels, each of which seems like the ground floor but isn’t.
Finding the true ground level becomes almost like a game, and many visitors struggle with the city’s multi-layered design.
The complexity of the city’s layout, with its overlapping levels, creates an experience that feels like navigating a puzzle.
A local TikToker, Jackson Lu, shared his daily commute, which has fascinated viewers. His journey includes taking the subway, elevators, and passing through various levels that appear to be at ground level but are far above it.
He showcased Chongqing’s unique infrastructure, including highways and tunnels that run through residential buildings, making the city feel like a living, breathing labyrinth.
His videos have brought global attention to the extraordinary ways people navigate life in Chongqing, which feels like a mix of practicality and surrealism.
In one of his videos, Jackson shared this observation with his followers: “The train casually goes through a residential building and here it goes through another residential building, because why not?”
At one point, standing in what seemed to be a communal area, Jackson asked himself, “Surely, this must be solid ground?” To his surprise, he discovered he was actually on the 22nd floor of his office building.
It’s this surprising and layered structure that makes Chongqing so unique and intriguing to anyone who visits or lives there.
In fact, when Jackson panned his camera downward, the ground was so far below it seemed dizzying.
For anyone afraid of heights, just watching the scene would be enough to feel queasy.