I Visited the World's Biggest City Nobody’s Heard Of

There's one city I've been seeing on social media over and over again. Welcome to China's cyberpunk megacity. The biggest city in the world. Its name is Chongqing and the chances are you've never even heard of it. It's going viral but anyone I speak to hasn't heard of it. I'm about to get on a flight to supposedly the most populated city in the world. It's my first time in China, I'm so excited to go here. I want to see firsthand what the city is really like and if it lives up to the hype. Or not. And here we are about to land at Chongqing airport. First step on Chinese soil. Big language barrier. But I think he knows where my hotel is and I think I can pay with cash. I don't know. My initial thoughts of the city however... Wow. Welcome to the hotel. I don't know who paid for my taxi there as the porter just paid him. I think I now have to pay at the hotel. It's very confusing. That is so cool. Good morning, Chongqing. What a beautiful day. Chongqing. I promise you that is how you pronounce the name. That is how Google has told me. Chongqing. As we all know by now, I am a super unprepared traveller. I didn't check the weather here once before I came. I knew it was probably going to be hot. I didn't think it was going to be 39 degrees. It's 39 degrees today. Celsius. 39 degrees. And my camera keeps steaming up. The taxis here and the hotels are insanely cheap. My £2.20 taxi, you would not get this in London. I think I need to learn how to say that I don't speak Chinese. That could be a good start. I can't read anything. My brain is just turned off. It's nice. I've just been dropped off at this location and it doesn't really feel like I'm in the city anymore. But it was only a 10-minute drive. Just trust me when I tell you that I found a spot. That is insane. There is the view of the city. And over here you can see how many cafes are being built. This only made me even more excited to explore the city at night time. Where this already incredible view transforms into the cyberpunk metropolis I'd seen online with the bright city lights. I'm now heading to one of the most famous attractions here in Chongqing. I don't know if it was meant to be an attraction when it was built but it definitely is now. I am drenched. My whole body is wet. What I was about to go visit was definitely a niche landmark. Okay, so I have arrived and I thought maybe coming in the morning this place wouldn't be as busy. Oh my god, everyone is taking photos. It is absolutely heaving and all these people here have come to see one thing. Here comes the train. That is a train. Going through the building. Okay, that is pretty cool. The train is leaving. Wow. It's called Liziba Station and the idea was to bring transport to the locals without sacrificing limited residential space. I've seen people get inside an apartment which looks over the train. I'm going to see if I can try get to it. What the hell? It's so strange. And that right there is the train. Look at it going past all these apartments. There's a big issue of limited residential space here in Chongqing. This is all due to the rapid growth and industrialization of Chongqing over the last 30 years. The urban population today is over 17 million and back in 1950 it was just one and a half million. Residents in the city tend to live in apartments and rather high ones. Chongqing does things a little different. The city is known for its enormous buildings with housing in the upper levels and offices and other services in the lower levels. And speaking of those other services, I had a train to catch. But first there is x-ray security. Wow, would you look at that? Okay, Metro. Wow. And here we are inside Liziba Station. This has really confused me. There is a ground level entrance here. Here comes the train. First time on the Chongqing subway. It has air conditioning. Riding a train for apartment blocks was definitely a first for me but somehow it wasn't the most unique experience I'd have in this city. Chongqing is known as the mountain city. It is so hilly and they have somehow built a city with a ton of skyscrapers on this terrain. When I was flying in yesterday, you can see what the terrain is actually like. What I'm about to show you is probably going to blow your mind. I've seen so many videos of this. Let's take a short walk in this direction. Let's head up these stairs. You have now arrived to Juxing Square, I think you say. It is extremely trippy but even though it appears I'm on the ground floor, let me show you what floor we're actually on. I'll turn my camera around and show you down here. We're actually on the 22nd floor. That is insane. If that doesn't give you an idea of how hilly this city is, I don't know how to explain it to you. 22nd floor. I'm gonna walk all the way back to the street just in case you don't believe me. That is so confusing but it is so cool. I think it's now time to eat and there's one special dish that I need to have in Chongqing. I am so excited for this. I have now come to this fancy shopping centre called Raffle City. Welcome to Haidolo. Wow, so enthusiastic. So in China, hotpot is huge and in Chongqing specifically, they have Chongqing hotpot which is basically spicy hotpot. Well, that is one thing I did not expect to see on the menu. Oh my god, duck blood. It seems simple but I feel like I will find a way to mess it up somehow. Okay, one, two... Ah, open. I don't know if they usually do it for people but I think she's realised how incompetent I am and just decided to do it for me. Thank you. One super unique thing I saw in every video prior to coming here was this. I couldn't visit Chongqing and not try this. This is going to be interesting. I don't know what I'm signing up to here but I guess that's the fun of it. Thank you. Such a strange bottle size and some little treats. Wow, this is amazing. My feet are currently soaking in wormwood. It's now time to clean my ears which is a tradition here in Chongqing. They use a bunch of tools and they basically get all the wax out of my ears. I am absolutely terrified. Apparently, this is compared to an orgasm but I don't see how this can feel good. Does it hurt? No. No? No. Okay, okay, okay. Apparently, it doesn't hurt. It's a really weird sensation. Oh my god. Oh boy, she's touching my brain. It's like something's crawling in my ear. I don't know how this is meant to be nice. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm okay. Yeah. People do the ear cleaning for pleasure here which I find so strange. I then headed back to my hotel as I wanted to show you where I was staying. The price of this five-star hotel is unbelievable. This gym has a ton of equipment. It is actually really good for a hotel. Usually, hotel gyms are not good. This one is great and it has an insane view. Wow. And finally, this is my room. As you can see, I've got a humongous bed. It's so comfy. Here is my bathroom. Throughout my many years traveling, I have been lucky enough to stay at quite a few hotels. And finally, I can share all of them in one simple click. This is my Expedia Travel Shop, a feature on the Expedia website or the Expedia app which lets you organize all your favorite hotel recommendations in one place. I spend so much time browsing the internet for places to stay when I'm going somewhere I haven't been before. Expedia's Travel Shop allows me to optimize what could be a lot of time wasted scrolling, trying to find the right place into one nice page. Within the shop, you can create collections for more luxury stays or some weird places that I've actually been to around the world. You can also organize them by location or however you please. If you want to check out my Travel Shop, all you need to do is click the link down below in the description. These are some of my favorite hotel recommendations and also some places you might remember from different videos. If you're planning a trip anytime soon or you're just looking for some hotel inspiration or doing some window shopping, click the link down below to check out my Travel Shop on the app or on the Expedia website. I'll now tell you how much my five-star hotel in Chongqing cost me. 76 pounds a night. Come to Chongqing. It's so cheap here and I'm having a great time. Make sure to book your hotel with Expedia. And yeah, you can also live like a king for cheap with two-pound Ubers. I mean, look at this. I'm pretty much in an Uber Luxe. I've traveled a lot, but I don't think anywhere has taxis this cheap. We have come to an area called Shibati. Shibati, which translates to 18 steps in Mandarin, is a historic area here in Chongqing. It's supposed to give you an idea of Chongqing's past with some modern additions, I guess. Yeah, that's good. Oh, that is great. Before going to see the Cyberpunk Nightlife, I had a quick side quest I was extremely excited about. I don't know when these animals became so popular. They're actually the largest rodents in the world. They also eat their own sh** in the morning, which is lovely. The view is just incredible. Look how insane that is. There is Raffle City and the part of Chongqing that I'm staying on. We're going to patiently wait until it gets dark and see how this skyline completely transforms. So I need to pause the video right now to prepare you for the introduction of who might be my favourite human I have ever met in my life. Michael bumped into me randomly. If you want, you can call me Michael. Michael, okay. And asked me to take a photo with him. And I am so glad I said yes. This is Michael. We are friends now. We're about to take a Polaroid together. Michael is vlogging. Are you vlogging? Yeah. Oh, wow. For YouTube or? No, no, no. Just for you. Okay, okay. What is your favourite thing about Chongqing? Eating hotpot, you know? The hotpot? Yeah, it's so spicy. It's so spicy. Oh, wow. We look good, we look good. Your English is very good. It is good, it is good. I think it's so good. No, no, no. Because you can speak, you know, very well. If anything wrong, please forgive me. Okay, okay, okay. And you love video? Yeah, I love video. It's your passion? Yeah, it's my passion. I wish you... So nice to meet you, Michael. Nice to meet you too. What's your... How can I call you? Ben. Ben, okay. Ben, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. I like to take videos, but I'm so nervous. Yeah? In online, like other world, other message, they will hurt yourself. Yeah. So I always avoid it. I think you should. You should not care about what anyone else thinks, you know? Put it out to the world. Yeah, you should do it. Okay. Thank you, Michael. Oh, look. Oh, yeah. Wow, Michael is watching us on live feed. That is so funny. Would you like to do YouTube one day? Or Bilibili? Yeah, maybe. After this meeting, I will consider it again. Okay, okay. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3... I think this is the closest I have ever felt to being in a real life video game. Just surreal. Not a disappointment. I'm very glad I got to watch this with you. Yeah. Can I call you Mike? Mate? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Mate. I cannot get over how beautiful this is. I can't believe I was asleep in my bed last night when this was going on. This is my favorite moment of the trip. Oh. A hundred percent. You seem happy. Yeah. I'm very happy. Yeah. I'm glad I can meet you and get this. I think I can have a good memory just to stay in the Chinese. Yeah. Everyone just like me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Friendly. Yeah. Kind. What is your dream in life? My dream. At this moment, I think my dream may get a car I like. Yeah. I may have a very kind wife and we sleep together in peaceful. So I think this is my small dream. But it's very hard to achieve it. I believe in you. Yes, thank you. If I get married, I will send you a ticket to China to join it. Please. Yeah. Please. Must. Okay, I promise. Hands down, one of the purest souls I've ever met. Me and Michael off to hotpot. Let's go. Little did I know I was about to consume something very interesting. Michael has brought me to a traditional hotpot place. That looks pretty spicy to me. Yeah. That's Chongqing hotpot? Yeah. Oh. A cow's stomach. Delicious? Delicious. Very delicious. Do you know how to say delicious? Delicious. Yeah. It's good? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. It means delicious. This is beef stomach. Yeah. Beef stomach. I'm scared. Don't worry about it. I'm scared. I'm really scared. Okay. The beef stomach is in my stomach. Yeah. Delicious. Ending my trip with someone like Michael felt like the perfect way to wrap up my time in one of the most unforgettable places I've ever visited.