Chongqing

With a history of over 3,000 years, Chongqing, the birthplace of Ba and Yu culture is one of the least well known but most important historical cities in all of China. Today, little of this interesting past is visible and the city is essentially an industrial mass. Much of it is dirty and seedy but there is a lively atmosphere prevalent about the place that often goes hand in hand with the more "hardcore" cities in China.

The area known as Chongqing became the capital of the Ba State in the 11 century BC under the mythical King of the Yu. By the 12th Century AD, this small city had grown in size and was renamed Chongqing, meaning "Double happiness" in Chinese.Despite the name, the city in fact has a rather turbulent past, and the residents here have spent much of their history keeping invaders out. In 1242 Chongqing put up a defence against the Mongols and in 1937, the Kuomingtang fled here from the Japanese. The city withstood attack and was one of the last Kuomingtang bastions. In 1997, Chongqing separated from Sichuan to become an independent prefecture in its own right. Today, this vast southwestern dynamo is known as Chongqing Municipality.