Geography of Chongqing

Fantastic Ecology

Chongqing ranks as the largest municipality all around the world in terms of population and land area. Moreover, Chongqing has an excellent ecological environment and abundant wildlife resources. There are more than 4,000 precious relics, gymnoconia and some endemic plants of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, including spinulose tree fern, adiantum,thuja sutchuensis metasequoiaand Cathaya argyrophylla,which are all recognized as “living fossils” due to their scarcity around the world.

Chongqing possesses enriched resources in wild animals, including nearly 100 rare species under national key protection, including acipenser sinensis,Francois langur,Sichuan golden monkey, forest musk deer,golden pheasant,macaque,goral and giant salamander etc. Furthermore, precious and rare fishes including paddlefish, abalone, white eel and onychostoma sima, are also found living in the region of Chongqing.

In addition, being one of China’s major herbal medicine producing areas, Chongqing is also recognized as a “natural medicine storehouse”. Over 5,000 kinds of medicinal herbs grow here in Chongqing. Shizhu County’s production of coptis chinensis ranks first in China, and Youyang County is an important producing area of artemisinin. Chongqing TCM Research Institution has accumulated over 300,000 samples of medicinal plants and more than 30,000 samples of medicinal animals.

A Capital of Minerals

Here in Chongqing, 69 kinds of minerals have been found, 60 of which have proved reserves in 415 places. Major minerals include natural gas, barium, bauxite,manganese,strontium and geothermal water. The proved reserves of barium ranks first in China. Besides, Chongqing is also a national important production base of strontium, manganese and mercury.

Barium: Chongqing has a large barium ore deposit, extremely rare in China. The reserve ranks first nationwide, with an extremely high barium content of 60% to 85%.

Mercury: Ranking 2nd nationwide.

Natural gas: The proved reserves rank 5th in China.

Strontium: As one of the super-large ore deposits worldwide, Chongqing’s reserve of celestite ranks 5th nationwide.

Manganese: Ranking 5th nationwide.

Water Resource

Rivers and water systems crisscross the territory of Chongqing. The main stream of the Yangtze River crosses Chongqing from west to east and has a flow path of 665km. With the main stream of the Yangtze River as the axis,Chongqing has five branches of the Jialing River, Qujiang River, Fujiang River, Wujiang River and Daning River as well as hundreds of small rivers running through it.

Over many years, the average annual water amount amounts to 56.775 billion cubic meters, and the average annual passing water amount amounts to 383.737 billion cubic meters.

In addition, Chongqing is also rich in geothermal energy and drinkable mineral water.

Natural Studio

The city of Chongqing is a peninsula surrounded by mountains where two rivers converge. The night view of the city is ornamented by starry lights. To view from a distant, the city is among the mountains, and the mountains are among large rivers, all of which are naturally formed, and therefore Chongqing is known as “mountain city” and “river city”. Two of the three gorges (Kui Gorge and Wu Gorge) of the Yangtze River are in Chongqing. With the main stream of the Yangtze River more than 600km long, the river crosses the city with multiple branch lines and abundant layers.

Chongqing is bestowed with typical karst landforms. A lot of “tops of the world” have been found here through international inspection and survey. Danxia landform in Chongqing has infatuated many photographers with its gorgeous, scarlet Danxia red cliffs, isolated peaks and narrow ridges rising abruptly from horizon, diverse bizarre hills and Queer rocks, giant rock galleries and caves, and beautiful Danxia gorges contrasted finely with the greenish forests, plunging waterfall and running springs.