Actually, in the case of "cd .." shells will often try to fake how symlink resolution actually happens. You can see this if you "cd" into a symlink, you shell's

Actually, in the case of "cd .." shells will often try to fake how symlink resolution actually happens. You can see this if you "cd" into a symlink, you shell's $PWD and built-in pwd command will tell you that you're inside the symlink but not the actual directory you got thrown into. This results in "cd .." actually doing what you describe -- even though it's a complete fantasy invented by your shell. Try it out.