Jiefangbei (解放碑)

Open neighbourhood · Chongqing. A free, always-open crossroads district around Chongqing's wartime victory monument.

Source: https://chinafootnotes.com/places/jiefangbei · Data checked 2026-10-08 · Rendered for 2026-10-09 (Asia/Shanghai). Facts carry their status; "not found yet" means we searched and found no reliable source.

Why go

Jiefangbei (解放碑) is the People's Liberation Monument, a 27.5 m octagonal clock tower at the crossroads of Zourong, Minzu and Minquan roads, ringed by Chongqing's densest block of malls, food streets and skyscrapers. It was completed in 1947 as the Monument to the Victory of the War of Resistance and is the only national monument in China to commemorate that victory over Japan. The tower itself is a short look; the free, always-open pedestrian district around it is where you walk, eat and watch the stacked hillside city light up at night. The observation decks in the nearby towers are separate paid attractions, not part of this walk.

What to do

• See the monument and its two histories. Walk round the octagonal tower: it went up as the Monument to the Victory of the War of Resistance and was renamed the People's Liberation Monument in 1950, with the new name written by Liu Bocheng. It is a national heritage site, and the plaza around it is the district's meeting point.
• Walk the crossroads at dusk and after dark. Stay for the lights: the screens on the corner malls and the skyline come on after dusk, and the plaza fills up in the evening. Photograph the tower from about 30 m back.
• Eat along Bayi Road. Bayi Road's food street (八一路) is a short walk from the monument, with hot pot, noodles and snacks. Order a split pot and ask for mild on a first visit.
• Use the departure tax refund if you shop. Most designated tax-refund stores in Yuzhong are in the malls around the crossroads. Ask for the refund form and the invoice at the till if you spend ¥200 or more in one store.

• Don't miss: The inscription 人民解放纪念碑 was written by Liu Bocheng, chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Commission, in 1950.
• Don't miss: Kuixinglou, about 10–15 minutes' walk away, is a free plaza on the 22nd floor.

• Best time: Late afternoon into the evening
• Skip if: You only want the monument: half an hour is enough, and the district is crowded after dark.

Practical details

• Hours: Open 24 hours · malls about 10:00–22:00
• The streets and monument are public and open around the clock. The surrounding department stores run roughly 10:00–22:00 and restaurants stay open later, with the hot-pot strips to 01:00–02:00 (China for Travelers, October 2026).
• No operator publishes hours for the street. It is a public pedestrian district with no gate or fence described in any source, so the open-all-day reading is an inference; the mall and restaurant hours come from two travel sites, and the observation decks and individual shops keep their own hours.
• Admission: Free · no ticket
• The streets and the monument plaza are free. Observation decks in the nearby towers, such as the World Financial Center deck, are separate paid attractions.
• No operator or government page states a price for the streets; free entry is inferred from their being public streets with no gate or ticket office, and two travel sites also say free.
• Booking: No reservation needed
• No operator or government page covers booking for the streets; no reservation is inferred from their being open public streets, and two travel sites say none is needed.
• Last admission: No single last-entry time
• Time to allow: 30 min–3 hr
• Getting there: Line 2 Linjiangmen · exit 1 or 3
• Metro Line 2 to Linjiangmen (临江门), Exit 1 or 3, about 4 min walk
• Metro Line 1/2 to Jiaochangkou (较场口), about 7 min walk
• Show a taxi driver: 重庆市渝中区民族路177号 人民解放纪念碑（解放碑）
• Linjiangmen exits were renumbered in October 2021 (old A, B and D became 2, 3 and 1); the operator's May 2023 exit table lists exit 1 (Qingnian Road: Guotai, WFC, Times Square) and exit 3 (Zourong Road: New Century, Yingli) toward the district, while exit 2 faces Linjiang Road and Kuixinglou. Older guides that say exit B or D mean today's 3 or 1.
• Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 and 6) is a 5–10 minute walk; Ke Ping gives exits 5A, 6A or 8 and Travel China Guide gives exit 1, so no single exit can be recommended for it.
• Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 and 2) has many exits and no consistent source for which one is nearest the monument: Chinese Wikipedia lists exit 9 on Minquan Road with Jiefangbei among its destinations, while Travel China Guide says exit 3, which Wikipedia places on Heping Road facing Shibati. Because the sources disagree, use the map app and follow the signs for Jiefangbei.
• Foreign visitors: Foreign cards and tax refund work at major shops

Not found yet

• transport.metro[1].exit: Sources disagree on which Jiaochangkou exit is closest to the monument, and the only operator exit table found covers Linjiangmen, not Jiaochangkou. (searched: Chinese Wikipedia, 较场口站 exit table, web search, Mapbar metro station page, Hualong Net (Chongqing rail exit reports))

Traveler tips

• Use Linjiangmen exits 1 or 3. Linjiangmen (临江门) on Metro Line 2 is the closest station to the People's Liberation Monument (解放碑). The exits facing Qingnian Road (1) and Zourong Road (3) both surface beside the plaza, and the monument is a 3–5 minute walk straight ahead. Jiaochangkou (Lines 1 and 2) and Xiaoshizi (Lines 1 and 6) also work, with a slightly longer walk of 5–10 minutes. Caveat: Chongqing renumbered Linjiangmen exits in October 2021 (old A, B, D became 2, 3, 1; old C was dropped), so older guides that say exit B or D mean today's 3 or 1. For Xiaoshizi the sources disagree: Ke Ping lists exits 5A, 6A or 8 while Travel China Guide lists exit 1. Authors use different exits for different directions: 雪碧雪碧 (Jul 2025) uses Exit 1 for the luggage lockers, 木子李o00o (Oct 2025) Exit 3 for Minsheng Road noodle shops, and 泡泡 (Sep 2025) and 叽里咕噜 (Jun 2026) Exit 2 for the old consulate sites and the walk toward Shancheng Alley. (3 travelers) source
• See the monument from the outside. The monument is a 27.5 m octagonal clock tower in the middle of the crossroads of Zourong, Minzu and Minquan roads. One lap of the base, the inscription 人民解放纪念碑 and the clock face take about half an hour. The reason to stay longer is the pedestrian district around it. Caveat: The municipal heritage description lists an internal cantilevered spiral stair up to a lookout platform; no operator page, news report or visitor account found offers entry, and every visit described is of the exterior. source
• Come after dark and arrive around 19:00. The big LED screens on the corner malls run from late morning, the skyline lighting comes on around 19:30–20:00, and the plaza is busiest from about 20:00 to 21:30. Arriving near 19:00 gives blue-hour light, and phone night mode handles the tower from any corner about 30 m back. Evenings and weekends are dense all year. Caveat: Lighting times and the evening peak come from one editorial travel site (China for Travelers, updated October 2026); Ke Ping (April 2026) adds that evenings and weekends feel like Times Square on New Year's Eve. source
• Link a foreign card to Alipay first. Around the crossroads, Alipay accepts linked foreign cards from the seven major card networks and a set of overseas e-wallets (13 wallets from 10 countries are named), and many major malls, restaurants, hotels and bank branches also take foreign cards, change currency or give cash advances. Set the card up in Alipay before you go. Department stores such as New Century and Paradise Walk take Visa and Mastercard directly, while small noodle stalls expect mobile payment or cash. Caveat: The coverage figures are from a Chongqing Daily report on the Jiefangbei business district (August 2026); Ke Ping (April 2026) is the source for the stall-level cash comment. source
• Claim a tax refund with your passport. Overseas visitors with a foreign passport can claim a refund of VAT on goods bought at designated tax-refund stores, which cover most malls on the Jiefangbei crossroads. You need to spend at least ¥200 in one store on one day, buy within 90 days before leaving China, and have stayed in mainland China under 183 days. Ask the shop for the refund application form and the VAT invoice, keep the goods unused, then show goods, form and invoice to Customs at the departure port and claim at the refund agent in the controlled area. Some stores issue a QR service code for an instant refund at a collection point on Jiefangbei. Caveat: Yuzhong's bilingual guide dates from July 2025; the August 2026 Chongqing Daily report says the minimum was cut from ¥500 to ¥200 and that more than two thirds of Yuzhong's 40-plus refund stores are on the crossroads. SCQ星耀重庆 (16 Jan 2026) reports that since August 2025 the Jiefangbei-Chaotianmen area, Guanyinqiao and Chongqing MixC have collection points for instant refunds, and that Chongqing had 290 refund stores by December 2025, 50 of them instant-refund. Two shops' own posts (新世纪百货解放碑商都, Jul 2026, with a service desk on the 5th floor; 話梅, Jan 2026) repeat the ¥200 minimum, about 9% net refund and a passport, receipt and email address; the 話梅 post says the refund can be completed at the airport or a designated bank branch, and that departures through Chongqing Jiangbei or Chengdu Tianfu airports qualify. 水天一色 (Apr 2025) quoted a ¥500 minimum before the threshold fell and reports getting about 9% back as cash at Jiangbei airport after check-in. Shop posts are commercial. (2 travelers) source
• New Year's Eve at the monument. On 31 December thousands gather at the monument for the midnight countdown. The last official notice (2025) controlled the whole crossroads district from 17:00 to 02:00: no vehicles in the core area, no pets, balloons, sky lanterns, snow spray or unapproved drones, and crowd limits applied as needed. Metro Lines 1, 2, 3 and 6 ran until about 01:30. Go by metro, follow staff on the way out, and do not linger on rooftops, sky bridges or river platforms. Caveat: The 2025 notice is the latest published; the details for the next New Year's Eve are normally announced a few days beforehand. 欢乐的小螃蟹 (31 Dec 2025) writes that once inside the core area the crowd carries you, there is nowhere to sit and exits are slow, and that they left with photos of other people's heads. source
• Kuixinglou: a free 22nd-floor plaza. Kuixinglou (魁星楼), about 800 m and 10–15 minutes on foot from the monument, is an office complex whose street-level plaza sits twenty-two floors above the road below. Walk in at what looks like ground level and look over the edge; two sky bridges of about 23 m cross the gap. It is free and open around the clock. Metro Line 2 to Linjiangmen exit 2 comes out close by, and a hospital outpatient building in the same complex shares the name, so follow the signs for the deck rather than the address. Caveat: Sky-bridge length and height come from China for Travelers; Jerlene's blog (April 2026) describes arriving from Cangbai Road onto a plaza that looks flat until you reach the barrier. source
• Map distances hide cliffs and stairs. A flat-map distance can hide a staircase or a cliff, and Chongqing is built on slopes. Two places that look 100 m apart can be a 15-storey drop apart, so check the walking route in your map app before choosing a hotel or a restaurant, wear shoes with grip, and ask a shopkeeper if the blue dot keeps spinning. Expect to climb back up to the metro after walking down towards the river, as with the Shibati stair-street. Caveat: Jerlene's blog (April 2026) describes walking down through Shibati and taking a 15-minute uphill climb back to the metro; China for Travelers says a hotel five minutes away in a straight line can be fifteen minutes of stairways. source
• Holiday weeks are extremely crowded. More than 6 million visits to the Jiefangbei business district were counted over one National Day week, and reports from the 2026 holiday again describe sustained peak flows. Plan a slow walk through dense crowds on public holidays, and keep your bag zipped and your phone in a front pocket when you stop to film the skyline. Caveat: The 6-million figure is from the Chongqing municipal government site for the National Day week in 2024; the 2026 report gives no total. Anonymous replies on a post dated 2 Oct 2026 describe long lift queues at Hongyadong and hot-pot lines of over two hours during the National Day week. source
• Where to eat: Bayi Road for hot pot, Minsheng Road for noodles. Bayi Road (八一路), a couple of minutes' walk from the monument, is the easiest hot-pot and snack street. Mid-range hot pot is about ¥70–120 a head on the main strip, and walking 200 m into the side lanes cuts that by roughly a third. For a first hot pot order a split pot (鸳鸯锅) and ask for mild (微辣); mild is still hot. For a quick lunch, Minsheng Road, a few minutes from Linjiangmen Exit 3, has noodle shops: 花市豌杂面 at No. 85, 老麻抄手 at No. 250 and 阿福板凳面 at No. 244. Order the peas-and-minced-pork noodles (豌杂面) and ask for less chilli if needed. Caveat: Prices on Bayi Road are the travel site's own 2026 estimates; Ke Ping (April 2026) names Hao You Lai sour-and-spicy noodles on Bayi Road and the sesame-ball sweets as easy first tries. 木子李o00o (8 Oct 2025) ranks the three Minsheng Road shops; replies from anonymous users (Oct 2025-Jul 2026) disagree on quality and service. Gone＆done🍫 (28 Aug 2025) paid about ¥14.8 for noodles and a drink with a group-buy voucher at the Guanyinqiao branch of 阿福板凳面. Prices and quality vary by visit. (2 travelers) source
• Decline the tea-ceremony invitation. A well-dressed stranger who opens a friendly conversation in English and invites you to a traditional Sichuan tea ceremony nearby is running a known scam, and the bill can arrive at ¥1,000–3,000 for ¥30 tea. Say 不了，谢谢 (bù le, xiè xie), keep walking, and step into a department store if someone follows. Real tea houses publish prices of about ¥80–150 and do not approach people on the street. Caveat: China for Travelers says it observed this at the plaza's south-west corner at 22:30 in April 2026, and also lists costumed 'statues' that ask for payment after a photo and street bracelet sellers after 21:00. source
• Ignore the buried-treasure stories. Popular stories that Roosevelt's letter or captured Japanese swords are buried beneath the monument are not backed by records. A 2025 heritage-volunteer survey of the city archives, construction drawings and the structure found no record of anything buried and described the base as solid, with no cavity. Caveat: Some English guides still say the Roosevelt letter is preserved inside the wall; the volunteers' survey says the scroll existed but its fate after being given to the city council is unknown. source
• Luggage lockers near Linjiangmen Exit 1. Self-service luggage lockers are in a supermarket near the plaza, about a three-minute walk from Linjiangmen Exit 1. Small lockers fit a backpack, medium ones a cabin bag and large ones a 28-inch suitcase. Charged by the hour, starting at about ¥2 for a small locker. Caveat: 雪碧雪碧 (14 Jul 2025) gives ¥2, ¥3 and ¥5 an hour for small, medium and large lockers and says the machine was under maintenance so staff registered bags by hand; an anonymous reply (May 2026) says the visitor centre door is sometimes closed and to use the automatic door round the back. Prices from 2025. source
• A free walk to Shancheng Alley. From Linjiangmen Exit 2, walk on past old bookstalls to the former Xinhua Daily site (free to enter), the stained-glass Joseph's Church (若瑟堂) and the Tongyuan Gate. Turn right at Consul's Lane (领事巷) and the Shancheng Alley trail runs down toward the river. Allow the better part of a day with stops. Caveat: 叽里咕噜 (25 Jun 2026) calls the whole walk mostly flat with a few steps; the Shancheng Alley route has long stone stairs on the descent, so wear shoes with grip. The shop and opening-hour details in the post are not confirmed. source
• The Little Bund of old consulates. A few hundred metres from Linjiangmen Exit 2 are the former Allied missions in Chongqing, including the old Sino-British Liaison Office, nicknamed the Little Bund. It is lit in the evening, usually from dark until about midnight, and quieter than the main plaza. Caveat: 泡泡 (1 Sep 2025) gives about 300 m from Exit 2 and a midnight switch-off; the lighting schedule is not published. source
• Sleeping in the zone: noisy and hilly. The streets around the monument stay loud into the early hours, so ask for a high floor or a quiet side if you are a light sleeper. Staying right here also puts you a steep walk from most other sights, so many visitors take the metro or a taxi back after the river views. Caveat: 期待好运 (29 Sep 2025) heard noise at 02:00; 吃吃喝喝小日常 (29 Apr 2026) says staying here is not convenient for the other sights and that food nearby is limited. Both are single reports of one stay. (2 travelers) source
• Plan around steps with a stroller. Strollers are of little use on the slopes and stairs around the monument and the river. Carry a baby carrier or a pocket stroller, count on several flights of steps even on short routes, and use the metro rather than walking down to the river. Caveat: 蹲蹲小可爱 (16 Apr 2026) found a 500 m route had three slopes and five flights of steps. Anonymous replies (Apr-May 2026) are mixed: some managed with pocket strollers at ages two to three, others call it exhausting. A single parent's report. source
• Skip taxi drivers' restaurant tips. A taxi driver who recommends a restaurant may take you to an expensive, ordinary one. Choose your own place and check the map pin before you go. Caveat: 小玉洁姐洁姐洁 (3 Jan 2026) was taken to a pricey hot pot by a driver and says navigation pins misled them; an anonymous reply on another post (Oct 2026) says the map took them to a different Linjiangmen bus stop. The post also advises leaving the monument area to find local food. source

Sources

• 重庆市文化和旅游发展委员会 (published 2024-05-16)
• 重庆市渝中区人民政府 (published 2025-07-31)
• 重庆市渝中区人民政府（渝中区“跨年夜”现场总指挥部） (published 2025-12-28)
• 重庆市人民政府网 (published 2024-11-20)
• 重庆轨道交通运营有限公司 (published 2026-10-05)
• 华龙网（第1眼TV，转述渝中区公安分局交管支队出行提示） (published 2026-09-28)
• 新华网重庆（来源：重庆日报） (published 2026-08-10)
• 新华网重庆（来源：重庆市公安局渝中区分局） (published 2025-12-30)
• 中新网重庆 (published 2026-10-05)
• 凤凰网大风号（转载重庆轨道交通出行提示） (published 2026-09-30)
• 七一网（来源：光明日报） (published 2026-10-06)
• 凤凰网大风号（上游新闻）
• China for Travelers
• Chongqing Travels (published 2026-04-10)
• My Little Princess and Prince (Blogspot) (published 2026-04-25)
• My Little Princess and Prince (Blogspot)
• My Little Princess and Prince (Blogspot)
• Travel China Guide (China Highlights)
• Wikipedia
• Newton 中文百科全書
• Wikipedia
• 雪碧雪碧🥤 (published 2025-07-14)
• 木子李o00o (published 2025-10-08)
• 泡泡 (published 2025-09-01)
• 叽里咕噜 (published 2026-06-25)
• SCQ星耀重庆 (published 2026-01-16)
• 新世纪百货解放碑商都NCDS (published 2026-07-06)
• pick me up (published 2026-01-07)
• 水天一色 (published 2025-04-02)
• 泰国妹妹拉布 (published 2025-07-03)
• 欢乐的小螃蟹🦀 (published 2025-12-31)
• 期待好运 (published 2025-09-29)
• 吃吃喝喝小日常 (published 2026-04-29)
• 蹲蹲小可爱 (published 2026-04-16)
• 小玉洁姐洁姐洁 (published 2026-01-03)
• Gone＆done🍫 (published 2025-08-28)

More places

• Pair with: Hongyadong, Shancheng Alley
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