Basic Information
Location
Chongqing is located in east Sichuan basin in west part of China.
On its west, there is Sichuan province (四川省) whose capital city is Chengdu (成都).
On its east, there is Hubei province (湖北省) and Henan province (湖南省).
Chongqing is one of the 4 direct-administered municipalities of China (other 3 cities are 北京: Beijing, 上海: Shanghai and 天津: Tianjin) so it’s not a province.
The area of Chongqing is almost same as Austria, UAE, or Hokkaido in Japan.
There are 26 districts (区), 8 counties (县) and 4 autonomous counties (自治县).
Geography
The unique landscape of Chongqing consists of the two rivers, Jialing river (嘉陵江) and Yangtze river (長江).
The source of Jialing goes up to Gansu province (甘粛省) and the huge river flows down through Shanxi province (陝西省) and Sichuan province (四川省), and meet Yangtze river in Chongqing.
Jialing river was once called Yushui (渝水) or Langshui (閬水).
Population
The population of Chongqing is about 30 million, which is ranked at 5th largest city in China by population.
When people are commuting in the morning and evening, heavy traffic jams occur in the city center.
Origin of Name
The name of the city, Chongqing (重庆) was named by Guangsong from South Song (南宋)era in 1189 as a short form of “双重喜庆”meaning ”Double Celebration”.
Today Chongqing is also called Yu (渝), mountain city (山城), city of fog or city of bridges.
In addition, Chongqing is famous for beautiful ladies and Chongqing Hot Pot.
History
In ancient time, Ba (巴国) was located in Chongqing and was defeated by Qin (秦).
In B.C.316 during Qin era, Zhangyi (张仪) who was a chancellor of Qin visited Chongqing and constructed a castle near Chaotianmen (朝天门).
In South and North (南北朝) era, Chongqing was first renamed as Yu (渝) and again changed its name to Chongqing (重庆) in 1189.
Economy & Industry
During China-Japan war, Chinese national part moved its capital from Nanjing (南京) to Chongqing.
Thus, many factories moved to Chongqing, which increased the GDP of Chongqing with prospering munitions industry.
During Sino-Soviet conflict, factories moved from north part of China to Chongqing located inland, which led rapid development of Chongqing.
However, after wars in 1980’s, while coastal area of China including Shanghai started to grow up fast, Chongqing lost its importance in Chinese economy and faced the downtown.
In recent years, Chongqing has been redeveloping fast again making use of its huge population as a hub in west part of China and its GDP reached 5th largest in the country in 2018.
A new financial center is currently under construction in Chongqing.
Language
In Chongqing, Chongqing dialect is spoken.
However, all the public schools teach Mandarin today so young generations can handle both standard Chinese and the dialect.
Young people learn English at schools but people don’t get used to speak to foreigners in English in real life at shopping malls or restaurants.
Seasons
Spring (March – May): Average daytime temperature is around 15℃～20℃ so it’s warm when it’s bright.
Yet, when it gets dark, the temperature goes down quickly to one-digit. Due to the significant deference of the temperature in daytime and nighttime, fog is often observed.
The fog covers the whole city, which is very beautiful, so people call Chongqing as a city of fog.
Summer (June – September): The average temperature is above 30℃, and it’s not quite rare to have hot days with over 40℃.
Chongqing is recognized as one of 3 Chinese Boiler, together with Wuhan (武漢) and Nanjing.
Once the temperature goes beyond 37℃, all the schools shut down for students’ health.
Chongqing goes into rainy season from this season.
Autumn (October – November): The average temperature is around 20℃, which is not too hot.
Autumn is part of rainy season but also has many sunny days.
A number of comfortable days can be observed in this period.
Winter (December – February): The number of rainy days decreases and the average temperature goes down to around 10℃.
It’s rare to observe minus degree but some people wear coats or gloves in winter.
Access
There are 4 airports in Chongqing, namely Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport (重慶江北国際空港), Chongqing Qianjiang Zhoubai Airport (黔江武陵山空港), Wanzhou Wuqiao Airport (万州五橋空港) and Chongqing Wushan Airport (重慶巫山空港).
Jiangbei International Airport is the largest among them and the terminal 3 opened in Aug 2017.
Please refer to this page for the access between airport and city center.
Public transportation is well developed in Chongqing as you can see subway, monorail, bus, cable car, and train.
Please refer to this page for the detailed guide for transportation.