Chongqing Overview

The mountainous city Chongqing is a municipality under the central government with the shortest history, the largest area, the most relaxed administrative jurisdiction as well as the biggest population. It covers an area of 82,400 square kilometers, including 14 districts and 26 counties (cities), and has a population of 30,720,000. It is a well-known historical and cultural city with the history of over 3,000 years. Moreover, it is the economic center of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, an important national modern manufacturing base as well as an outsized city as the traffic hub of the southwestern China and a key place to achieve the coordination of rural and urban areas. Since the city was built by the mountains, and thus got its name the “mountainous city”. It is filled with light rain and thick fog in spring and winter, and is thus called the “foggy city”.  "Yu” is short for Chongqing City, because the Jialing River flowing in the city was called “Yu River” in the ancient times.

Three Features of Chongqing
Nightscape
Chongqing was once regarded to be one of the three cities with the most spectacular nightscape in the world, ranking with the famous cities including Hong Kong. Chongqing is quite a special city. It is embraced by mountains, and has mountains in it as well. With lots of ups and downs, the roads there are twisting. In a city with such unique landforms, you can enjoy the city decorated with colorful lights wherever you stand. When the night falls gradually, a sea of lights comes into being with the busiest area - “Liberation Monument” in the city as its center, lights on the main roads and bridges as belts along with the lights of myriad families as the background. Cars and ships run in the sea of lights, filling our eyes with flowing lights and colors. The honk, whistle and laughter can be heard dimly, making it the city of vitality and vigour.

Chongqing Hotpot
Hotpot is the representative of the catering culture of Chongqing. There is a story about it. In the past, boatmen made a fire in order to cook some food and keep warm. A crock was the only cooking utensil. After filling the crock with some water, they put into it all kinds of ingredients, chili and pepper. The boatmen really enjoyed it. The tradition passes down. The food put into the hotpot become more abundant, and it gradually becomes the specific delicacy of Chongqing. Nowadays, the city is called “the city of hotpot in China”.

While deciding where to enjoy the hotpot, you have two kinds of choices. One is that you can go to the restaurants with luxurious decoration and dense atmosphere of Bayu (“Ba” was the short name of Chongqing in the ancient times, while “Yu” is its short name at present) culture. The representative ones are Hongding Meirenmei, Qin Ma, De Zhuang, Su Dajie, Baxiang Fish’s Head, Qiqi and Xiao Tian’e Hotpot Restaurants. The other is that you can go to the “Three and One” (“Three” refers to three kinds of meat and “One” refers to one kind of vegetable) hot pot eateries, where the hotpots are of comparatively reasonable prices. Hotpot eateries of this kind are quite popular and can be found all around the Chongqing. Some eateries even locate at sidewalks. When the eateries are closed, they are gone in a short time. But you can feel the real Bayu culture which comes into being because of the combination and collision of the Chongqing hotpot and wharf cultures.
 

Beauty of Chongqing
Beauty is the most twinkling name card of the city. Girls in Chongqing are mainly pretty and charming. Except for their fine appearances, they are forthright, self-confident and capable. They not only show their capability and intelligence in almost all the fields in Chongqing, but also dare to make a living all around. The ladies always walk through the streets and lanes rapidly, making the city the stage to show them. If you want to fully appreciate the oriental beauty, the Liberation Monument will be the best place.