Jackson Luâs apartment building doesnât have an elevator, so when he leaves his home, the photographer has to walk downstairs from the 18th level. Luckily, it doesnât take too long, because the ground floor is on the 12th story. This is life in Chongqing, China, where the urban planning decisions can sound more like a riddle than a city that actually exists. âPeople canât wrap their heads around the directions, space, and the ground floor,â Lu says of those visiting or learning about the city for the first time.
Recently, he posted a video on TikTok showcasing an average commute in the metropolis, which quickly went viral and has since been seen more than 30 million times. In it, he addresses the oddities of his apartment complex, before going to the train station that âfeels like a nuclear fallout shelter.â On the subway, he winds around the city on an elevated monorail before the train takes him through the middle of a residential building. âFinally I get off at the city square. Solid ground at last, right?â he narrates in the video. âNope, Iâm actually on the 22nd floor of my office building.â On his commute home, he opted for the bus, which navigates a labyrinth of highways in the sky, at one point driving 20 stories above the ground, according to Lu.
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Built atop a mountain and densely populated, Chongqing is known for itâs unique urban design. The metropolis is located at the intersection of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in southwest-central China. âThe city served as the wartime capital during World War IIâ¦after, the population got denser, and we needed to urbanize,â Lu says. But its topography requires specific design decisions. âWe utilize vertical space just like Hong Kong,â he adds. This includes things like the vast outdoor plazas Lu showed in his video, which can appear like the ground floor but are actually many feet above sea level. âIn Chongqing, we never really know what floor weâre on,â Lu said at the start of a different TikTok, which has been viewed more than 14 million times.
