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Chongqing city
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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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| | Highlights: | Angling City
|  Angling City (diaoyu cheng), located on the Angling Mountain overlooking the Jialing River, is a city filled with legend.
The mountain here contains a gargantuan rock, where it is said that an immortal being once fished to relieve the local folks of famine. This tale gave rise to the name "Angling City". Due largely to its strategic geographical location, this town has long been a military stronghold. In 1259, the Mongolian Khan conquered the city and after five months of warfare was only injured once by cannon. Remains of the battlefield can still be seen here.
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| Wansheng Stone Forest
|  Located 165km from downtown Chongqing, Wansheng Stone Forest (wansheng shilin) is the oldest (formed during the Ordovician epoch) and the second largest stone forest (the largest one is in Guilin) in China.
The forest here has a typical karst appearance, filled with sword, drum, pagoda, mushroom and bud shaped stones as well as animal shapes. This place in fact could be called a stone made zoo
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| Baoding Mountain
|  Baoding Mountain (baoding shan), is renowned for the examples of stone carving that exist in the grottoes here.This is a Buddhist Mountain and held in high regard by local practicing monks in the area.
There are a total of thirteen different spots on the mountain that house examples of Buddhist carvings. Most of the carvings depict typical Buddhist legends or tales with strong religious meaning. Ingenious measures are taken to prevent erosion of many of the carvings too.
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| People's Great Hall
|  Situated on Renmin Lu, the People's Great Hall (renmin dahuitang), which was completed in April 1954, is an example of typical Chongqing architecture. Covering an area of 18500 square meters, this five-story rotunda is 65m high and 46m in diameter, spacious enough to hold over 4200 people and slightly reminiscent of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. |
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| Jinfo Nature Reserve
|  Chongqing is primarily an industrial city and it can be pleasant to escape the smog and crowds and head to the only nature reserve in the area. The Jinfo Nature Reserve (jinfoshan ziran baohuqu), is situated amidst huge lush mountains, with one third of the area here covered by virgin forest. Most impressive of all here are the flora and fauna, including over 6000 species of plant and 500 types of wild animal. If you are lucky enough, you may catch sight of rare tigers, leopards or spotted deer. |
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Tel: +86 21 63051662