Chongqing

Geography

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. Situated 105'11"-110'11" east longitude and 28'10"-32'13" north latitude, it has an area of 82,000 square kilometers, neighboring Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi provinces.

Brief Introduction
Chongqing is called Yu for short. It is situated in the southeast of the Sichuan Basin and the confluence between the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. It is the largest and most densely populated municipality directly under the Central Government. Efforts are being made to turn Chongqing into a modern metropolis with the largest foreign market oriented industrial base in West China. On March 14, 1997, Chongqing was officially proclaimed the fourth municipality directly under the jurisdiction of the Central Government.

Chongqing abounds in biological resources, ore and waterpower as well as the Three Gorges tourist resources. Being the largest industrial and commercial center in southwest China, Chongqing boasts comprehensive industries of advanced iron and steel, chemicals, electric power, automobile manufacturing, machine-building, shipbuilding, construction materials, textiles, and foodstuff. Chongqing is also the land and water communication hub in southwest China. The port of Chongqing is the biggest in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Known as a "Mountain City", Chongqing was constructed on the mountain slopes and along the riversides. It has a long history and numerous scenic spots and historic sites. It is renowned in particular for gardens with unique beauty. Famous tourist sites include the stone carvings in Dazu County, the Three Gorges scenery, the South Hot Spring Park, the North Hot Spring Park, and Red Crag Memorial Museum, etc.

Climate
Chongqing has a sub-tropical monsoonal climate, with warm winter, hot summer, early spring and short autumn. Annual average temperature is around 19.2oC. 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 annual average rainfall is above 1000 mm. Chongqing is also called foggy city, for 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.

Administrative Division and Population
It is divided into 13 districts, 16 county-level cities, 6 counties and 5 autonomous counties, with a population of 30.90 million as of 2000.

Food
Chongqing Hot Pot, Dandan noodles, Wu Chaoshou, Chongqing Ma La Tang ("ma" means numbness in the mouth, "la" is chili hot and "tang" means piping hot), Mapo Tofu, Double Cooked Pork.

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