Population
About 14,000,000 people live in Chongqing, with 3,000,000 living in the urban area.
Location
On the Yangzi River (Chang Jiang), about 1500 km (900 miles) west of Shanghai.
History
Until the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Chongqing and the surrounding area was alternately an independent state, part of an empire based in northern China, or part of a central Chinese empire. Originally called Yuzhou and then Gongzhou, it was given the name Chongqing ("Double Celebration") by the emperor Zhao Dun of the Southern Song dynasty in 1190, to record his double happiness at having been the prince of the city and then emperor of China. (An alternative explanation is that it got this name from its strategic position between the cities of Nanchong to the north and Pengshui to the southeast.) Although protected by a wall since 250 BC, Chongqing was plundered during the rebellion of Zhang Xianzhong (Chang Hsien-chung) in the 1630s. When the wall was subsequently repaired, 8 of the 17 gates were left closed on the advice of feng shui experts (geomancers).
The first industries developed in Chongqing were related to agriculture, with textile shops and breweries being established under the Ming dynasty. Foreign trade began in 1901, when the British and Japanese established trade concessions in Chongqing. A program of local industrialization was begun in 1928, but this was followed by a huge influx of people, money and machinery in 1938 when the Chinese Nationalist government fled to Chongqing to escape the invading Japanese army. Iron and coal deposits near Chongqing began to be exploited at this time, and industry expanded rapidly. The city was repeatedly bombed by Japanese airplanes, and economic advances were hampered by the mismanagement and corruption of the Nationalists. The military effort of the Nationalists was mostly ineffective due to Chiang Kaishek's obsession with fighting Communists rather than the Japanese. Following the defeat of Japan in 1945, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kaishek conducted peace talks here under U.S. mediation, but ultimately the talks failed and the civil war resumed. The Nationalist government was moved back to Nanjing in 1946, but returned to Chongqing for two months in 1949 when they were driven from Nanjing by Communist forces, before finally fleeing to Taiwan.
The rebuilding program begun by the Communists in 1949 made great progress, despite setbacks during the Great Leap Forward (1958-60) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). The close proximity of coal, iron, petroleum and hydro-electric resources have helped to make Chongqing one of the main industrial cities of southwest China. Besides the large complex of iron and steel plants, many other types of heavy and light industries are present, including machinery, chemicals, textiles, papermaking, and food processing. Due to its prime location Chongqing is the focal point of trade for the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and the Tibet Autonomous Region, but transportation can be hampered in winter by the perpetual fog which hangs over the city. The industrial smoke and fog have combined to make Chongqing's air quality among the worst in China.
In 1997, Chongqing was removed from Sichuan Province and promoted to the status of provincial-level municipality, like Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.
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