Chongqing (Chungking)

This is now the most populous city, including the metropolitan area, in the world.

The three great river valleys, the Hwang Ho, the Yangtze and the Pearl, were not the only early centers of Chinese civilization. There was another center that was far inland, the Szechwan or Sichuan Basin, which is a relatively flat area that is surrounded by mountains. This basin is also drained by the Yangtze River.

One thing that the Szechwan or Sichuan Basin area is known for is it's especially spicy food. It is also this basin that led me to the theory on the geology blog, "The Story Of Planet Earth", about how so much of the topography of the earth's surface, both land and seafloor, is the result of magma emergence caused by the spin of the earth combined with shifts in the poles caused by the impacts of Continental Asteroids.

I kept wondering about how this basin could possibly have formed. I noticed that is was part of what I named in the theory, "The Great Valley Of Asia", and from there I developed the rest of the theory.

The city known in English as Chungking is on the east side of the basin. It is on the Yangtze River and is far upstream from Wuhan, Nanjing and, Shanghai, which we have already visited. Chungking is the furthest inland city that we have visited in China so far, even further inland than Xian. As we might expect, since it is one of the early centers of Chinese civilization, Chungking is a very ancient city.

Let's begin with the part of Chungking known as Ciqikou Ancient Town. This town is about a thousand years old.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.5814358,106.4482246,3a,75y,85.01h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMUsN4YQlbjfQqCCtGnao06B7LKwICdvHbfPtCd!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMUsN4YQlbjfQqCCtGnao06B7LKwICdvHbfPtCd%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya143.27153-ro-0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120

The following scenes of Chungking begin in People's Square. The building with the cylindrical top is the Great Hall of the People.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.562959,106.554488,3a,75y,226.5h,93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMzF-Ifqp9YOPPmiQkkvBzSQM0Hq0g7EFeEeKv7!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMzF-Ifqp9YOPPmiQkkvBzSQM0Hq0g7EFeEeKv7%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya1.5000055-ro-0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120

There is often fog in the basin, as you can see in some of the following views. The river is the Yangtze River.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.5527997,106.5347037,3a,75y,34.5h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMGE1qPNn9wdpmUfhmTFwbIgt2F91ADQ0e7jRrM!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMGE1qPNn9wdpmUfhmTFwbIgt2F91ADQ0e7jRrM%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya21.500002-ro-0-fo100!7i8192!8i4096

This is the Jiefangbei area, in central Chungking. The area with all the stores is Jiefangbei Square and Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.5776155,106.5281656,3a,75y,271.5h,93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPhklW4lEGHaxOcjFkbVOUN8bEazue2_QE2gR_b!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPhklW4lEGHaxOcjFkbVOUN8bEazue2_QE2gR_b%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya52.49999-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

This is more of the central part of Chungking.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.564061,106.5482677,3a,75y,357.83h,110.37t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipN-EoijC1vMx64CH-Mg49dk0w3tGr__-FIo4D1z!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipN-EoijC1vMx64CH-Mg49dk0w3tGr__-FIo4D1z%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20.369776-ya252.82959-ro-0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120

Here is a residential area of Chungking.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.5531458,106.509667,3a,75y,316.5h,93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMuK5f3_YVPtuLj-yIiVyifk9lXOhcvbS5vupf6!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMuK5f3_YVPtuLj-yIiVyifk9lXOhcvbS5vupf6%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya300.5-ro-0-fo100!7i10632!8i5316