Chongqing Travel Guide
Chongqing is a very large city in south-central China, with a metropolitan-area population of about 12 million. It is most known as the city at the head of the Three Gorges river area, and has a significant amount of tourist attraction from the scenery around the river.
The city's business character is primarily industrial-commercial, thus having the image of a work-horse city, like Chicago in USA. With its strong, competitive work force, and having extensive natural resources nearby, Chongqing has attracted many foreign companies to invest in industrial plants here, which thrive in the healthy business environment.
Chongqing is in the midst of a huge modernization period. Chongqing is targeted by the central government to be a major international economic power. It has spent about $2 billion on infrastructure modernization since 1990, and has been allocated another billion to be spent by year 2008 (not related to the Beijing Olympics). The city has many new, modern bridges across its two rivers, along with their connecting modernized major traffic arteries. In addition, it has just completed building the first line of an urban rail system, which runs through the inner city for about 20 kilometers. The full system, which will take about 10 years to complete, will run throughout the city.
Since its founding 3,000 years ago, Chongqing has been called Jiangzhou, Yuzhou, and Gongzhou, before getting its present name nearly 800 years ago. Since the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC), many dynasties have set up administrative institutions that have endowed the city with brilliant cultures. Perched beside the Yangtze, the "Golden River," Chongqing symbolizes Yangtze River civilizations and is the cradle of Bayu culture.
Today, Chongqing is a modern city, China's fourth municipality after Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. Within its borders Chongqing encompasses a wealth of water reserves, mineral resources, dense forests, and abundant flora and fauna. The focal point of the unique Yangtze Three Gorges Dam, Chongqing is a tourist attraction as well as a commercial city.
Chongqing attracts visitors from home and abroad for its cultural heritage and other tourist attractions. The city is the starting point for the Yangtze River Cruise, which explores the stunning scenery of the Three Gorges. Other attractions include the Dazu Rock Carvings , valuable works of art carved during the Ninth Century, Gold Buddhist Mountain, a rich repository of diverse animals and plants; and Fishing Town, one of three ancient battlefields in China. Ancient Ci Qi Kou village lures tourists to linger in its streets to buy handicraft souvenirs.
Chongqing is famous for its hot Sichuan cuisine and world-famous hotpot dishes. Street vendors as well as restaurants feature exciting spicy delicacies for the adventurers.
Servicing western China, Chongqing provides convenient water, land, and air transportation. Hundreds of star-ranked hotels provide excellent facilities and services. Chongqing is ready to be the pilot in the Western China Development to usher in more investors and visitors.
