General Introduction

Also a municipality directly under the Central Government, Chongqing is the largest industrial and commercial center in southwest China, and a hub of land and water transportation in the upper Yangtze valley, with an urban population of 6.35 million. Chongqing is a comprehensive industrial city, with advanced iron and steel, chemicals, electric power, automobile manufacturing, machine-building, shipbuilding, construction materials, textiles, foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals industries.

Scenic Spots

Chongqing -- City of Hills, Fog and Spicy Food
Stone Carvings in Dazu County
Loquat Hill Park
South Hot Spring Park
North Hot Spring Park
Red Cloud Hill (Jinyunshan)
Red Crag Memorial Museum

Topography

At present, Chongqing is the biggest municipality in terms of area and population in China. This beautiful mountain city is located at the juncture of the Yangtze River and Jialing River in the southeast of China's Sichuan Basin, between 105º 17'-110º 1' east longitude and 28º 0'-32º 3' north latitude. It is 470 kilometers from east to west and 450 kilometers from north to south, neighboring Hubei and Hunan provinces in the east, Guizhou province in the south, Sichuan province in the west and Shanxi province in the north. The whole terrain slopes down to the Yangtze River valley from south to north, and is therefore quite undulating. In the northwest and central parts are mainly hills. In the southeast are Dabashan and Wulingshan mountains. Because the city is just erected in the mountains, Chongqing is called "mountain city". There are about 80 rivers flowing through Chongqing. The major rivers are the Yangtze River, Jialing River, Wujiang River, Fujiang River, Qijiang River and Daninghe River.

Climate

Chongqing belongs to sub-tropical monsoon climate. The features are warm winter, hot summer, early spring and short autumn. Annual average temperature is around 19.2ºC The average lowest temperature is 6-8ºC in winter. The average highest temperature is 27-38ºC in summer and the extreme temperature can reach as high as 43.8ºC. Hence it had got the name of “furnace city”.

The monsoon concentrates in summertime. The annual average rainfall is 1000-1100mm. There is plenty of night rain in summer, hence the saying “Ba mountains’ night rain”. Chongqing is also called “foggy city”. There is much fog from the end of autumn to early spring with at least 68 foggy days a year. Chongqing is also one of the cities with shortest sunshine time in China. The annual sunshine time is 941.9 hours.

Communications

Railways
Three trunk lines (Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, Changsha-Chongqing Railway and Chengdu-Guizhou Railway) and five feeder railways, totaling 537 km in Chongqing.

Highways
Five national highways and 17 provincial highways, with traffic mileage totaling 27,200 km in Chongqing.

Waterways
Dozens of ports and passenger and freight docks have been established along the Yangtze River to facilitate water transportation business from Chongqing to Shanghai and even to overseas countries. The total length of water transportation in Chongqing is more than 4,000 km. After the completion of the Three Gorges water conservation project, ships of over 10,000 tons will be able to reach Chongqing directly.

Airports
A national Grade 1 civilian airport in Chongqing has opened over 50 domestic and international flights. Two more airports, Wuqiao at Wanzhou and Zhoubai at Qiangjiang, are under construction.