Chongqing - The internationally-famed No. 1 tourist magnet of Hongya Cave in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has now entered a new "version 2.0" era after upgrading and remolding that lasted for a little over eight months.

A panoramic view of the Hongya Cave in Yuzhong District

This is probably one of the city's most significant changes to the city's golden tourism name card since it was first opened to the public some 14 years ago.

A source from the Hongya Cave scenic area said that the upgrading and remolding had seen a phase I, phase II, and phase III project and was officially completed on Monday.

Tourists on a "Two-River Cruise" take a photo of the Hongya Cave.

Chongqing Little Swan Property Management Co., Ltd. is said to be the sole contractor behind this upgrading project, which invested a total of 30 million yuan in the restoration of the exterior walls, upgrading of LED light decorations, installation of smart tourism infrastructures, as well as the transformation of business patterns on the 5th to 9th floor.

The floodlights on the exterior walls and the roofing corners were all replaced by new LED lighting fixtures, making the contour of buildings even more distinctive and three-dimensional.

File photo shows the Hongya Cave scenic area sits right in front of the skyscrapers of downtown Chongqing.

"It's indeed better to see it with your eyes than to hear it a hundred times; the new exterior lighting decorations make Hongya Cave a lot more glittering and magnificent than that," said a camera-waving tourist surnamed Zhang, who came to film Vlogs here for his social media channel.

"I have previously seen tons of videos online about Hongya Cave, but it takes an actual trip the place for people to truly appreciate the beauties of it, especially after the upgrading and remolding."