《老外在重庆的日子》MrBenson

2、History of Chongqing Chong

　　Chongqing is at the meeting of two great rivers called the Jialing and the Yangtze. Because Chongqing is becoming so very much a modern metropolis she has and is building more bridges. So, Chongqing is often called the city of bridges. The name Chongqing literally means double celebration and was given the name in 1189 AD by Emperor Zhao Dun who was a native of Chongqing. Chongqing is also called Chungking in the west. It is one of 4 direct controlled municipalities in China. In 2010 it had a population of nearly 30 million through the municipality making it the largest such city in the world. The urbanized area, though only boast about 7 million or so. Today Chongqing sports one of the largest universities in China, Southwest University.
　　By far the best and most current information about living as an Expat will be found on the net. Escape Artist dot com is one of the best. They offer a huge array of different subjects as well as a magazine and many books. The Expat blog is another place too that covers a great amount of ground. When it comes to teaching English in China though,you should look up Daves ESL CAFE.
　　Chongqing is also a Salt mining city. There are several salt mines here and this is why thousands of years ago many people came here to buy salt. The sale of salt of hundreds of years and the ability to transport along the rivers made Chongqing a commercial city as well. When the people wanted to go up river there were huge numbers of men that would walk along the river and pull a long rope that was attached to the boats that were traveling, loaded with whatever was to be transported for sale upstream. It was the largest commercial city for manyyears in China. By the end of the 1890s there were consulates Generals from the UK, Germany and the USA here in Chongqing. By the 1945 there were more than 50 embassies in Chongqing and many international banks. Chongqing has been and will always be a great commercial center in China. Yet today it is called the Hidden City because there are so few foreigners here compared to other cities of China.
　　Chongqing is a mountain town and some in China even say that mountain people live here. The equivalent of hillbillies in the US, they are considered. But like some of the hillbillies in the US, here too they are usually much more hospitable a class of people. The biggest reason why people say that the Chongqing women are so beautiful is because of their hospitality and playfulness. I have had great success here in making friends of all sorts of people, from the super wealthy to the bang-bang man on the street. One of which never fails to greet me when I walk by.