Chongqing, Chongqing Municipality, China

• Provisional capital of the Republic of China
During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) it was Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's provisional capital. More than 50 embassies moved to Chongqing with the Kuomintang (KMT) government at the time, some of which are still well protected. During this time, the Allies set up the Chinese Anti-fascist headquarters in Chongqing, which was responsible for directing the allied army of China, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia. It was under the direction of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and General Joseph Stilwell. The Japanese Air Force heavily bombed it. Due to its mountainous environment, many people were saved from the bombing. Due to the bravery, contributions and sacrifices made by the local people during World War II, Chongqing became known as the City of Heroes. Many factories and universities were relocated from eastern China to Chongqing during the war, transforming this city from inland port to a heavily industrialized city. In late November 1949 the Nationalist KMT government fled the city.
• Municipality status
On 14 March 1997, the Eighth National People's Congress decided to merge the city with the neighbouring Fuling, Wanzhou, and Qianjiang prefecture-level districts that it had governed on behalf of the province since September 1996. The resulting single division became Chongqing Municipality, containing 30,020,000 people in forty-three former counties (without intermediate political levels). The municipality became the spearhead of China's effort to develop its western regions and to coordinate the resettlement of residents from the reservoir areas of the Three Gorges Dam project. Its first official ceremony took place on the 18 June 1997. On 8 February 2010, Chongqing became one of the five National Central/Core cities, the other four are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin. On 18 June 2010, Liangjiang New Area was established in Chongqing, which is one of the 3 National New Areas, the other two being Pudong new area in Shanghai and Binhai new area in Tianjin.