Chongqing： The Fastest-growing Municipality Directly under the Central Government

Chongqing Jiangbeizui Financial Business District （Photograph/Liu Wangyang）

On June 18， 1997， Chongqing was approved to be a municipality directly under the Central Government. This is the opportunity and the starting point of its fast growing. The following years have witnessed a highspeed growth of GDP in this youngest municipality. Especially in recent years， its GDP growth has been in a leading position in the whole country. In 2014， its growth rate was 10.9%， ranking fi rst in China. In 2015，thanks to its total GDP of 1571.972 billion yuan with the growth rate of 11%， it again stood the fi rst throughout the country.

Chongqing is one of the famous historical and cultural cities in China. It has a recorded history of over 3000 years. In 1891， it became one of the earliest inland ports open for foreign trade. It was offi cially established as a city in 1929， and it had been the war-time capital of China during the Anti-Japanese War. In 1997， it became China's fourth municipality directly under the Central Government.

Covering an area of 82，400 square kilometers with 38 districts and counties （including autonomous counties）and a total population of 30，165，500 （up to 2015），Chongqing is also known as the “mountainous city”with the Yangtze River running across it （about 679 kilometers across its land）. It boasts numerous famous scenic spots， such as the Three Gorges， Dazu Rock Carvings （a world cultural heritage site）， Wulong Karst（a world natural heritage site）， and Nanchuan Gold Buddha Mountain， etc..

Seizing new opportunities and promoting its opening up to the world in recent years， Chongqing has laid a solid foundation for the development of its open economy. It has absorbed a total of over 10 billion US dollars of foreign investment each year for 5 successive years. Over 260 of the world top 500 companies have their offices here. The amount of its foreign trade， ranking the 23rd a few years ago， has increased 5 times，standing the 10th in the country and the first in the western regions of China. Besides， the amount of its service trade has increased 4 times， and its actual foreign investment， 2.4 times.

In 2015， the total amount of foreign trade in Chongqing，including its import and export， had come up to 75 billion US dollars with an actually-utilized foreign capital of 10.77 billion US dollars. It has invested 1.43 billion US dollars abroad and the sales amount of contracting projects abroad has come up to 1.21 billion US dollars. New modes of service trade， such as cross-border e-commerce， bonded goods exhibition， bonded trade，Internet cloud computing big data and cross-border settlement， have increased by 31.3% with the total volume of 17.2 billion US dollars.

Known for its mountains and rivers， Chongqing has come to the very forefront of opening up to the outside world. Connecting the east and the west of China and linking the European， Asia-Pacifi c regions and ASEAN countries， it is becoming increasingly famous with much to expect in the future.