China spends $7.8B building world’s largest train station that makes NYC’s Grand Central look minuscule

Forget New York City’s Grand Central because China just built the world’s largest train station.

The new Chongqing East Railway Station is more megastructure than terminal, a $7.8 billion monument to movement that officially opened in June.

The space unfolds like a city within a city, all glass, steel, and motion stitched together.

And yet, for all its steel and spectacle, the design is rooted in nature – a man-made forest of light, bamboo, and motion.

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How big is the world’s largest train station?

Set just outside the megacity of Chongqing, Chongqing East is now the world’s largest train station.

The $7.8 billion project spans 1.22 million square meters, the equivalent of 170 football pitches.

It’s five times the size of Grand Central Station in New York, with 15 platforms, 29 tracks, and enough capacity for 16,000 passengers every hour.

Step inside, and the station feels more like an airport terminal.

There are 5,000 seats (1,000 fitted with USB ports), global food chains sitting beside local eateries, and digital wayfinding screens in every direction.

The design draws straight from Chongqing itself.

It features columns shaped like huangjue trees, vents sculpted into flowers, and bamboo-scroll signs welcoming passengers.

A glass curtain roof floods the concourse with sunlight, turning a space built for speed into one that still feels calm.

At full stride, the station connects Chongqing to Shanghai, Chengdu, and Xiamen – a vital artery linking China’s inland regions with its coastal cities in under eight hours.

It’s a feat of engineering designed to move millions, but also to impress every single person walking through it.

From China’s megastations to Detroit’s reborn landmark

Not every train station is built from scratch.

Some get a second life instead.

In Detroit, the once-abandoned Michigan Central Station has come roaring back thanks to Ford.

The automaker bought the crumbling 1913 landmark in 2018 for $90 million and spent years restoring it after it sat empty since 1988.

Now it’s no longer a passenger hub but it’s a proving ground for the future of mobility.

Inside, startups are developing transport tech, drone networks, and innovations that could reshape the auto industry.

Whether reborn or brand new, both prove that train stations are no longer just about catching trains.

China’s $7.8 billion megahub might make Grand Central feel quaint, but that’s the point.

Chongqing East isn’t a railway station built just for locomotives, it’s one built to make history.

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