A sprawling megacity of multi-level madness: why Chongqing in China is my wonder of the world

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Fair dinkum, Google Maps is as useful as a chocolate teapot in China, but in the southern metropolis of Chongqing, any old map is basically a complete waste of time. This place has been chucked across a range of near-vertical mountainsides and valley systems where the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers meet, making it a bumper ponder to take in – a ripper of an urban sprawl that's only fully understandable when you consider its three-dimensional layout.

It's a place where suburbs stick to cliff faces, linked by elevated roads 20 storeys high above the ground. Train lines rise up through the hills from underground tunnels, then shoot right through the middle of high-rise residential buildings that seem to erupt from the steep slopes themselves. What appears close on the map can end up being 20 storeys up or down, making the trip there a real thrill.

, almost by accident, after my first attempt to enter North Korea was abruptly dropped when Kim Jong Un decided to shut the borders overnight, because of his fears that foreigners might bring in Ebola. Stranded in Beijing with time to spare, a photographer mate suggested we head south to Chongqing. “It's like Hong Kong on steroids,” was enough to convince me.

In a few sdpeople its steep hills and cliffs, but Chongqing takes the idea to a whole new level. To get to places that seemed like just a couple of blocks away, I found myself taking steep stairs that led to underground escalators, then I had to cross walkways to get to lifts that took me up the side of a cliff. Cable cars glided past outdoor plazas, where I thought the ground level was just the bottom, but it was actually the top deck of an office block, and below me was a 30-storey drop into the valley.

Navigating the city felt like a mix of watching a sci-fi flick like Inception and playing a board game of snakes and ladders. In the end, I decided to stop trying to chart a course and let the chaotic streets and buildings just take over.

Navigating the city felt like being tossed into a bizarre cocktail of Inception and a screaming game of snakes and ladders.

– by taking a ripper of a photo and putting it "up on the socials" to show where you were.

has had more than 37m views. He starts his day departing his 18-storey apartment building without an elevator, managing to reach the ground floor by the 12th storey, where he then walks across a bridge and boards the subway. The tram-like ride whisks him through two residential buildings before he arrives at the city centre – which he discovers is actually located on the 22nd floor of his workplace.

Fair dinkum, the bus trip home's another bloody testament to the ingenuity of infrastructure, taking a circular path around an overpass that's higher than a flock of galahs. Just another typical day in this ripper of a city.

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