China Cities: Chongqing in focus

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:01][music] >> It's the world's biggest city, the home of Sichuan hot pot, and Southwest China's manufacturing powerhouse. As our special series on Chinese cities continues, we take you inside the metropolis of Chongqing. CGTN's Steve McAuliffe reports.

[00:00:24]We are taking you on a journey across China to visit some of the most fascinating, but for many people around the world unknown cities that are becoming new economic engines. Let's take a look.

[00:00:36]In the first two episodes, we were in eastern China to explore manufacturing powerhouse Suzhou and entrepreneurial hotspot Wenzhou. Now we'll head 1,700 km from Wenzhou to the southwestern city Chongqing.

[00:00:51]Well, Chongqing is one of China's four municipalities along with Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. That means it is directly controlled by the national government rather than a province. More than 30 million people live there, making it one of the most populous administrative regions in the world, and it covers 82,000 sq km, a similar size to the European country Austria. What about Chongqing's economy? It's one of the largest economic regions in China with last year's GDP exceeding 3.3 trillion yuan or 490 billion dollars. It's a major center for heavy industry and vehicle production, in particular EVs. Key companies include car manufacturer Changan, and one in three laptops manufactured worldwide are made in Chongqing. The city is known for its spicy hot pot with many people trying and often failing to conquer the intense heat. It's also been called a cyberpunk city with a mountainous terrain, multi-level cityscape, and trains that pass through a residential block like this one here. And it's a key international logistics hub under the Belt and Road Initiative. A freight route links Chongqing with Duisburg in Germany. Well, look beyond the aesthetics and you'll see the engine of Southwest China as our correspondent Wang Tianyu reports from Chongqing.

[00:02:21]Chongqing is far more than its mountain city name. It's a mega cluster that's really defining inland growth. So, how exactly does it connect to the world?

[00:02:31]Chongqing serves as the strategic hub for the new international land-sea trade corridor, a massive logistics artery connecting Western China to Southeast Asia, Europe, and beyond. Last year, the corridor's rail-sea cargo volume surged by over 45% handling 1.4 million TEUs.

[00:02:50]This isn't just about transport. It's about turning the inland city into a global gateway. But there's more.

[00:02:58]Chongqing is now China's auto capital 2.0. It's not just about making cars and motorcycles. It's about intelligence.

[00:03:06]The investment in industrial AI is soaring here. They are building the future of smart EVs. So, looking at these two rivers meet, [music] you see the synergy of traditional industries meeting new quality productive forces.

[00:03:21]It's navigating the complexities of global trade and tackling by doubling down on openness and digitalization. Wang Tianyu, CGTN, Chongqing. Well, Shaungie is professor and founding director of the Surrey Centre for Innovation and Commercialization at Surrey University.

[00:03:37]He was born and educated in Chongqing.

[00:03:41]Professor Shaung, thank you for speaking to me. You are from Chongqing. What do you think it makes it a special and unique city?

[00:03:49]Yeah, Chongqing is a very, very unique city because it is largest city in the world and also has the most population of all the cities in the world and it's have a very rich history and also have a very good and comprehensive economy and it create a huge impact not only to the region but also to the country. Now it's creating impact globally. So it's a city that based in the upper stream of the Yangtze River and it actually it's a big mountain. So all these make Chongqing a very unique city.

[00:04:35]The city's GDP grew by over 5% last year. What were the key drivers behind this?

[00:04:42]Yeah, the 5% GDP growth is very, very important. As you know that that actually the world the GDP growth is not that much.

[00:04:54]Chongqing have its very unique position and every time I came back to Chongqing I can see that many, many tourists, yeah. And the many people really like the city, they like the views, like the culture, like the food. So of course that make us the the the tourism economy become very good. Of course Chongqing is a very famous for its manufacturing and it's the manufacturing base for many electronic devices, many components and also it's a home of many EV vehicle cars, you know. So So all these make the GDP growth it's very strong, robust and also very sustainable.

[00:05:43]What is it about the city and its geography that makes it such an important global logistics hub.

[00:05:51]Yeah, Chongqing is a a really a real model for many cities, many inland cities in the world. Uh it's sitting uh very middle of China as you can see from China's map. It's in the very middle.

[00:06:04]But it make a good use of the Yangtze River and created a logistics important logistics system uh in China.

[00:06:15]Uh and also it leverage its uh railway system. So, actually you can uh transport the uh cargoes from Chongqing to Europe. The next goal is for Chongqing to reach a GDP of 4 trillion yuan by 2030. How can it achieve this?

[00:06:35]Well, I think uh Chongqing have all the uh hardware base, all the manufacturing, and the all the um uh technologies, all the universities. All these um make Chongqing a very uh uh big city in the world, a huge potential for Chongqing become a a powerful city globally. I think by uh 2030, Chongqing will have a notable potential to to grow from economic side.

[00:07:09]Uh and I think that Chongqing and the policy supporting uh bring more uh innovative talent and uh and this talent will create a big impact uh to the local economy.

[00:07:24]And in the next episode of China Cities, we'll be heading south to Dongguan, a place that's been called one of the most globally influential cities that most people outside of the manufacturing world haven't heard of. Back to you.