义渡古镇 Yìdù Gǔzhèn, Yidu Ancient Town – called 马桑溪古镇 Mǎsāngxī Gǔzhèn Masangxi until 2019 – stands under the 马桑溪大桥 Mǎsāngxī Dàqiáo Masangxi Yangtze Bridge in 大渡口区 Dàdùkǒu Qū, Dadukou District, about 17,000 square metres of restored wharf town on four terraces, opened 24 January 2017 and free all day. It keeps a three-streets-and-nine-lanes layout, two preserved old buildings – the 李竹山故居 Lǐ Zhúshān Gùjū Li Zhushan residence and the old supply cooperative – and the scenery is the bridge, the old 成渝铁路 Chéngyú Tiělù Chengyu railway and the old wharf. The rebuild followed a “four-originals” rule – original area, height, foundation and form – which is why the lanes read as old rather than as new, and the district’s 2023 culture-tourism list gives the town a single telephone, 023-68533888, as the one published number.
The town is read as a four-terrace hill rather than as a single street, and the numbering is the point. The restored wharf settlement rises in four terraces from the Yangtze, with the lanes and the nine alleys laid on the upper three and the wharf at the foot, and the total built area is about 17,000 square metres – the figure the travel platforms repeat, while a People’s Daily 2023 report gives about 1.8万平方米 with a leasable commercial area of about 17,100 square metres, both quoted here rather than reconciled. The three streets and nine lanes are the layout the district publishes, and the 21 preserved house-and-courtyard units are the fabric the “four-originals” rule protected, which is why the place looks kept rather than rebuilt. The two named old buildings – the Li Zhushan residence and the old supply cooperative – are the fixed points among the lanes.
The naming is the part a visitor trips on, and all three dates are given because the current name is the only one the district and the A-level list use in 2023. The town opened on 24 January 2017 as 马桑溪古镇 Masangxi Ancient Town, was renamed 大渡口古镇 Dadukou Ancient Town in 2018, and finally took the name 义渡古镇 Yidu Ancient Town in 2019, and a driver given only “Masangxi” will be sent to a name the administration no longer uses. The theme of the town is 义文化, the culture of the righteous ferry, which reaches back to 1899, when the official ferry that gave Dadukou its name was established, and the lanes carry that theme in their业态 – dining, teahouses, inns and bars rather than a single sight. The scenery is the working past: the Masangxi Bridge, the old Chengyu railway and the old wharf, none of which charges.
The bridge and the railway are the honest reason to come, and neither is inside the gate because there is no gate. The 马桑溪大桥 Masangxi Yangtze Bridge spans the river above the town, the old 成渝铁路 Chengyu railway runs as a preserved line beside it, and the old wharf is the stone edge where the ferries once landed, and all three are seen from the lanes rather than entered. The town is free all day, so a visitor who pays does so for a riverside teahouse or an upper-terrace room rather than for entry, which is the distinction this page is written to hold: the town is a free walk with paid rooms on top, not a gated attraction with a ticket. The district’s maintained 2023名录 telephone, 023-68533888, is the number to use for the one question no lane answers – what the town charges this season for its inns – because the town itself never charges.
Practicalities
Tickets: Nothing to buy, and that is the published arrangement rather than an assumption: the town is described as free to enter and open across the year, and no source attaches a ticket to the lanes, the preserved buildings or the nine alleys as a group. Every one of the things worth seeing is seen from a lane – the Li Zhushan residence, the old supply cooperative, the bridge, the railway and the wharf are all free. The district’s 2023 culture-tourism list gives the town a single telephone, 023-68533888, as the one published number, and it is a list number rather than a per-attraction line, so the practical answer to any charge is that the town does not have one. The money that gets spent in Yidu goes on the riverside teahouses and the upper-terrace inns, not on a gate.
Opening hours: All day, every day, and this is the one window the town has – free and open across the year with no posted close, because a restored wharf settlement of lanes and houses does not gate its streets. The practical consequence is simple: treat the daylight as the limit and the shops as the thing that keeps shorter hours, and note that a stone town above the Yangtze goes dark early because the terraces close the sky. If you are pairing this with a paid site elsewhere in Dadukou, remember the museum keeps clock hours and closes on Mondays, which makes the ancient town the useful half of a Monday here.
Closing day: None, and the reason is structural rather than editorial: a town of lanes, houses, teahouses and a resident population does not close on a day, and no source describes a weekly rest for it. What does have a weekly rhythm in this district is elsewhere – the Chongqing Industrial Museum keeps 9:00 to 17:00 and closes on Mondays except on public holidays, on its own number 023-61843550 – and the town itself is the one place in the area that ignores that rhythm entirely. The seasonal exceptions are festivals, not closing days, and a free lane is open whether or not anyone is selling in it.
Getting there: Yidu Ancient Town, formerly 马桑溪古镇 Masangxi, is in 大渡口区 Dadukou District under the 马桑溪大桥 Masangxi Yangtze Bridge, on four terraces above the Yangtze beside the old 成渝铁路 Chengyu railway and the old wharf; give a driver 义渡古镇 or Yidu Ancient Town rather than Masangxi, because the current name is the one the district and the A-level list use in 2023. The sources publish addresses and the district’s 023-68533888 as the 2023名录 number rather than a route, and no rail station is named for the town, so treat it as a road destination and expect the last leg to be short but rural (checked October 2026, subject to change).
flowcloud would say that Yidu Ancient Town is free, and that its four terraces and three streets and nine lanes read as old rather than new only because the rebuild kept the original area, height, foundation and form – and that the honest move is to walk the lanes for nothing and pay only for a riverside teahouse or an upper-terrace room, because the bridge, the old railway and the wharf are scenery, not tickets.