Letter from China: The other side of Chongqing

By Xinhua Writer Bai Xu

CHONGQING, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Of all the provincial-level jurisdictions in China, Chongqing Municipality in the southwest is the last one I have visited, and I didn't get the chance to explore it until I was in my 30s.

But it was not totally unfamiliar: when I was a teenager, it appeared in my middle school history textbook as a tragic city, which, as China's provisional capital during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression eight decades ago, has been repeatedly bombed by Japanese warplanes in more than five years, with widespread destruction and thousands of deaths.

My visit allowed me to get to know another side of the city. Seeing a myriad of tall buildings on its wavy terrain, the world's longest horizontal building that stretches 300 meters atop four skyscrapers and the iconic light rail train sliding into an apartment building, it's no wonder that Chongqing has been referred to as an "8D magical city" on social media.

Maybe this is the true picture of Chongqing: a city with both resilience and imagination, its people bold and unyielding.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. During our visit, we talked to Su Yuankui, 92, a survivor of the bombing on June 5, 1941. "I will never forget that day," he said.

The old man, only eight then, was having supper with his family when the siren wailed. They rushed to an air-raid shelter, before an increasing number of residents flooded in, so many that Su got lost and struggled to breathe. He heard cries and screams, which turned dead silent in the end. Su passed out.

When he woke up the second day, the boy found himself surrounded by dead bodies. He managed to make it back home, but his two sisters never did, like more than 1,000 others who suffocated to death in what was one of the deadliest air-raid tragedies in World War II. Some scholars estimate that the death toll was 2,500, or even more.

Today, the flames of war fire have long since extinguished, and many of the 1,600 plus well-preserved air raid shelters have been transformed into bookstores, pubs, petrol stations or hotpot restaurants. The one Su used to hide in has become the historical facts museum of June 5th tunnel tragedy during the bombing, which serves as a testament to the suffering and tenacity of the Chongqing people during that tumultuous era.

At the entrance of the hall stands the replica of what looks like remnant of a damaged wall, on which large characters read "the more you bomb, the stronger we are". Zeng Fanyi, a 29-year-old guide there, said that the slogan reflects the spirit of Chongqing. According to her, even in those dark days local residents maintained their hope and love for life, hosting various activities like children's sports gala to entertain themselves.

"A native of this city, I grew up singing this nursery rhyme: people from Chongqing, never giving up, undaunted by bombing…" she recalled.

Traces of persistence of the Chongqing people could be found in history books: the Diaoyu City, an ancient fortress there during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), had withstood aggression of the Mongolian troops in the 13th Century for 36 years. It is a miraculous feat, considering the overwhelming victory of the Mongolians which swept across Central Asia and into Europe. Mongke, the Great Khan, died there, which eventually resulted in the overall military withdrawal that may have saved the European and Arab civilizations.

The spirit has been inherited by people year after year.

In the Xiazhuang Village of Wushan County, more than 100 villagers from some 300 households spent six years constructing a road in the mountains where they had lived for generations. Lacking modern machinery, they dangled from the cliff-face and used hammers, drills and other simple tools to cut through stone. The task was not only arduous but dangerous, resulting in the tragic loss of five villagers' lives during the process.

"They could have moved out of the mountain, but they chose not to," my colleague Zhang Qin, who had interviewed the villagers, told me. "Rather, they demonstrated unswerving determination, undeterred by any difficulty. This is the same spirit that kept them going during war time."

Meanwhile, the villagers also demonstrated courage in the way in which they made bold plans and followed through, showcasing another side of the Chongqing people.

Such imagination impressed Zhang again when the Chongqing government proposed in 2010 to build a railway all the way to Europe. "At that time many saw the plan as a fantasy," she said. But today, the landlocked municipality has been seamlessly integrated into global commerce through the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor -- a multimodal transportation network integrating rail, road and sea systems.

As of May, more than 18,000 trains covering over 50 regular routes linking the city with European and Central Asian countries had been dispatched, reaching over 110 hub cities and regions across Asia and Europe.

Now in the Chongqing World Financial Center one can find stores showcasing products from different countries -- coffee from Columbia, clothes from Japan, amethyst from Uruguay, and mosquito repellent from Thailand -- with affordable prices. For instance, a liter of milk from Uruguay is priced at 18 yuan (about 2.5 U.S. dollars), about the same price as domestic brand in China. "We used to see imported goods as luxuries, but now they are commonly used in various aspects of our daily lives," said 26-year-old Xu Yang who works in the store.

Several hundred meters away from the mall is the city's landmark, the People's Liberation Monument, which was originally built in 1941 on one of the biggest bomb craters left by Japanese airstrikes as the "Fortress of Spirit".

Such juxtaposition perfectly illustrates the dual souls of Chongqing, and maybe the rest of the country as well. Do you agree? ■