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Chongqing: Gateway to the West


	Photo: Daniel Sanderson

Chongqing is hot. Not only is this city in the southwest province of Sichuan one of China’s famous sanlu (“three furnaces”), it is also a thriving industrial center, rich in minerals and natural gas fields. While it opened to international trade in 1890, the treacherous 1,400 mile trip up the Yangzi kept it relatively isolated. Now, foggy and mountainous Chongqing is China’s most populous municipality with over 30 million registered residents. Located in the western province of Sichuan, it is behind the reservoir created by the huge Three Gorges Dam and will be newly accessible by ocean-going vessels. The Chinese government is investing heavily in Chongqing’s development, hoping that this interior municipality will truly be the Gateway to the West.

Of course, there is a price to pay for progress: Chongqing has long been the jumping-off point for the three-day ship cruises that would take tourists downriver through the Yangzi’s spectacular Three Gorges. The steep cliffs, villages, and archaeological sites are being submerged as the water in the reservoir fills behind the dam. Entire towns are being moved up hillsides and over a million people are being forced to move. The fresh water dolphin, the Yangzi River baiji, succumbed to the pressures of progress and was declared extinct in 2006.