Chongqing

Chongqing (chng`chēng`) or Chungking (chng`kĭng`), city (1994 est. pop. 2,377,800), in SE Sichuan prov., China, at the junction of the Chang and Jialing rivers.With the surrounding rural area, it is a municipality (592 sq mi/1,534 sq km; 1994 est. pop. 3,097,100) directly administered by the national government. The commercial center of W China, it commands a large river trade. Surrounded on three sides by water, it is situated on a rock promontory. A flourishing industrial city, it was opened for direct foreign trade in 1979. In the 1980s it became the site of an economic experiment, where factory managers were given more decision-making power and allowed to channel profits into expansion.

Chongqing's industries include a large-scale integrated iron and steel complex, oil and copper refineries, motor vehicle and munitions factories, cotton and silk mills, chemical and cement plants, food-processing establishments, machine shops, paper mills, and tanneries. Large coal and iron mines and a major oil field are nearby. Its many institutions of higher learning include Chongqing Univ., Chongqing Technical Univ., and a medical college. The Chongqing Library and the Chongqing Municipal Museum are important cultural centers.

Chongqing was opened as a treaty port in 1891. In Nov., 1937, just before the Japanese capture of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the capital of China was transferred to Chongqing, where it remained until the end of hostilities. During that time administrative agencies, educational institutions, and industrial plants from all over the country were relocated in Chongqing and the population more than tripled. The city was taken by the Communists on Nov. 30, 1949.

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Chongqing

 or Ch'ung-ch'ing conventional Chungking

City and municipality with provincial status (pop., 2003 est.: city, 4,239,700; 2002 est.: municipality, 31,070,000), south-central China. The municipality is bordered by Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, and Guizhou provinces and has an area of 31,700 sq mi (82,000 sq km). The leading river port and industrial centre of the region, Chongqing (“Double-Blessed”) lies at the confluence of the Yangtze (Chang) and Jialing rivers. In the 11th century BC, it was a feudal state under the Xi (Western) Zhou dynasty. Over the next several centuries, its status alternated from being ruled by an empire in northern China to being an independent state. It finally came under Chinese rule in the Ming dynasty, continuing under the Qing dynasty. It was opened to foreign trade in 1890. It played a large role in the revolution of 1911. Once a city of narrow and irregular streets, Chongqing changed greatly as a result of a modernization program introduced during World War II, when it served as the capital of Nationalist China. Since the war it has become an important industrial centre. It is home to Chongqing University (founded 1929).