About Chongqing

Culture

Chongqing, as a famous historic city in China and the cradle of Ba Ethnic culture enjoys a great cultural heritage.  It is a component part of the Chinese culture that maintains unique regional features of cultural pattern.

Chongqing is particularly rich in human landscape as well as in cultural relics and historic sites.  There are now 49 national, provincial and municipal preservation places of treasured historical relics.  In 1999, the UNESCO listed The Dazu Stone Sculptures on World Register of Culture Heritage.  In its 12 museums and memorial halls displays and exhibitions are held every year.

The artistic performance of Chongqing flourishes in a great variety, outstanding with strong folk color among the pageant of arts in China.  There are 3,000 organizations including 29 professional troupes.  The acrobatics of Chongqing is well-known all over the world. "Kicking Bowls on a Balancing Board “performed by the Chongqing Acrobatics Troupe won a Silver Medal at the 9th Festival of Circus Tomorrow and a Golden Lion Medal on the event of National Acrobatics Competition.  The Sichuan opera has also built a system of stylized movement and its acting is both exquisite and vivid with a series of stunts including “face- changing".  Since the founding of New China, the Chongqing's artistic troops have realized performance tours and cultural exchange in more than 30 countries and regions such as United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Peru, Colombia, Denmark, Australia, Mexico, Netherlands, Argentina, Canada, Burma, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan and Macao, etc.

The mass-oriented cultural activities in Chongqing have the goal to popularize the folk art as the lead forming a network around 46 community centers of art and culture, 1,211 cultural stations and 1,944 units of film projection.  The popular culture in its modern form is growing rapidly, including performance, entertainment, videos, books and periodicals, fine art, movies, cultural relics, advertisement, and fashion shows. 

The public libraries are starting to take shape in Chongqing.  There are 43 public libraries with a deposit of 8.23 million volumes of books.  Built with an investment of 17 million yuan, the Chongqing Municipal Library is one of the archives collection units consigned by the United Nations.

Sister Cities

Country	City
Australia	Brisbane
Canada	Toronto
Egypt	Aswan
France	Toulouse
German	Dusseldorf
Iran	Shiraz
Japan	Hiroshima
Russia	Voronezh
South Africa	Mpumalanga
UK	Leicester
Ukraine	Zaporizhzhya State
USA	Seattle
Thailand	Bangkok

City Flower and City Tree

City Flower

In 1986, camellia was officially made the city flower of Chongqing.

Camellia is the evergreen shrubs in the theaceae family which has a long florescence, tolerates pollution and is easy to plant. There are 73 existing species. The flowers have bright colors, varying from pink, purplish red, to white and multiple colors. The petals have a variety of patterns.

Camellia has been cultivated in Chongqing for more than 2,000 years and is applied and praised a lot. Su Shi (1037--1101), a famous poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote some famous sentences in praise of camellia: 'With all the pollen taken by the humming bees, the flowers remain fragrant, sweet as honey.' In Zhiziqiao, Shigang, Banan District, an ancient camellia tree of 400 years old is still alive, 8m in height and 72 cm in diameter. Camellia can be found everywhere in Chongqing, in parks, scenic spots, in front of the houses, and on balconies of tall buildings.

City Tree

The ficus lacor was officially made the city tree of Chongqing in 1986.

Ficus lacor is the tree with deciduous leaves, of banyan genus in the mulberry family. With its deep roots, strong trunk, and thriving branches and leaves, it has great vitality, grows fast, and enjoys a long life. The tree can grow on thin soil in hot, damp climate, and is pollution resisting. It can even grow well on high cliffs.

There are many places in Chongqing named after the tree, 'huangge', as the local people pronounce it. The fact is witnessed by ancient books. An ancient book Shui Jing Zhu (A Record of Rivers) of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386 - 534 A. D.), noted, 'the water (of the Yangtze) then goes east through the Huangge Gorge (known as Tongluo Gorge today).' And in the Tu Jing (A Book of Pictures) of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279) described 'At the foot of Tushan Mountain, there are huangge trees (ficus lacor); and below the trees there is the Huangge Ferry Crossing'. In Chongqing today, there are quite a number of places named after the tree: Huanggeya, Huanggeping, for instance.

Strengths

Chongqing should be built into the important growth pole in West China, the economic center at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the municipality directly under the Central Government for harmonized development of rural and urban areas, to be the first in West China to realize the target of building a well-off society in an all-round way.

The strengths of Chongqing are enhanced thanks to Chongqing's becoming a municipality directly under the Central Government, the construction of the Three Gorges Dam Project and the implementation of the Go West Policy. Chongqing ranked top 5 out of China's 12 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in the west after macro adjustment, opening to the rest of the world and intensive infrastructure construction. In 2006, the total local GDP reached RMB 348.620 billion, 12.2% higher over 2005; and the total local GDP per capita (permanent population) reached RMB 12,437, up 11.9% over the previous year. The local revenue reached RMB 52.946 billion, up 30.5% over 2005. Of the revenue, general revenue was RMB 31.772 billion, up 23.7% over the previous year, which was 60.0% of the total financial revenue. The real estate investment in the municipality reached RMB 245.184 billion, up 24.9%. The investment in construction and reconstruction was RMB 182.221 billion, 26.1% higher than the previous year.