Chongqing

Introduction

Chongqing

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Chongqing is a city and one of the four province-level municipalities in China officially known as Special Economic Zones (SEZ). The other three are Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin (City).
Although the city itself 'only' has around 6 million inhabitants, the total municipality is one of the largest in the world, with well over 30 million people living here. Although like the other SEZ's most of the area is rural.

Neighbourhoods

Chongqing municipality stretches over 80,000 square kilometres and has 40 county-level subdivisions, subdivided into 19 districts, 17 countries and 4 autonomous counties.
The city itself can be subdivided into:

• Yuzhong, the central city area
• Nan'an (Southern Bank District)
• Jiangbei (North of the River District)
• Shapingba
• Jiulongpo
• BaNan
• Dadukou
• Yubei (the northern district of Chongqing)
• Beibu (the new district at Northern Chongqing)

Sights and Activities

• Dazu Rock Carvings - a Unesco World Heritage Site
• Zhou Enlai's old residence
• HongYaDong
• Great Hall of the People
• Three Gorges Museum
• Red Rock Village (Hong Yan Cun)
• Chongqing Old Town

Weather

Chongqing has a subtropical climate with humid conditions. Summers last from June to September when temperatures average between 27 and 33 °C during the day and between 20 and 25 °C at night. Temperatures of 40 °C or even more are not uncommon and the humid conditions make this probably the worst time for a visit. Winters are actually better though temperatures are not really great: between December and February it is around 10 °C during the day and a few degrees less at night. Occasionally temperatures drop close to zero but rarely below. It is the driest time of the year with just around 20mm of precipitation a month, against 150-200mm a month between May and July!
Obviously, good months for a visit, are the spring and autumn periods (March-April and September-November).

Getting There

By Plane

Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport (CKG) is about 20 kilometres from the city centre of Chongqing. About a dozen of airlines, among which Air China, China Southern Airlines and Sichuan Airlines offer numerous domestic services. Destinations include Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Beijing, Chengdu, Lhasa, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. International destinations include Bangkok, Hong Kong, Nagoya, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei and Singapore, mostly with Air China, except Singapore.

By Train

There are three train stations in Chongqing: Caiyuanba (in Yuzhong District), Shapingba (in Shapingba District) and Chongqing Beizhan (in Jiangbei District)
Chongqing can be reached by train from many major and smaller Chinese cities, including Chengdu (just 2.5 hours), Lanzhou and Beijing (about 24 hours).

By Boat

There are quite a few options to travel by boat downriver via the Three Gorges towards Yichang.

Getting Around

By Public Transport

Chongqing Metro offers extensive services in the urban area.

Sleep

Learn

• Chongqing University
• Southwest University
• Chongqing Normal University

Keep Connected

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Post

China Post (中国邮政) is the official postal service of the People's Republic of China, operated by the State Postal Bureau of the People's Republic of China (website in Chinese only), and has more details about price to send letters, postcards and parcels, both domestically as well as internationally. The Chinese postal service is very good. Remember that in more remote places usually only one post office in a city can handle sending international boxes or letters. Also many times it might be worth having the name of the country you are trying to send to in Chinese characters. Post offices have a striking green logo and can easily be found everywhere in the cities. They are mostly open every day (including weekends!) from 8:00am to 6:00pm, though small offices might have shorter opening times, while the bigger ones in central and touristic areas are sometimes open during evenings as well.