Which Chongqing railway station should I use?
Use the station named on your ticket. Chongqing's passenger trains run from Chongqing North (重庆北站), Chongqing West (重庆西站), Shapingba (沙坪坝站), Chongqing East (重庆东站, open since 27 June 2025) and a small Jiangbei Airport station (江北机场站). The old Chongqing station, known as Caiyuanba, has no passenger trains.
On the 12306 English site the names appear as Chongqingbei, Chongqingxi, Shapingba, Chongqingdong and Jiangbeijichang. A search for Chongqing returns trains from all of them, so look at the departure station on each result before you pay.
| Station | Metro lines on the network map | Passenger trains, October 2024 timetable |
|---|---|---|
| Chongqing North (重庆北站) | South Square: Lines 3 and 10 and the Loop Line. North Square: Lines 4 and 10 | 164.5 pairs (139.5 EMU, 25 conventional) |
| Chongqing West (重庆西站) | Loop Line and Line 5 | 145.5 pairs (128 EMU, 17.5 conventional) |
| Shapingba (沙坪坝站) | Lines 1 and 9 and the Loop Line | 27 pairs, EMU only |
| Chongqing East (重庆东站) | End of a Line 6 branch: Liujiaping, Baileyuan, Taohuaqiao, Chongqing East | Opened June 2025, after this timetable |
| Jiangbei Airport (江北机场站) | Terminal 3 on Line 10 | 3 pairs, EMU only |
EMU (动车) means the high-speed and fast multiple-unit trains. The counts come from the city notice on the timetable that took effect on 15 October 2024. They are old: they predate Chongqing East, so they are not today's numbers. The notice itself counts the whole group as one "Chongqing railway station" with 328 pairs. The metro lines come from the Chongqing Rail Transit network map, which has no date.
Which station do trains to Chengdu, Guiyang, Xi'an, Kunming, Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai or Wulong leave from?
It depends on the train, and it changes with the timetable. Here is one sample day. It comes from searches on the 12306 English site made on 8 October 2026 for travel on 15 October 2026. The 12306 page lists one row per train and station pair, so the same train can appear more than once. Where the table gives a number, it counts trains, and a train that calls at two Chongqing stations is counted at both. This is a sample of that one day, not a timetable.
| Direction | Trains listed by Chongqing departure station, 15 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Chengdu | West 65, North 53, Shapingba 14, East 8, Jiangbei Airport 6 |
| Guiyang | Mostly West; far fewer from North |
| Xi'an | Mostly West; also North, Shapingba, East and Jiangbei Airport |
| Kunming | Mostly West; far fewer from North |
| Wuhan | Almost all North; also West |
| Beijing | North and West |
| Shanghai | Mostly North; also West, Shapingba and East |
| Wulong | East 14, North 7, West 6, Jiangbei Airport 1 |
Listings marked as temporarily closed for ticketing after a timetable adjustment are not counted.
- Chengdu: for that date, 12306 listed trains from all five stations. The fastest train from Shapingba was listed at 1h2m to Chengdu East (Chengdudong). Our Chengdu to Chongqing train guide covers the trip from the other end.
- Guiyang and Kunming: for that date, 12306 listed most trains from Chongqing West and far fewer from Chongqing North (12306 search).
- Wuhan and Beijing: for that date, 12306 listed almost all Wuhan trains from Chongqing North and Beijing trains from both North and West. Beijing trains from West were listed to either Beijingxi or Beijingfengtai, so check the arrival station as well.
- Xi'an and Shanghai: for that date, 12306 listed trains from several stations: mostly West for Xi'an and mostly North for Shanghai. Shapingba and Chongqing East also had trains to both.
- Wulong: the search was made from Chongqing East. For 15 October 2026, 12306 listed 14 trains from East, 10 of them to Wulong South (Wulongnan, 武隆南). The fastest train from East to Wulong South was listed at 38 minutes (G2431 at 12:38), with a second-class price of ¥71.0 (20% off). That price is already discounted, so the full fare is higher, and fares change with the train and the date. The other 4 East trains were listed to Wulong station (武隆) and were K trains of about 2 hours.
Chongqing train stations to Jiefangbei and Hongyadong by metro
Jiefangbei (解放碑) is at Linjiangmen (临江门) on Line 2. Hongyadong (洪崖洞) is at Xiaoshizi (小什字) on Line 1 or at Linjiangmen on Line 2. The routes below use only the station order and transfer stations on the Chongqing Rail Transit network map. The map shows no timings, so confirm a route in a map app before you go.
- Shapingba: Line 1 runs straight to Xiaoshizi for Hongyadong. For Jiefangbei, stay on Line 1 to Jiaochangkou (较场口) and change to Line 2 for Linjiangmen.
- Chongqing North, South Square or North Square: North Square is the next Line 10 station north of South Square, so the Line 10 routes are the same. Take Line 10 to Zengjiayan (曾家岩) and change to Line 2 for Linjiangmen. Or take Line 10 to Qixinggang (七星岗) and change to Line 1 towards Jiaochangkou and Xiaoshizi. From South Square you can also take Line 3 to Niujiaotuo (牛角沱) and change to Line 2 for Linjiangmen.
- Chongqing West: take the Loop Line to Shapingba (via Shangqiao, Fengmingshan, Chongqing Library and Tianxingqiao), then Line 1 as above.
- Chongqing East: take the Line 6 branch to Liujiaping (刘家坪), then Line 6 towards the city centre. The map shows Liujiaping, Shangxinjie, Xiaoshizi, which reaches Xiaoshizi for Hongyadong. For Jiefangbei, change at Xiaoshizi to Line 1 towards Jiaochangkou, then change to Line 2 for Linjiangmen. The 27 June 2025 opening notice says the East section ends with a same-platform transfer to Line 6 at Liujiaping.
Do I go through security again when I change from the train to the Chongqing metro?
Not at Chongqing North, Chongqing West or Shapingba. A 13 January 2025 city government page says that from that date, passengers leaving the Shapingba railway exit and entering the metro station need no second security check. They tap in. The same page says this already applied from Chongqing West and Chongqing North, and that every Chongqing metro station connected to a railway station had it at that point.
The same page says the transport group was working to bring this to Chongqing East. It does not say whether East has it. The page covers the direction from train to metro only.
What to know at each Chongqing station
Chongqing North
Chongqing North opened on 22 October 2006 and reopened on 20 January 2021 after a rebuild. After the 2021 rebuild, the north and south squares are linked and you can enter from either one. An underground hall under the south station building joins the exits of Lines 3, 10 and 4, so arriving metro passengers reach the south waiting hall without going up to street level. The January 2021 page reports 60 entry verification lanes across the two squares.
Chongqing West
Line 5 reached Chongqing West in January 2021. It is also on the Loop Line.
Shapingba
A transfer hall under Sanxia Square opened on 30 September 2022. It links the Loop Line, Line 9 and Line 1 stations at Shapingba, and the 2022 page puts the in-station transfer at under 3 minutes, against about 15 minutes on the street before. The same page says buses, taxis and ride-hailing, and the metro are stacked in one building: buses on basement level 1 below the cover, taxis and ride-hailing on basement level 2, metro on basement level 7. The January 2025 page adds that the rail exit leads by escalator down into the metro area, with passages to the bus, ride-hailing and taxi pick-up points.
Jiangbei Airport station
Jiangbei Airport station is on the 12306 network. In the October 2024 timetable it had 3 pairs of EMU trains, and the notice added a new Bazhong service ending there (Bazhong East to Jiangbei Airport), described as air-rail integration with zero transfer. On the network map, Terminal 3 of Jiangbei Airport carries both the airport and railway-station symbols on Line 10. Terminal 2 is the Line 3 and Line 10 transfer next to it. In the 12306 search made on 8 October 2026 for travel on 15 October 2026, Jiangbei Airport was listed with 6 trains to Chengdu and 1 to Wulong, and also with a train to Xi'an.
Is Chongqing East station open, and how do I get to the metro and the airport?
Yes. Chongqing East opened on 27 June 2025 in Nan'an District (南岸区), on the southeast side of the Chayuan new district, with 46 passenger trains handled at the start (26 June 2025 notice). The building has 4 floors and 120,000 square metres. From the top, they are the elevated waiting level, the platform level, the arrival and departure hall level and the metro transfer level. The notice says passengers can change between rail-transit networks within 5 minutes.
The metro link is the Line 6 East section, which opened at 11:30 on 27 June 2025. It is 6.9 km long with four stations: Chongqing East, Taohuaqiao, Baileyuan and Liujiaping. For the route towards the centre, see the Hongyadong route above.
At opening (27 June 2025 notice), these other links were listed. They may have changed since.
- 6 planned bus routes, including the customised airport express D620 (Chongqing East to Jiangbei Airport) and D535 to the Longzhouwan hub.
- Night buses: route 102 was to run every half hour after its 21:00 last regular service until the last high-speed train arrived. A night express was to run Chongqing East, Shangxinjie, Ciqijie from 21:00, with departures depending on passenger numbers, until the last train arrived.
- 2 taxi waiting areas and 1 ride-hailing waiting area.
- Left-luggage lockers on the Line 6 Chongqing East concourse (floor 1).
- An air-rail city terminal on floor 3 of the arrivals hall, for check-in and baggage.
Is the old Chongqing station (Caiyuanba) still open for passengers?
No. The old Chongqing station, commonly called Caiyuanba (菜园坝), opened on 1 July 1952 as the terminus of the Chengdu-Chongqing railway. A 2 January 2025 city page says it stopped passenger service on 20 June 2022 to prepare for a rebuild. That page reports construction starting on 2 January 2025.
A 17 November 2025 page reports a tender notice: full construction starts on 25 December 2025, with completion planned for 25 December 2028. The plan is 7 platforms with 14 tracks and a 60,000 square metre station building, serving the Chengdu-Chongqing and Chongqing-Xiangxi (渝湘) high-speed lines and the conventional Chengdu-Chongqing line. Planned metro links include Lines 18, 26 and 27, plus links to Lines 1 and 3. Neither page says whether the work is on schedule after December 2025, so treat 2028 as a plan.
Can I buy Chongqing train tickets with a foreign passport?
Yes. The 12306 English FAQ says foreign passengers can buy real-name tickets with a valid passport, and that the English site accepts only valid foreign passports. With an e-ticket, keep the ticket information and show the same ID document you used to buy the ticket when you check in and out of the station. For refunds and changes, see our 12306 refund and change fees guide. For the city itself, see the Chongqing travel guide.
