Chongqing Culture

Chongqing Culture - Overview

Chongqing is one of the four municipalities of China, but also one of China's five major cities. It is a metropolis, consisting of the main urban areas, medium-sized Wanzhou and Fuling District, as well as four small and medium Qianjiang, Yongchuan, Jiangjin, Hechuan District. Chongqing has a long history and culture. The State Council announced it as the second batch of national historical and cultural cities. Due to Chongqing's unique geographical environment, mountainous and foggy, Chongqing earns his fame as the City of Fog or the City of Mountain. Chongqing has 55 ethnic groups, but the Han occupies the largest proportion of population. Since the ancient times, Chongqing had been served as the capital during Three Kingdoms period, namely the capital of Ba Kingdom, Daxia Kingdom and the wartime capital of the Public of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Therefore, Chongqing is also known as the city of three capitals

Chongqing Culture - Bayu Culture

Bayu culture, as one of the richest national culture regions of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Bayu culture is a traditional culture evolved from the Ba culture with geographical nature. Ba people lived in the mountains generation by generation. On account of the dangerous environmental condition, Ba people cultivated a tough, tenacious and valiant character, hence the Ba people famous for their braveness and skills in warfare. Chongqing's mountains made the girl's character tender and soft like water but full of animated courage; the boy' burning passion and diligence.

Chongqing Culture - Traditional Play

Sichuan Opera is the most famous local opera in Chongqing; it has always been a bright pearl of Chinese operas. Sichuan Opera has a long history, it still retains a lot of excellent repertoire, superb music as well as exquisite performance. As early as the Tang Dynasty, Sichuan Opera was assigned as the championship of Chinese opera. Sichuan Opera has a wide range of repertoire. There is an old saying "Three thousand stories of Tang Dynasty, eight hundred plays of Song Dynasty, uncountable stories of the Three Kingdoms." The famous play including: "White Snake", "Jade Hairpin", and "Shade of Willow Tree" etc. Sichuan Opera is presented in varied ways. For instance, face-changing, lifting, sword-hiding, fire-spitting etc., many of them has received great praise from people.

Chongqing Culture - Chuanjiang Chant

The famous Chuanjiang Chant is a chant shouted by the trackers before they load the towrope. Their resounding voice echoed in the river valley. In the Bayu territory, due to the overlapping mountains and rivers, the traffic is extremely inconvenient. The flow of goods and passenger transportation are carried by the cargo vessel, and because of this, cypress sailboats became the main transportation way. There are only several boatmen on a small sailboat, on a big sailboat, you may find twenty or thirty people. Shaoweng is the captain of the sailboat, he is the commander of the sailors. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shaoweng beat the drum to command the boat. Chuanjiang Chant was about to rise in the mid-Qing Dynasty gradually and it brought the professional chant leader. "Pedaling the stone, pawing the sand, walking in the wind and rain." So day after day, year after year, the trackers of Chuanjiang left a deep road marks on the hard rock.

Chongqing Culture - Traditional architecture

Chongqing city is built against the mountains, embraced by the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. All the buildings are built along the hillsides because of Chongqing's unique topography. Thus you can find a few wooden pillars hold up a square houses everywhere along the hillsides, that is Diaojiaolou – Stilt House. Diaojiaolou is a particular traditional house construction method in Chongqing, its history dates back to the period before Eastern Han Dynasty. The basic feature of Diaojiaoliu is that the main rooms being built on the ground, a side of the wing-rooms are built on the ground connected with the main rooms, the other three sides are hanging in the air and just rely on a few supporting pillars. Diaojiaolou has many advantages, not only because it hangs above the ground can keep the air cool and dry, but also it can prevent the snakes and wild animals. At the same time, we can also store variety of items under the floor. In addition, Diaojiaolou has the ethnic and traditional characteristics. The elegant eave and wild railing form Diaojiaolou's own unique style.

Chongqing Culture - Traditional Art

Dazu Rock Carvings is located in Chongqing. People can appreciate the representative rock carvings art and sculptures of Tang and Song dynasties in the area of Dazu County, Tongliang County, Tongnan County and Bishan County. Normally, Dazu Rock Carvings is the general name of the grotto art in Dazu County. At present, there are about 70 sites and totally 100,000 stone sculptures remains in Dazu Rock Carvings. Among them, the Baoding Mountain and North Mountain are in great fame. The sculptures in Dazu Rock Carvings are mainly Buddhist and coexisted with the Confucian as well as Taoist, it is the model of late Chinese grotto art. As the result of its grand scale, exquisite art and rich content, Dazu Rock Carving is not less famous than the Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Longmen Grottoes in the world.