Chongqing, China, March 27, 2017, — The photo below is of a real train crossing through the middle of an apartment building in Chongqing, the largest city in Southwestern China. No, it’s not a fake picture made with photo editing software.
This is the Chongqing Rail Transit No. 2 line, a light railway train in China. It passes through the inside of a 19-story residential high-rise every single day, according to People’s Daily. Chongqing is known as the city of mountains in China, and was once wartime capital of China during WWII.
This train is part of the transportation system in Chongqing, a 31,000-square-mile city in the southwest region of the country that has a population of about 49 million people. As you can imagine, that’s a lot of people crammed inside a small urban space.
City planners had to come up with an efficient solution when a rubber tire light rail system was introduced, according to China’s Transportation Infrastructure Office. During the planning process for the apartment complex, the developers coordinated with urban planners on a design that would allow for the train to pass right through the building.
According to People’s Daily, they even built a railway station on the sixth through eighth floors of the complex. Residents can literally hop on the train directly from the Liziba station in their own apartment building.
If you think that hearing a train cross through your building sounds like a nightmare, you’ll be glad to learn that Chongqing Rail Transit No. 2 line is famous for being one of the quietest rail lines. How quiet? About the same as a dishwasher.
It’s now Spring time in Chongqing. Let’s check out some beautiful pictures of flower blooming in Chongqing by bostonese.com photographer Yu Wang.
