Facts of Chongqing

Chongqing, the starting city of Yangtze River cruise is essentially a mountainous city, surrounded on all sides by steep hills which keep the fog and mist in the basin. The Yangtze and Jialing Rivers embrace the downtown area here however, providing light relief from the industrial city views prevalent throughout most of the area. With 300 developed scenery spots, Chongqing altogether owns 1300 scenery spots, including 4 nationwide important spots, 6 national cultural relic protection units and 1100 municipal cultural relic protection units.

Chongqing is essentially a mountain city, surrounded on all sides by steep hills which keep the fog and mist in the basin. The Yangtze and Jialing Rivers embrace the downtown area here however, providing light relief from the industrial city views prevalent throughout much of the area.
Chongqing has a couple of names. Houses and apartment blocks built halt way up mountains from an undulating pattern, Chongqing is, therefore, called "The Mountain City". Standing at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze rivers, it is thus called "The River Town "as well. Surrounded by mountains. The city is subtropical, hot in summer. Hence it is sometimes called "The Furnace". The average annual precipitation is about l,000 millimeters and most of them concentrated on the nights from May to October. As a result, there emerged such a much quoted line: Night Raining on the Ba Mountains. Owing to the plenty of raining, the air humidity is often as high as over 80 percent, so the weather conditions are often cloudy and misty. In such a case, the place is also known as "a city of fog".

Ever since the move of the State Council being approved on March 14, 1997 by the fifth session of the Eighth National People's Congress, Chongqing has become the fourth municipality directly under the Central Government, together with Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin which are always included in the popular China tour package. As the largest city of China, Chongqing covers an area of 82,400 square kilometres with a population of 3002 million. Belonging originally to Sichuan Province, Wanxian municipality, Fuling Municipality and Qianjiang District are now under Chongqing's jurisdiction. A great part of the Three Gorges appear now in the territory of Chongqing. So, apart from many historical relics and tourist attractions, such as the Ghost City of Fengdu, Stone Treasure Block, The Zhang Fei Temple and White Emperor City, the 6,000 meter long dam area adds much lustre to Chongqing. Besides, there are many other invaluable relics, such as a fossil of caveman two million years old unearthed at Longping Village in Wushan County, a Palaeolithic site excavated recently at Yandengbo in Fengdu, a Warring- States-Period site located at Xiaotianxi in Zhecheng, a Han dynasty grave ground situated at Weinan in Fengdu County and a national-grade underwater forest of stone tablets situated in Baiheliang, provide valuable information for a study of the material life and social nature of this place during the ancient times.
With 300 developed scenery spots, Chongqing altogether owns 1300 scenery spots which make great contribution to China tourism, including 4 nationwide important spots, 6 national cultural relic protection units and 1100 municipal cultural relic protection units.