Greening Chóngqìng: creating a green city on the Yangzi (Cháng Jiāng) towards enhancing ‘double happiness’

Now hosting 32.4 million residents, Chóngqìng is the fastest growing inland city in China, and the most populous of the Chinese municipalities. Located at the confluence of the Yangze (Cháng Jiāng) and Jialing (Jiālíng Jiāng) rivers, originally named Jiangzhou in 316 BCE, Chóngqìng has historically served as a key economic node and centre of governance in China. The ancient city of Chóngqìng exists within the ‘mother town’ inside Yuzhong District today home to some 639,000 residents. The District offers unique archaeological records spanning over 3,000 years, and has experienced four distinct city wall construction movements that uniquely created a city analogous to the medieval walled cities of Europe. The first three wall-building movements resulted in a gradual expansion of the city’s footprint, while the latter wall-building movement was highly influenced by a Fengshui (Compass school) theory. The city’s urban tapestry is today interlaced and characterised by a unique semi-grid system of human and trade-movement mountain trails, possibly linking port gates on the Yangze and Jialing River edges. These rivers provided important water trade passageways and potable drinking water supplies for residents prior to the construction of a reticulated water supply. Once physically constrained within these walls, contemporary urbanisation has witnessed extensive industrialization and suburbanization on both sides of the rivers and in the larger valley, and massive urban rejuvenation projects within Yuzhong District. Considerable portions of this historic Yuzhong District tapestry exists today, and uniquely characterises Chóngqìng from other cities in China.