Çongçing
Also known as Chongqing Municipality, Chunking
Chongqing is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the Central People's Government, along with Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. It is the only direct-administered municipality located deep inland. The municipality covers a large geographical area roughly the size of Austria, which includes several disjunct urban areas in addition to Chongqing proper. Due to its classification, the municipality of Chongqing is the largest city proper in the world by population, though it is not the most populous urban area.
AI overview
Chongqing is a major city in southwestern China with special status as one of only four direct-administered municipalities controlled by the central government, and it is notably the only one located inland rather than on the coast. It covers an exceptionally large area—roughly the size of Austria—and is technically the world's largest city proper by population, though this includes several separate urban areas within its administrative boundaries.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
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Travel guide
Understand
Chongqing is one of the four municipalities in China, cities that are not part of a province and instead report directly to the central government; it is the only municipality that is not on the east coast (the others are Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin). It was historically a part of Sichuan province, and is culturally and linguistically considered to be part of it.
During World War II, Chongqing served as the temporary capital of China after Nanjing fell to the Japanese. Despite being heavily bombed, Chongqing was successfully defended by the Chinese forces and avoided occupation for the duration of the war. In 1949, a massive fire swept through the waterfront, destroying much of the area and killing upwards of 3,000.
Chongqing urban area (covered in this article) consists of the following eight districts and areas: Yuzhong, Dadukou, Shapingba, Jiulongpo, Nan'an, Banan, Beibei, and Liangjiang New Area (Jiangbei and Yubei no longer exist, having been merged in 2025 to form Liangjiang New Area).
Get around
The metro and bus systems are advised as the best forms of transportation and are very cheap and efficient.
Chongqing is a very hilly city, so be prepared to climb lots of stairs when walking around. That can also make it a confusing city to navigate on foot, as the ground floor of one building can be at the same elevation as the 20th floor of an adjacent building for instance.
See
Chongqing has the largest population in West China and is the focus of China's "Go West" development strategy. As a result, it is a very lively and rapidly modernizing city, although it does get a bit too hectic most of the time. On the surface, the city appears rough around the edges and a bit gritty and thus there may appear to be not much to do in the daytime, but further investigation will uncover a city with truly its own character and a number of interesting sites actually worth looking into.
Eat
thumbnail|Patrons standing in line at a snack shop in Chongqing
Drink
There are many bars in Chongqing, but most are underpopulated. Generally the local bottled beer is ¥10, and the variety includes several local beers and even Guinness (expensive) on occasions. If you go to one of the small restaurants to eat, you can buy bottles of local beer at ¥3 upwards.
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On the map
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Categories
5th-century BC establishments in ChinaChongqingDirect-administered municipalities of ChinaMetropolitan areas of ChinaNational Famous Historical and Cultural CityPopulated places established in the 5th century BCPopulated places on the Yangtze RiverPort cities and towns in ChinaProvince-level divisions of ChinaStates and territories established in 1997Western China