The two cities were a single province until 1997 and still function as a pair. Pretty much every Sichuan itinerary that includes both treats the rail link as a taxi ride.
The line#
The Chengdu–Chongqing high-speed railway (成渝高铁) runs 308 km east from Chengdu East station, through Ziyang, Neijiang and Yongchuan, into Chongqing. Journey times run from a little over an hour on the fastest services to around an hour and a half on the ones that stop more, and departures are frequent enough from early morning to late evening that booking a specific train matters less here than almost anywhere else in China.
A second line, the Chengdu–Chongqing central route, is under construction and will cut the time further. It is not open, so plan around what runs today.
The station problem#
This is the part worth ten minutes of attention, because both ends have multiple stations and picking the wrong one can add 45 minutes at the far side.
In Chongqing, three stations take trains from Chengdu:
- Chongqing North (重庆北站) — the main one, in Yubei. Its south-square metro station (重庆北站南广场) is an interchange for Line 3, Line 10 and the Loop line, and the north and south squares are separate buildings, so read which one your ticket names.
- Shapingba (沙坪坝站) — closer to the university district, on Line 1 and Line 9, and built directly underneath a shopping complex.
- Chongqing West (重庆西站) — in Shapingba district's southern edge, on Line 5 and the Loop line.
In Chengdu, most services use Chengdu East (成都东站), which is on metro Line 2 and Line 7.
None of these are interchangeable. If your hotel is in Jiefangbei, Chongqing North and Shapingba are both reasonable; Chongqing West is a longer trip in. Decide where you are staying before you book the ticket rather than after.
Whether to fly#
Don't. Over 300 km the airports are the whole problem: both sit well outside their cities, check-in and security eat any time saved in the air, and the rail stations are on the metro. On this route the train wins on every measure that matters, which is why the air link between the two is thin.
Making it one trip rather than two#
Because the connection is this good, the two cities pair naturally rather than competing. A common shape is three or four nights in Chengdu for the pandas and the teahouses, then two or three in Chongqing for the river, the cliffside city and the hotpot — which is a different tradition from Sichuan hotpot, built on beef tallow rather than the milder Chengdu broth.
You can also treat one as a day trip from the other, though it is a slightly wasteful use of a good connection. Chongqing rewards an evening more than a daytime: the Yangtze and Jialing confluence, the lit-up Hongya Cave complex and the monorail running through a residential block are all better after dark.
For what to do at each end, see the Chongqing travel guide and the Chengdu travel guide; for booking Chinese trains as a foreign passport holder, see the guide to transport in China.