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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.
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