Geographic location
   On the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in southwest of China, bordering provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Shaanxi. The total area is 82,400 square km.

Natural resources:
   It has crisscrossing rivers and the water resources can generate 7.5 million kw of power. Chongqing has one of the three largest resources of mineral water in China. It has 38 kinds of mineral deposits, including coal, natural gas, strontium, aluminum oxide, manganese, limestone, marble, spar, gypsum, quartz, mercury, and rock salt. Chongqing leads China and ranks second in the world in deposits of strontium.
   Chongqing’s weather is changeable, and the area has many species of plants and animals. Chongqing is proud of its tourism resources, with mountains, rivers, forests, springs, waterfalls, gorges, and caves all displaying the majesty, the fantasy, the danger, and the seclusion of nature. The famous tourist attractions include the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River; the night view of the City of Mountains; the rock carvings at Dazu, a World Cultural Heritages site; the Lotus Cave, recently discovered near the Four-Sided Mountains; and Tiankeng (Heavenly Pit) and Difeng (Earthly Rift Valley), two rare geological spectacles at Fengjie.
   In addition, Chongqing has vast rural areas with large populations — a great potential for the development of agriculture. The cost of labor is comparatively low.

Population: 30.97 million (at the end of 2001)

Population growth rate: 2.8‰

Ethnicity:
   Chongqing is inhabited by 50 ethnic groups, including Han, China’s majority, Tujia, Miao, Hui, Manchu, Yi, Zhuang, Bouyei, Mongol, Tibetan, Bai, Dong, Uygur, Korean, Hani, Dai, Lisu, Va, Lahu, Shui, Naxi, Qiang and Gelao. The total population of the minority groups comes to 1.75 million, of which, the Tujia people are the largest, having 1.13 million, and are following by the Miao, 520,000. These two minority peoples mainly inhabit in five minority autonomous counties in the Qianjiang Development District and the Fuling District.

Illiterate and Semi-illiterate Population Aged 15 and Over: 3.65 million

Male:1.08 million

Female:2.57 million

GDP:175 billion yuan (US$21.17 billion)

GDP growth rate: 9%. The first industry increased by 2.2%, second industry by 11.8%, and the tertiary industry by 9%.

Poverty alleviation plan:
   A total of 1 billion yuan (US$120.77 million) were allocated. The sum helped 320,000 peasants to have adequate food and clothing, eased the shortage of drinking water for 350,000 rural residents and provided 15 townships with access to highways.
   Both urban and rural residents saw increase in their income. The per capita disposable income of urban residents in 2001 was 6,721 yuan (US$812), up by 7.1 percent from the previous year. The per capita net income of rural residents was 1,971 yuan (US$238), up by 4.2 percent. The system for ensuring a minimum standard of living has covered all urban residents, and urban medical insurance system has extended to cover 500,000 people. About 60,000 laid-offs from the state-owned enterprises have been re-employed, and 80,000 unemployed urban residents found jobs. The registered rate of unemployment in urban areas was 3.9 percent.

Revenues:12.64 billion yuan (US$1.52 billion)

Industrial output value and growth rate:
  The industrial sector yielded added value of 57.7 billion yuan (US$6.97 billion) in 2001, up by 11.2 percent from the previous year. The high-tech industries yielded a total output value of 24 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion), accounting for 14.5 percent of the total industrial output value. The output value of such pillar industries as auto and motorcycle production, chemical industry, medicine and building materials accounted for more than half of the total industrial output value.

Agricultural output value and growth rate:
   The year 2001 witnessed a total grain production of 10.35 million tons. The total added value of agriculture stood at 29.3 billion yuan (US$3.54 billion), up by 2.2 percent from the previous year. The rural industries yielded total added value of 27.4 billion yuan (US$3.31 billion), the annual growth rate being 18.1 percent.

Foreign trade:
   The import and export value of Chongqing totaled US$1.83 billion in 2001. Of the figure, US$1.1 billion were from exports, an increase of 10.8 percent than the previous year.

Foreign investment:
  In 2001, Chongqing actually used US$424 million of foreign investment of which US$256 million were direct foreign investment.

Pillar industries:
   Mechanical industry centering on automobiles and motorcycles production, chemical industry focusing on natural gas and medicines, and metallurgical industry represented by the production of quality steel and aluminum products.

Railways:
   Three trunk lines (Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, Changsha-Chongqing Railway and Chengdu-Guizhou Railway) and five feeder railways, totaling 537 km in Chongqing.

Highways:
   Five national highways and 17 provincial highways, with traffic mileage totaling 27,200 km in Chongqing.

Waterways:
   Dozens of ports and passenger and freight docks have been established along the Yangtze River to facilitate water transportation business from Chongqing to Shanghai and even to overseas countries. The total length of water transportation in Chongqing is more than 4,000 km. After the completion of the Three Gorges water conservation project, ships of over 10,000 tons will be able to reach Chongqing directly.

Airports:
   A national Grade 1 civilian airport in Chongqing has opened over 50 domestic and international flights. Two more airports, Wuqiao at Wanzhou and Zhoubai at Qiangjiang, are under construction.