I would like to talk about Chongqing, a city I used to travel to last summer. Chongqing city is not among the most famed of China’s cities like Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai. Several nicknames just describe Chongqing perfectly. "Mountain City" is the first impression when speaking of Chongqing. Built on a mountainous area, roads and architecture are all built along with the terrain, thus, it's always possible to see people walk through your window even if you live on the 10th floor. The infrastructure in Chongqing is a marvel of modern engineering, with trains that pass right through tall buildings. Also, this city has an abstract network of ring roads, bridges and rail lines. It's a busy mountainous city located in the southwest of China of the four cities directly under the jurisdiction of the central government. Its mountainous landscape with the Jialing River running through makes it so attractive and unique, especially at night, with its bright lights along the river banks and on the buildings. Recently, many modern buildings have sprung up, but there are very few traditional buildings left, which is really a shame, as they have to pull down the old ones to make room for the new and high-rise commercial buildings.
As a rapidly changing city, Chongqing is famous for its auto, chemical and textile industries. The climate here has four distinct seasons with cool autumn and spring. Especially in summer, Chongqing has a lot of rain at night and is quite hot and muggy. It can reach 40 degrees Celsius.
But a serious problem in this city is pollution and overpopulation. In fact, there have been several cases of acid rain in the past few years. The temperature in summer can go up to as high as 37 degrees centigrade. Rush-hour traffic is another S problem yet to be solved. Sometimes, you can walk faster than the buses during peak periods. People in this city live a stressful and fast-paced life as there is very keen S competition for jobs. They have to work long hours sometimes. However, people are very hospitable and ready to treat you with one of the local specialities - Chongqing hotpot. The people here are also quite open-minded, willing to accept new ideas and cultures. You can visit a local hotpot restaurant, where diners dip meat and vegetables in woks full of oil, chilli peppers and mouth-numbing Szechuan peppercorns. The impact on your mouth is a cross between napalm and Novocain, but of course much delectable.
The nightlife here is fantastic and you can find anything you want in this city, whether it's pubs, tea houses, discos, theatres, museums or cinemas. For me, a visit to Chongqing was a memorable experience, a city that has much more to offer than my schedule could accommodate. On the whole, Chongqing is quite a good place to travel or live in.