Chongqing — A highway interchange in Chongqing has drawn widespread attention after its aerial outline was likened to the face of the Monkey King Sun Wukong.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian recently shared a photo of the interchange on an overseas social media platform, writing: “A monkey face hiding in a road interchange? This is Qinglongzui Interchange in Chongqing, China’s legendary ‘8D city.’ A unique blend of infrastructure and landscape.”
Qinglongzui Interchange resembles a monkey's face. (Photo/Screenshot of Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian praises Chongqing interchange)
The interchange, nicknamed the “Wukong Interchange” by Chinese internet users, quickly went viral.
Located on the boundary between Hangu Town and Baishiyi Town in Chongqing High-Tech Zone, Qinglongzui Interchange connects Gaoxin Avenue with the Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway. Viewed from above, two looping ramps resemble a pair of eyes, while other ramps and auxiliary bridges form the contours of a face.
Gong Xia, the project’s design lead, said the interchange is technically known as a butterfly interchange. Its standard design was completed in 2013 to facilitate traffic between Kexue Avenue and Gaoxin Avenue.
In 2018, two auxiliary bridges were added to improve the city’s slow-traffic system. Their alignment created what appears to be a forehead and jawline, giving the previously flat-looking interchange a three-dimensional appearance.
“We never deliberately designed a face. We simply wanted to make traffic flow more smoothly and create a more connected slow-traffic system,” Gong said. She and her team only noticed the resemblance after internet users pointed it out.
Qinglongzui Interchange in Chongqing. (Photo/Chongqing High-tech Industrial Development Zone Media Center)
Butterfly interchanges are not unusual in Chongqing, a city known for its extensive network of bridges and elevated roads. Gong said similar structures can be found elsewhere in the city and across China.
Qinglongzui Interchange stood out because several elements came together. Its location in Chongqing Science City features significant elevation changes, while the auxiliary bridges use clean, straight lines that happen to complement the outline of a monkey’s face. Landscape elements incorporating the High-Tech Zone’s torch emblem and nighttime lighting further accentuate the apparent “eyes.”
“Chongqing is a mountainous city with rivers and hills, and the differences in elevation are significant,” Gong said. “This determines that our interchanges have to be three-dimensional.”
The unexpected resemblance also reflects the evolution of Chongqing’s transport infrastructure.
According to the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, roads in the central urban area now extend for more than 7,080 kilometers. The area has essentially formed a 630-kilometer expressway network comprising five horizontal routes, six vertical routes, one ring road and three connecting routes.
A total of 40 bridges and 24 tunnels have been built across the city’s two rivers and through its two mountain ranges. The urban road-network density has reached 7.7 kilometers per square kilometer, ranking ninth nationwide, according to the commission.
Chongqing is also accelerating construction of major transport projects, including Kexuecheng Tunnel and Baoshan Jialing River Bridge.
For Gong, the interchange's popularity underscores how small changes can give ordinary infrastructure an unexpected character.
“It was just the addition of two auxiliary roads,” she said. “Such a small change made an ordinary interchange so charming.”
The viral image offers another glimpse of how Chongqing’s infrastructure, shaped by its complex terrain, has become part of the city’s distinctive urban landscape.
(Li Xintian, an intern, also contributed to this article.)