Eling Park

Overview

Eling Park is the highest point on the Yuzhong peninsula, the long ridge of Chongqing’s old centre with the Yangtze on one side and the Jialing on the other, and it has the view to prove it. From the Liangjiang Pavilion at the north-eastern tip you see both rivers, the bridges, and the towers of Jiefangbei stacked along the spine of the ridge; at night the same view is the one the city uses in its own publicity.

It started as a private garden. Li Yaoting, a merchant who was the first president of the Chongqing Chamber of Commerce, built his villa here in 1909, and the park’s name, “goose nape hill”, describes the narrow, steep shape of the ground. The city restored it and opened it to the public in 1958, and it is now a listed park with gardens, wartime buildings, a Japanese garden and the pavilion tower.

The park is free and open from early morning to late evening. It is a ten-minute climb from Liziba station, which sits at the foot of the same ridge, so the two go together.

Visiting

The park is open from 07:00 to 22:00 and entry is free; the Liangjiang Pavilion tower charges a small fee, 5 yuan at the last check. The main gate is on Changjiang Road at the top of the ridge, and the easiest approach by public transport is Line 1 to Eling station, or Line 2 to Liziba and the footpath up from the station.

Head for the pavilion first. It stands at the north-eastern end of the park, seven storeys, with an open gallery on each level and the full 360-degree view from the top: the Jialing and the Line 2 monorail running along its bank on one side, the Yangtze and the south-bank hills on the other, and the peninsula narrowing towards Chaotianmen in front of you. It is the best daytime orientation point in the city, and after dark it is one of the standard night-view spots.

The rest is a stroll. The Hiroshima Garden is a proper Japanese garden with a pond and clipped planting; the wartime relic buildings are dotted along the paths, with signage in Chinese; and the park runs seasonal flower shows, tulips in spring and chrysanthemums in autumn. Ninety minutes covers the lot.

Next door, at 1 Eling Main Street, is TestBed 2 (Eling Er Chang), a former banknote printing works converted into studios, shops and restaurants; it is free to wander and has its own terrace over the Jialing.

History

Li Yaoting was a rich businessman of the last Qing years, and the garden he laid out in 1909, first called Liyuan and then Yiyuan, was the earliest private garden in Chongqing. The original name for the site, Edingling, “goose nape ridge”, is the one that survives in the modern park name.

The ridge mattered during the war. When Chongqing became the Nationalist wartime capital after 1937, the high ground above the rivers was where governments and embassies went, and a group of wartime buildings survives inside the park as the Eling Wartime Relics. The Soviet Martyrs’ Tomb is also inside the park.

After a major restoration in 1958 the garden reopened as a public park under its present name. The later additions are the ones visitors notice most: the Liangjiang Pavilion, a modern seven-storey tower built for the view, and the Hiroshima Garden, a full Japanese-style garden built to mark Chongqing’s sister-city relationship with Hiroshima.

Tips

Come up for the last hour of daylight and stay for the lights. The pavilion is free of the day’s tour groups by then, and the transition from grey river to lit skyline is the show.

Combine it with Liziba: watch a couple of trains go through the building, then take the path up the hill. It is steep but short.

The tower fee is cash or QR code; there is no need to book anything.

In summer the ridge is a few degrees cooler than the streets below, which in a Chongqing July is a reason in itself.

Nearby

Liziba station is directly below the park on the Jialing side, reached by footpath from the park’s northern edge or by the Line 2 monorail from Jiaochangkou.

Hongya Cave is east on Line 2 at Linjiangmen; the pavilion is the best place to see where it sits in the city before you go down into it.

TestBed 2, the converted printing works beside the park, is where to eat if you are staying up here for the evening.

Ciqikou, the old river port, is west along Line 1 from Eling station.