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Chongqing[choong´chEng´] Pronunciation Key or Chungking[chOOng´king´] Pronunciation Key, city (1994 est. pop. 2,377,800), in SE Sichuan prov., China, at the junction of the Chang and Jialing rivers.With the surrounding rural area, it is a municipality (592 sq mi/1,534 sq km; 1994 est. pop. 3,097,100) directly administered by the national government. The commercial center of W China, it commands a large river trade. Surrounded on three sides by water, it is situated on a rock promontory. A flourishing industrial city, it was opened for direct foreign trade in 1979. In the 1980s it became the site of an economic experiment, where factory managers were given more decision-making power and allowed to channel profits into expansion.
Chongqing's industries include a large-scale integrated iron and steel complex, oil and copper refineries, motor vehicle and munitions factories, cotton and silk mills, chemical and cement plants, food-processing establishments, machine shops, paper mills, and tanneries. Large coal and iron mines and a major oil field are nearby. Its many institutions of higher learning include Chongqing Univ., Chongqing Technical Univ., and a medical college. The Chongqing Library and the Chongqing Municipal Museum are important cultural centers.
Chongqing was opened as a treaty port in 1891. In Nov., 1937, just before the Japanese capture of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the capital of China was transferred to Chongqing, where it remained until the end of hostilities. During that time administrative agencies, educational institutions, and industrial plants from all over the country were relocated in Chongqing and the population more than tripled. The city was taken by the Communists on Nov. 30, 1949.
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