Chongqing City is the birthplace of the Bayu culture (meaning Chongqing), and has a 3000-year history and was called "Ba" in ancient times.
During the year 1189, Emperor Guangzong of the Song Dynasty was first conferred as
"King Gong", i.e., the governor of Gong District, and soon succeeded the throne, which he considered as "Double Happy Events". As a celebration, he advanced Gong District to Chongqing Prefecture, which is the derivation of the name. In 1362, (Yuan Dynasty), Ming Yuzhen, a peasant rebel leader, established the Daxia Kingdom at Chongqing for a short time. In 1621, another short-lived kingdom of Daliang was established there. Between 1627-1645, with the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Chongqing, together with Sichuan, were captured by the Revolts who overthrew the Ming Dynasty across the nation. Later during the Qing Dynasty, immigration to Chongqing and Sichuan took place with the support of Qing emperor. In 1891, Chongqing became the first inland commerce port open to foreigners.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang moved from Nanjing to Chongqing and made it a war-time capital, which results in many commemorative sites such as the Red Crag Village, the Chongqing Office of the Eighth Route Army, and so on. 1997, Chongqing became the fourth municipality directly under the Central Government, together with Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.
