Driving Downtown Chongqing | The Mountain City, Bridge City, And Fog City | 重庆 | 雾都

One of the biggest cities in the world, with over 30 million people, Chongqing is an exciting metropolis. Few places in China, or anywhere else can claim an annual GDP growth rate of at least 10 percent for well over a decade. For me, Chongqing is rather like a small province, with a core city of over 8 million people. Economic growth began to take off spectacularly since Chongqing became its own municipality, separate from Sichuan province in 1997. With a history stretching 3,000 years, Chongqing has been an important political, economic and strategic centre in China’s west. It is known as “mountain city” owing to its rugged terrain and steep gorges. The rest of the country also calls it one of China’s four “furnaces” as it becomes hot and humid in summer. The Yangtze River starts here and winds through the municipality and makes its way towards Shanghai on the eastern seaboard more than 1,600 kilometres away. The Chinese Government has designated Chongqing as a key hub in western China,