Tenth anniversaries are usually a cause for celebration. For Chongqing, 2007 represented a landmark year – marking a decade since it joined Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin as China’s fourth city municipality, and the first one located in western China. Once the party was over, however, China’s fastest-growing city resumed its focus on the future, as it strives to implement an hugely ambitious 15-year urban development plan.

The signs of progress are evident across this vast metropolis, which the Chongqing Municipal Government has boldly called “the largest inland city of rivers and mountains on the planet.” According to a recent OECD report, Chongqing municipality registered “an average growth rate close to 10 per cent since its establishment as a centrally administered municipality.”

This could be just the beginning. To kick-start growth at the dawn of its second decade as a municipality, Chongqing – which counts Brisbane, Seattle, Toronto, Hiroshima, Toulouse and Dusseldorf among its sister cities – has formed a potentially powerful new economic alliance.

Last April, the city’s mayor Wang Hongju signed an agreement to create the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone – combining the assets of the two largest cities in western China, plus 14 other neighbouring urban centres. In total, the Economic Zone will cover 155,000 square km, incorporating a population of more than 80 million people. By 2020, the projected GDP of the region could top RMB5.5 trillion, accounting for around eight per cent of China’s total economy.

Chongqing’s location is a prime factor in its current fast-paced development. Situated approximately 1400km inland from the Pacific Ocean, Chongqing is built into the steeply folding mountains that shield a vast basin of land carved by the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. Grafted onto this unique backdrop is a rapidly expanding modern skyline that hugs the undulating hillsides and scores of transport bridges spanning the broad rivers. Geography also gave Chongqing its nickname of the Mountain City, immortalised on the labels of the locally brewed beer – which is always served ice-cold to accompany the famously spicy local hot pot cuisine.

Another recognisable feature of Chongqing is the daily line up of container ships and cruise liners docking at its port. Chongqing has traditionally been a major inland trading hub on the upper reaches of Yangtze River – providing direct water-borne access to and from Shanghai on the east coast – and following the completion of the Three-Gorges Dam, 10,000-ton ships can sail directly into Chongqing port.
To fully appreciate the size and scale of Chongqing’s urban aspirations as a key national air, water and land transport and logistics hub, visitors should head for the Chongqing Planning Exhibition Gallery, on Chaotianmen Square. Covering 60,000 square metres, it is China’s largest urban planning exhibition – which is fitting for a city municipality that occupies a total land area of 82,400 square km – about the same as Austria, or 12 times larger than Shanghai municipality – and has a total population of 32 million people.

The Planning Gallery narrates, through virtual video presentations, 3D renderings and interactive exhibits, Chongqing’s pre-2020 urban planning blueprint – which will include 15 river bridges, 36,000km of roads, 18 mainline and branch rail stations and an enlarged commercial port and expanded international airport. The centerpiece of the exhibition is an 892 sq m, 1:750 scale model of the city as it is projected to look in 2020.

This thrusting new city will be overlaid onto an industrial template that was created during World War II, when it became both China’s capital and its production base for military supplies and vehicles. Consequently, the post-war economy has been dominated by heavy industry, including transport manufacturing. Several global engine, car and motorcycle manufacturers, including Ford, Iveco and Honda, have joint ventures in the city, and the streets pulse to the hum of Chongqing’s famed Jialing, Zongshen and Lifan-branded motorbikes.

Indeed, transport planning is a major challenge in this hilly city whose terrain is bisected by rivers. Chongqing’s buses and canary-yellow taxis operate on energy-saving LPG, while the subway train system runs both underground and over an elevated track.

Another pillar industry is chemicals and pharmaceuticals, although Chongqing’s economic diversification plan is now targeting investment from high-tech sectors, such as electronics, bioengineering, environmental technology, optoelectronic integration and new materials, as well as construction and infrastructure engineering and services. In 2007, 33 Fortune 500 companies were active investors in the city, including Isuzu, Mitsubishi, HSBC, BP, Pepsi, Carrefour and Ericsson.

Tourism is also being targeted for growth. In the first half of 2007, fifty-seven tourism contracts were signed in the city, representing a total investment value of RMB22.7 bn. Chongqing’s primary tourism attraction is its location; as the boarding point for Yangtze River cruises to the Three Gorges. However, it is seeking to expand its tourism offerings and encourage visitors to spend longer in the city. Several new leisure facilities are under construction, including the Guotai Arts Centre, Chongqing Grand Theatre, Chongqing Science Museum and Chongqing Tiandi, a vast dining and entertainment district and boutique hotel being created by the developers of Shanghai’s Xintiandi. In January, Chongqing Tourism Bureau announced that it will start to construct on 100 rural tourism projects across the municipality, with a total investment of RMB10 billion.

The focus on tourism development, allied to the creation of the Chengdu-Chongqing Special Economic Zone, should boost the city’s hotel industry, which currently counts a handful of internationally managed properties, including JW Marriott, Howard Johnson, Hilton, InterContinental and Sofitel. “The two cities are taking initiatives to push forward comprehensive reforms,” says Jim Khoo Wei Kwan, General Manager of the Howard Johnson ITC Plaza hotel, which opened last December. “This will attract more international and locally managed hotels into the market.” New hotels are slated by, among others, Sheraton, Hyatt Regency, Kempinski and a second Hilton, and the Chongqing government aims to refurbish the Chongqing Hotel as the city’s first platinum five-star hotel.

Visitors to Chongqing arrive at the Jiangbei International Airport, which hosts more than 50 domestic and international airlines. As well as frequent daily flights to all major Chinese cities, it offers regular services to Hong Kong, Dusseldorf, Tokyo, Nagoya, Seoul, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

In mid-December last year, Jiangbei International Airport passed the 10 million annual passengers mark for the first time. This landmark came just three years after its annual passenger volume first achieved five million visitors, in 2004. To accommodate further growth, a second runway is currently being constructed, and is due for completion by 2010. The next development phase is already being planned, adding a third runway and an expanded domestic terminal hall enabling the airport to handle 25 million passengers by 2015.

Build bigger, Chongqing is out to prove, and they will come – in their millions.

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(c) Gary Bowerman - worldwide rights reserved
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This article was written for and published in
Urbane, April 2008