Metropolitan Scenery of Chongqing

Yuzhong District, the center of Chongqing, is surrounded by water on three sides and looks like a peninsula, with the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meeting at Chaotianmen at the northeast corner of the downtown area. Seen from above the area just looks like a whale, or a giant ship ready to set sail, with Chaotianmen as the head of the ship.

Night Scene of Chongqing

Chongqing at night presents a wonderful scene. Taking a bird's-eye view from a high place on the southern bank. You may find the peninsula in a sea of lights. While the rivers a dragon palace, if you watch the city on the Kanshenglou Tower, you can see lights all around you , or you may take a boat trip around the town, and find yourself drowned in the sea of lights.

Chongqing People's Grand Hall and People's Square

For sight-seeing both at night and during the day, the first place to see is the Chongqing People's Grand Hall and People's Square in front of the grand hall. Built in the early 1950s, the grand hall consists of three parts: the auditorium, the North Wing and the South Wing on each side of the hall (an East Wing was added to it in 1986), and the pailou Archway by the street. The round roof with its green glazed tiles makes the building looks like the Temple of Heaven in Beijing; the pouch in front of the hall with its red columns and white marble rails reminds people of the Tian An Men gate in Beijing. The building is 65 meters high, with a construction area of 18,500 square meters, built in the traditional Chinese palace style, imposing, beautiful and magnificent. In the book History of Comparative Architecture published in Great Britain in 1987, the Grand Hall was put in the second place in a list of 43 best Chinese buildings constructed after liberation. In May 1997, People 's Square was completed in front of the Grand Hall, covering an area of 25,000 square meters, of which 15,000 square meters is planted with trees and shining marble tiles; there is a magic music fountain; at the southern end of the square stands a stage for performances in the open air. In the numerous beautiful lights in the evening, you may see thousands of people dancing on the square.

Central Shopping Square of Chongqing

The second place to visit is the Central Shopping Square at Jiefangbei, the largest business center of the city. Jiefangbei, or the People's Liberation Monument, formerly known as the Monument of victory in the War of Resistance, a 27.5-meter high structure, was renamed and had its new name inscribed by Liu Bocheng on October 1st. of 1950. The shopping square, completed at the end of 1997, is 400 meters from east to west, and 350 meters from north to south, covering an area of 24,400 square meters. Around the square there are more than 3,000 stores and shops of various kinds, with two dozen large malls and shopping center, a dozen star-grade hotels, and over 300 establishments and offices such as banks, super markets, postal and telecommunication services and places for entertainment. More than 300,000 people visit this area every day on the average, and on holidays the figure may exceed 900,000. This is the busiest part of downtown Chongqing.

Chaotianmen Square

Chaotianmen Square is the gate or facade of the peninsula metropolis. For hundreds of years, this place has been the city's first dock on the Yangtze and , therefore, it has been named Chaotianmen, or the Gate to Heaven, meaning "receiving the lord from heaven". Built in the summer of 1998 and covering an area of 800,000 square meters, the ship-shaped square is one of the largest roof squares in China, and it serves the purposes of sightseeing, transport and river bank protection. Its name was inscribed by President Jiang Zemin. More than a million people visit the square each year.

Bridges in Chongqing

As the peninsula is surrounded by water on three sides, bridges play a very important role in its communication with other parts of the city. Since the completion of the Baishatuo Yangtze Bridges, the second large bridge ever built over the Yangtze, two more bridges were built on the Yangtze in the main part of Chingqing: one at Shibanpo, and the other at Lijiatuo. On the Jialing River, three bridges, the Niujiaotuo Bridge, the Chaoyang Bridge and the Shimen Bridge, have been built. Four beautiful statues, "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter", stand gracefully at the bridge heads at the northern and southern ends of the Shibanpo Yangtze Bridge. Besides bridges, there are suspended cable cars high in the air, taking passengers across the rivers.