New Openings · Chongqing 2025–2026
The world’s largest satellite terminal, the world’s largest train station, and a metro extension into the western hills — Chongqing’s opening year reads like a list of superlatives, because it is one.
Terminal 3B at Jiangbei airport opened on 9 April 2025: an X-shaped, Zaha Hadid–designed satellite of 363,000 m² with 71 contact stands, linked to T3A by a monorail APM — the largest satellite concourse on earth. Together with the fourth runway (December 2024) it lifts the airport to 80 million passengers, 580,000 movements and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo capacity — the first four-runway, four-terminal operation in central and western China.
Eleven weeks later, on 27 June 2025, Chongqing East station opened: 1.22 million m², 15 platforms and 29 tracks, built in 38 months for $7.8 billion — the largest high-speed hub in western China, with a Metro Line 6 branch arriving the same day. The promise it makes: one hour to Chengdu, six hours to Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou.
The metro kept extending: the Bitong suburban line to Tongliang opened in January 2025, and Line 4’s western extension (9.6 km, eight stations) followed on 10 February 2026, taking the network to roughly 593 km and 324 stations — with about 210 km more under construction, including the Line 15 express toward the airport.
Hotels tracked the same map: Conrad Chongqing opened in August 2024 atop the Jiafa center as Hilton’s 700th Greater China property; Moxy planted 360 rooms by the Liberation Monument; Pullman joined the North Station cluster in Accor’s 2025 slate. The flags now follow the stations, not just the river.
Come now for the novelty window: T3B and Chongqing East are still in their first, polished year, and the locals are still photographing them. Use the East station’s opening to your advantage — trains to the karst country (Wulong, Qianjiang, Zhangjiajie) now leave from the city’s newest, calmest building.
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