Chongqing Chaotianmen Square

　　Chaotianmen is situated at the junction of the Yangtze River and the Jialing River in the northeast of Chongqing. Embraced by the two rivers, it features a vast river surface with numerous boats vying for passage. Surrounded on three sides, the terrain rises high in the center and slopes downward on both sides. Stone steps lead up the mountain, creating an extremely majestic atmosphere.

　　Chaotianmen was built in 314 BC when the Qin general Zhang Yi destroyed the Ba State and constructed the city of Ba. In the early Ming Dynasty, Dai Ding expanded the old city of Chongqing and built 17 city gates according to the principles of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams. Among them, Chaotianmen was the largest. Originally, four large characters were inscribed on the gate: “Ancient Yu’s Mighty Pass.” Chaotianmen served as the place where officials received imperial edicts throughout history. The name comes from the ancient title for the emperor as the "Son of Heaven." Ancient capitals were mostly built in Luoyang, Chang’an (today’s Xi’an), Kaifeng, and Yanjing (today’s Beijing). The closest route to Chongqing at that time would have been via the Sichuan-Shaanxi Road, but the Shu Road from Jiange and Guangwu in Sichuan to Mian County in Shaanxi (now the middle section of the Chengdu Railway, 710 kilometers long) was known as a treacherous path — barely passable. The great Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote in his poem "The Hard Road to Shu": “The road to Shu is harder than climbing to the blue sky.” As a result, envoys sent by emperors throughout the dynasties chose the longer route — through Shaanxi or Hebei and Henan, then onward to Hubei, and finally arriving in Chongqing by boat upstream from Yichang, a journey that took about a month.

　　In 1891, when Chongqing was established as a trading port, a customs office was set up at Chaotianmen. In 1927, the old city gate was demolished during the construction of the Chaotianmen Wharf. In 1949, the “September 2nd” fire turned the area within 2 kilometers of Chaotianmen into ruins. Since then, only the city wall foundations and ruins remain at Chaotianmen. Today’s Chaotianmen Passenger Terminal and the newly built, magnificent Chaotianmen Square offer an excellent vantage point for both domestic and international tourists to admire how Chongqing Peninsula is embraced by the two rivers, with its scenic interplay of mountains and waters and the bustling boat traffic.

　　On the left side of Chaotianmen, the Jialing River gathers small streams and flows for 1,119 kilometers before joining the Yangtze River. During early summer and mid-autumn, the emerald-green waters of the Jialing River clash with the brownish-yellow waters of the Yangtze, creating swirling eddies and a clear distinction between the clear and muddy waters — forming the picturesque “Jiama Water” scene, which resembles wild horses parting their manes, truly spectacular. There are submerged rocks in the river, and legend has it that Yu the Great married a woman from the Tu Mountain clan after founding the ancient Yuzhou, and then spent 13 years controlling floods without returning home. The woman from the Tu Mountain clan stood on the rock, gazing at her husband’s return, hence the name “Husband’s Return Rock.” To the right, the Yangtze River, now augmented by the waters of the Jialing River, surges even more powerfully, cutting through the Three Gorges and connecting to the Jianghan region, flowing mightily for thousands of miles, making it the “Golden Water Section” of the Yangtze River. To some extent, the prosperity of Chongqing is concentratedly reflected at Chaotianmen, its gateway to water transport.

　　The “Zero Kilometer” marker for Chongqing’s highways will be set up at Chaotianmen Square. The “Zero Kilometer” point marks the starting point of a country or city’s main highway system and also symbolizes the heart of a city. China’s “Zero Kilometer” marker has been designated at the central axis of Tiananmen Square, while Shanghai has placed its zero kilometer marker at People’s Square.