Lyrics come to life in bus crash installation

In a city already famous for trains that pierce through skyscrapers and its cyberpunk atmosphere, a "suspended" bus has become the latest viral sensation to blur the line between urban reality and internet fever dream.

Hovering 30 meters above the ground, a No 2 bus appears to have crashed directly into the eighth floor of a building in Meixin Wine Town, Fuling district, located 50 kilometers from downtown Chongqing.

The installation, which has triggered millions of views on Douyin, China's version of TikTok, is not a stunt gone wrong, but a physical tribute to a lyrical mystery that has puzzled Chinese music fans for two decades.

According to the town's developer, Chongqing Meixin Group, who unveiled the art installation earlier this year, the inspiration for the crashed bus comes from a line from pop star Dao Lang's 2004 hit song, The First Snow of 2002, which describes a No 2 bus "parked on the eighth floor".

For years, listeners had debated where the "eighth floor" was that the bus was "parked" in the lyrics. In reality, the "eighth floor" in Dao Lang's song refers to the Kunlun Hotel in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region — an eight-story landmark that happened to house a bus stop at its base. The developers in Chongqing decided to take the metaphor literally.

"I went up the eighth floor to see it for myself," said Xie Gang, 57, who drove from central Chongqing with a dozen friends to witness the spectacle. "The lyrics seemed nonsensical, but now there's a real-life reference."

The suspended bus is the latest addition to Meixin Wine Town, which is becoming increasingly well-known for its unique entertainment facilities. These include an entire town located on a bridge with one half being in a traditional Chinese style, while the other half is European in design.

It is also home to a Ferris wheel standing 110 meters tall on a peak 700 meters above sea level, the highest in the city.

Another site is the Blade Homestay, which has been made famous for its incredibly narrow structure, measuring just 56 centimeters across at its narrowest point.

The viral bus fits perfectly with Chongqing's broader identity of a city that defies geometry. Because of its steep, mountainous terrain, the city has been forced into architectural solutions that have become world-class tourist attractions.

The city's portfolio of "impossible" structures includes the world-famous Liziba Station, where a monorail glides through the middle of a 19-story apartment block, and the Kuixing Building, where pedestrians walking across a "ground-level" sky bridge suddenly realize they are suspended 22 stories above another street.

There is also the Hongya Cave, a stilted building complex standing 79 meters high and spanning 31,500 square meters, built on a steep 70-degree cliff.

The city recently unveiled Hongyancun Station, the deepest metro station in China. It requires a vertical ascent of 141 meters — equivalent to a 39-story building — and has triggered a new local trend of "vertical marathons" among fitness enthusiasts.

Contact the writers at dengrui@chinadaily.com.cn