History

Chongqing is a renowned cultural city with a long history. Far more than 20,000 years ago, in the Paleolithic Age, human activity began on this land. Until the Neolithic Age, there were primitive villages inhabited by eight nationalities, such as the Yi, Pu and Ju people. These early Chongqing residents created the most ancient history and civilization of Chongqing.

During the period of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties (about 3,000-4,000 years ago), the slave-owning tribal alliances generally called the "Ba" nation had strongly developed widely in the core areas of Chongqing. References to them have been found in ancient Chinese characters carved on tortoise shells or animal bones.

The name of Chongqing, originally called Ba, has been changed many times in history. In the 5th year of the Emperor Shenjing of the Zhou Dynasty (316 BC), Qin overthrew the original Ba nation and set up a new administration, which retained the Ba name. In the 26th year of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC), the country was subdivided into 36 counties, and Ba County, one of the 36 counties, was established. In the Han Dynasty, Ba County was called Jiangzhou. And in Wei, Jin and Southern & Northern Dynasties, it was renamed as Jingzhou, Yizhou, Bazhou and Chuzhou.

In the 1st year of the Emperor Wendi of the Sui Dynasty (581), since the city was surrounded by Yushui (old name of the Jialing River), its name was changed from Chuzhou to Yuzhou. That's why the Chinese sometimes refer to Chongqing as "Yu".

With the Song Dynasty, the prefecture (Yuzhou) got the new name of Gongzhou. In the 16th year of the Emperor Xiaozong (Chunxi) of the Song Dynasty (1,189), Zhao Chun became Prince Gong, and administered the prefecture, later succeeding to the throne as Emperor Guangzong of the Southern Song Dynasty. To celebrate his double fortune, the emperor changed Gongzhou to Chongqing Fu ("prefecture of double celebration"). So far Chongqing has kept the name for over 800 years.

From the Qin Dynasty on, Chongqing has been organized into different administrative bodies, such as a county, a state, a city, and a province. After the Xinhai Revolution in 1921, Chongqing became a commercial port supervision office. In 1929, Chongqing was established as a city. On May 5, 1935, ordered by the Kuomintang (KMT) government, Chongqing became a municipality directly under the central government. After the Anti-Japanese War broke out, the KMT government moved westward to Chongqing, and Chongqing became the wartime capital in November 1937. In 1940, Chongqing officially became the temporary capital of China.

After its liberation on November 30, 1949, Chongqing became the station of the Southwest Military Political Commission and a municipality directly under the central government. It was put under the administration of Sichuan Province in July 1954 and became a city directly under the province level. In 1983, Chongqing became the first city in China which enjoys provincial-level economic management authority. On March 14, 1997, the Chinese National People's Congress examined and approved the proposal to set Chongqing as a municipality directly under the central government. On June 18, 1997, Chongqing formally became a municipality. With a population of 30.97 million, Chongqing has become China's largest and most populous city. Although there are over 40 ethnic minorities, like the Tujia and Miao, the Han nationality is still the main people of Chongqing.

Economy

Chongqing is a comprehensive old industrial city with more than 15,000 independent accounting enterprises, including 2,634 large enterprises with 900,500 employees and total assets of 271.8 billion yuan. In 2004, large enterprises achieved a total profit of 11.338 billion yuan, up by 37.8%; the overall efficiency index for industrial enterprises is 141% with an increase of 16 percentage points compared with the previous year. Chongqing, with both light and heavy industries, is the national key production base of motorcycles, autos, instruments, fine chemistry, large transformers and Chinese patent medicines. It also boasts the largest aluminum processing plant of Asia, and has 382 auto and motorcycle enterprises, with motorcycle production accounting for one-third of domestic sales and half of foreign exports for all of China. Now it has become one of the nation’s top 10 export bases of electromechanical products.

With a large population, Chongqing enjoys vast rural areas with abundant agricultural resources of great potential. It has 2.1 million hectares of farmland and 13.615 million laborers. It is also the national key grain production area and pork production base. In 2004, the annual net income of rural residents was 2,510.4 yuan per capita, up by 13.3% compared with the previous year. The Engel coefficient of rural residents was 56%, down by 7.2 percentage points compared with that before 1997.

With convenient transportation for the two rivers (the Yangtze River and Jialing River), Chongqing is famous as a goods distribution base in southwest China and the most active business center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Recently it has established a modern consumable market system which serves the southwest area and the whole country. In 2004, the total retail sale of social consumer goods achieved 106.15 billion yuan, up by 27.1% from the previous year.

It is now embracing a rapid development of new industrialization represented by autos and motorcycles, equipment manufacturing, and resource processing, as well as high-tech industries, with an annual industrial added value of 71.6 billion yuan. Chongqing has become one of the top 4 auto production bases in our country with an annual output of 420,000 autos. It also enjoys the No. 1 place of China in terms of the output and sales volume of motorcycles, with 4.21 million motorcycles output each year.

Chongqing is one of the 3 large production & research bases of instruments in China. The industrial automation control system accounts for about 15% of the national market share, and various types of instrument sensors account for over 20%.

Changshou Chemical Industry Park is the country's largest production base of natural gas, owning the national leading large-scale joint ventures such as Sichuan Vinylon Works and Yangtze River Acetyls Co., Ltd. The technical level of equipment produced and outputs are leading in China, and the production capacity of fine chemistry, including methanol production from natural gas, polyvinyl alcohol and vinyl acetate, accounts for 20% of the whole market share in China.

Today, Chongqing has 628 more new hi-tech enterprises and 1,074 hi-tech products, and has developed the five major industries of electronic information, biological engineering, environmental protection, mechatronics and new materials.

Districts and Counties (Autonomous Counties)

Yuzhong District, with an area of 22 square kilometers and a total population of 600,000.

Dadukou District, with an area of 103 square kilometers and a total population of 210,000.

Jiangbei District, with an area of 221 square kilometers and a total population of 490,000.

Shapingba District, with an area of 383 square kilometers and a total population of 730,000.

Jiulongpo District, with an area of 432 square kilometers and a total population of 760,000.

Nan'an District, with an area of 274 square kilometers and a total population of 530,000.

Beibei District, with an area of 755 square kilometers and a total population of 650,000.

Shuangqiao District, with an area of 43 square kilometers and a total population of 50,000.

Yubei District, with an area of 1,452 square kilometers and a total population of 850,000.

Ba'nan District, with an area of 1,825 square kilometers and a total population of 860,000.

Wanzhou District, with an area of 3,457 square kilometers and a total population of 1,700,000.

Fuling District, with an area of 2,946 square kilometers and a total population of 1,120,000.

Qianjiang District, with an area of 2,397 square kilometers and a total population of 500,000.

Changshou District, with an area of 1,415 square kilometers and a total population of 870,000.

Jiangjin District, with an area of 3,200 square kilometers and a total population of 1,450,000.

Hechuan District, with an area of 2,356 square kilometers and a total population of 1,500,000.

Yongchuan District, with an area of 1,576 square kilometers and a total population of 1,070,000.

Nanchuan District, with an area of 2,602 square kilometers and a total population of 640,000.

Dazu District, with an area of 1,436 square kilometers and a total population of 1,033,900.

The New North Zone, with an area of 157.59 square kilometers and a total population of 530,000.

Wansheng Economic and Technological Development Zone, with an area of 566 square kilometers and a total population of 270,000.

Qijiang County, with an area of 2,182 square kilometers and a total population of 950,000.

Tongnan County, with an area of 1,585 square kilometers and a total population of 900,000.

Tongliang County, with an area of 1,342 square kilometers and a total population of 800,000.

Rongchang County, with an area of 1,079 square kilometers and a total population of 810,000.

Bishan County, with an area of 912 square kilometers and a total population of 610,000.

Dianjiang County, with an area of 1,518 square kilometers and a total population of 900,000.

Wulong County, with an area of 2,872 square kilometers and a total population of 400,000.

Fengdu County, with an area of 2,896 square kilometers and a total population of 790,000.

Chengkou County, with an area of 3,286 square kilometers and a total population of 230,000.

Liangping County, with an area of 1890 square kilometers and a total population of 880,000.

Kai County, with an area of 3,959 square kilometers and a total population of 1,530,000.

Wuxi County, with an area of 4,030 square kilometers and a total population of 520,000.

Wushan County, with an area of 2,958 square kilometers and a total population of 590,000.

Fengjie County, with an area of 4,087 square kilometers and a total population of 1,000,000.

Yunyang County, with an area of 3,634 square kilometers and a total population of 1,290,000.

Zhong County, with an area of 2,184 square kilometers, and a total population of 960,000.

Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, with an area of 3,013 square kilometers and a total population of 510,000.

Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County, with an area of 3,903 square kilometers and a total population of 620,000.

Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, with an area of 5,173 square kilometers and a total population of 750,000.

Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, with an area of 2,450 square kilometers and a total population of 660,000.

Investment

Recently, Chongqing has set up relationship with more than 180 countries and regions, and established sound friendships with 17 foreign cities like Seattle. The U.K., Canada, Japan, Denmark and Cambodia all have set up consulates in Chongqing. Furthermore, it has cooperated with Hong Kong in economics and trade, and also works together with other cities in the southwest area, along the Yangtze River and the whole of China. Besides, Chongqing has been constructing Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone with Sichuan Province, with an aim to strengthen the collaboration with the coastal developed area.

Business investment has gained remarkable achievements . By the end of 2008, Chongqing has actually utilized 6,253 domestic investment projects, 20.3% up compared with the previous year, with a total amount of 84.284 billion yuan, up 96.0%. By August, 2009, there were 4,810 foreign-funded enterprises in Chongqing, with a total investment of 24.47 billion US dollars, among which 102 World Top 500 companies are included.

Foreign trade has seen considerable improvement. In 2008, the total export and import value reached 9.52 billion US dollars, 28% more than that in 2007. The export value amounted to 5.72 billion US dollars and imports to 3.8 billion US dollars, up 26.9% and 29.6% respectively.

Government Structure

General Affairs Office of Chongqing Municipal Government

Commission of Development and Reform of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Economy of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Education of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Science of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Religious Affairs of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Public Security of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Supervision of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Civil Affairs of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Judicial Affairs of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Finance of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Personnel of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Labour Security of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of State Land and Housing Administration of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Construction of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Planning of Chongqing Municipality

Political Commission of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Communications of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Information Industry of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Water Resources of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Agriculture of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Commerce of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Foreign Economy and Trade of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Public Health of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of Population and Family Planning of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Culture, Radio and Television of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Audit of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Migrants of Chongqing Municipality

Office of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Chinese Affairs of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Local Taxation of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Environmental Protection of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Sports of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Statistics of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Industry and Commerce of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Press and Publication (Bureau of Copyrights) of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Forestry of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Quality Supervision of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Drugs Supervision of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Tourism of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Grains of Chongqing Municipality

Office of Rural Affairs of Chongqing Municipality

Office of Poverty Alleviation of Chongqing Municipality

Office of Legislative Affairs of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Security Supervision of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Archives of Chongqing Municipality

Bureau of Intellectual Property Rights of Chongqing Municipality

Commission of State Resources of Chongqing Municipality