CHUNGKING, the treaty port and commercial emporium of the isolated but important and densely peopled Inland Basin of Szechwan in West China (situation, 29° 32' N., 1o6° 50' E.). It is built on a rocky peninsula at the confluence of the Kialing kiang, the most easterly of the great rivers draining the Red Basin, with the Yangtze-kiang, the arterial line of communi cation in Middle China. Chungking is therefore the natural gate way through which Szechwan communicates with the rest of China and the ocean. Moreover it gathers up the trade of E. Tibet and of much of the north of Kweichow and Yunnan which finds a natural outlet to the Yangtze, although in the case of the last named province the French railway from Yiinnan-f u to the coast of Tongking is a distinct competitor. Chungking therefore exports not only the agricultural products—silk, tea and rice—of the Basin of Szechwan but also the pastoral products—skins, hides and wool—of its mountain borders. Although the collecting cen tre par excellence for West China, Chungking does little direct trade with the coast. Hankow, the focus of the Central (Hupeh) Basin nearer the sea, constitutes a later collecting centre for a wider area. The flat-bottomed steamboats, specially built to nego tiate the Yangtze Gorges, run only between Chungking and Ichang, another trans-shipment point between Chungking and Hankow. The first steamboat reached Chungking in 1898 and a regular service through the Gorges is now maintained except during low-water in winter. The more rapid transport offered by steamboats is making junk traffic through the Gorges less and less profitable. Steam-launches now ply on the Yangtze above Chungking as far as Suifu and during the high-water of summer as far as Kiating on the Min river. Chungking, however, still remains a great centre for junk traffic, which must always carry the local river-borne trade. The total trade of Chungking has con tinued to increase steadily from Hk. Tls. 10,780,389 in 1894 (it was opened to foreign trade in 1891) to Hk. Tls. 73,757,098 in 1926.
A railway connecting Chungking with Chengtu, the regional centre of the Red Basin and the capital of Szechwan, has long been contemplated and is one of the most important items in the railway programme of China. The population of Chungking is approximately 600,000. (P. M. R.)