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CHINA | Chongqing, China Travel Guide
Friday, April 19, 2024
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A Brief History of Chongqing
A Brief History of Chongqing
Chongqing’s location on the life-giving and -taking Yangzi has seen it settled since the Paleolithic era, and densely populated villages existed in Neolithic times, but it first rose to prominence with Ba culture, around 1000 BC. The city was given its current name, Chongqing (which means “Double Celebration”), by the emperor Zhao Jiezhong and remained a stronghold against Mongol rule well after they had taken control of the rest of the country. In more recent times Chongqing was ceded as a treaty port to the British and Japanese in the 19th century and was used as the headquarters of the KMT after they were ousted from Nanjing by the invading Japanese. DuringWorldWar II Chongqing played a crucial role as the drop zone for the resupply of Allied-Nationalist forces against the Japanese. US General Stilwell was a key figure in the joint effort until the alliance with the Nationalists failed in 1944, but much of the city was heavily bombarded by the Japanese and little of Chongqing’s long history remains intact.
Chongqing’s key location on this most significant of waterways has continued to serve it well and it soon developed into a center for heavy industry, which has left the city polluted, but prosperous. More recently Chongqing has emerged as a manufacturing hub for China’s burgeoning automobile industry – Ford has a factory here, in partnership with local producer Chang’an and Chongqing recently produced China’s first armored car.
Shopping on the modern streets around the Victory Monument, Jiefangbei, you can feel the wealth, but, as ever, this goes hand in hand with poverty and you’ll see plenty of people struggling to stay above the breadline. The city’s meteoric growth has left it with several million residents in the Yuzhong peninsula alone, and over 30 million in the municipal area! This gargantuan population and the city’s strategic importance led to Chongqing’s separation from its parent province, Szechuan, in 1997, and it was designated as a “specially administered municipality,” controlled directly by the central government. Industry and tourism combine to give Chongqing its fair share of foreign visitors and the city is being spruced up little by little but, with the enticing vistas of the Three Gorges waiting just along the river, few visitors stay long. If you are willing to explore Chongqing a little you’ll find a gritty but captivating slice of Chinese city life.
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