| The development of one city, with the pattern of its own, is a diachronic process of natural emerging, developing and flourishing. After its emergence from natural environment, a city develops with social productivity by complementing and promoting each other, while the expansion of a city, in essence, is a process of agricultural population gathering in urban area and agricultural land transforming into urban land in a corresponding scale. Chongqing, a hilly city sitting in southwest China, was once a small town on the border far from the central regime, but now, it’s the major city in the upper Yangtze River and a key city affecting the balance of economic development and social stability in the layout of the nation’s strategy. Since the very beginning of its emergence, Chongqing was under the influence of the Yangtze River and mountainous environment, hence its resemblance with other cities in the Yangtze River basin in terms of specific location, area of expansion, spatial layout, and even economic status, division of labor and cultural progress. At the meantime, Chongqing is distinct from those cities due to different geographic environment and historical circumstances. Therefore, this paper chooses Chongqing urban, which has a history of development for over 2000 years, as a representative sample of urban expansion and change for analysis and study.This paper, according to the historical development of Chongqing, divides the expansion of its central area into five stages in chronological order: the emerging stage in the pre-Qin Dynasty, the stage as a traditional hilly city that expanded along the River, the developing stage as a commercial city that expanded across the River, the construction stage as the alternative capital that expanded dispersedly, and the stage as a metropolis that expanded as a cluster. And then, starting from the emerging and developing process of the object of study, this paper does a comprehensive analysis of various environmental factors involved, and based on that, a further analysis of its developing pattern and of the impact and manifestation of the integrated environmental mechanism of nature and society during the city’s emergence and development, followed by a final discussion of how Chongqing urban keeps expanding and developing in a certain scale in present circumstances.Ancient Chongqing was located in the parallel ridge-valley area in eastern Sichuan, which provided material basis for early civilizations, and the Ba groups and theirs cities all emerged along the Yangtze River and its branches. Though the gathering of the Ba people and the forming of urban civilization was very slow and all tangled-up, according to archaeological studies and historical materials, for the purpose of defense during the long-term wars, they relied on the natural barrier to put up protection and built up early cities to gather the scattered residents, which has later become the source for the expansion of the city.On the basis of a water-front city of the Ba people, the peninsula in Chongqing urban has went through four large-scale constructions under the regime of Qin, Han and Ming Dynasties, and later it was partly re-constructed during the Qing Dynasty, all of which eventually shaped it into a unique city amongst the rivers and mountains. In terms of the expanding directions, the central area mainly has expanded around the peninsula and along the two adjacent rivers. Initially, the city was only sparsely scattered along the Jialing River and the Yangtze River, and the major part of it was built on the north bank of the Yangtze River where the terrain was more advantageous. Then, it gradually expanded from along the Yangtze River across the Daliangzi and extended to the Jialing River, finally forming a combination of upper and lower city surrounded by the rivers with a total of 17 city gates(9 of them were open and 8 of them closed). During this period, the main force driving the construction and expansion of the city was military defense. Zhang Yi and Dai Zhuo’s building of the city to fortify their government, to maintain their stability and to advocate their power was particularly and obviously manifested in the construction of the city wall. And Li Yan in the Three Kingdoms Period and Peng Daya in the Song Dynasty build on the city for a more direct and urgent purpose of military defense. By comparison, during the one thousand years from Sui and Tang Dynasties to Song Dynasty, the city wasn’t under much construction, mainly due to the degrading of the city’s advantageous status in military. Therefore there was no urgent need for defense and the space of the city did not expand much then. During this whole period mentioned in this paragraph, the central part of the city mainly expanded along the rivers.Till more recently, the driving force of Chongqing urban ’s expansion was no longer political or military defense, but the need for commercial and economic development, which drove the city to expand across the rivers. The once sealed city gates, narrow city space, and rough mountainous terrain for transport considerably hampered the city’s social and economic development, but since the opening of the port and hence the commercial activities in the late Qing Dynasty to the nine-year urban construction in the military-political period, the booming wharf economy has boosted the development of Jiangbei and Nan’an districts outside the peninsula, and the city started to form in a plate structure. At the meantime, new technology, concepts of living, and ideas of culture and education from western countries were introduced into Chongqing, and the government in the military-political period has further set the development of Chongqing on the right track. The city gates were torn down, the streets were renovated, highways and wharfs were constructed, and modern public facilities like post offices, electrical lights and tap water were built, which have gradually altered the inner structure of the old city. Moreover, modern transportation has made available the development of both the new and old parts of the peninsula as well as the central areas of the south and north bank. The sudden change of Chongqing in modern times didn’t last for too long, but those 50 years or so has brought earth-shattering changes to the city’s traditional development. The 2000-year-long pattern of expanding along the rivers was broken under the background of modern commercial society, and artificial planning to subjectively manipulate the natural mountainous environment was also made possible thanks to modern technology. This whole period was featured by expansion across the rivers.The period of Anti-Japanese War was pivotal in Chongqing’s stepping into modernization. Eight-years as the alternative capital has rapidly expanded the area of Chongqing urban and promoted the city’s penetration deep into all four banks of the two rivers, which was the start of Central Chongqing’s transforming from the peninsula-centered small city into a metropolis. The bombing of the Japanese army brought severe damage to the old city area, which, objectively speaking, also brought a chance to renovate the streets. And for the need of protection during the war, the construction of fire safety and fire escape, and expansion of the street have played an important part in the renovation of the old city area. The relocation of the capital, which came out of the need of the nation’s strategic defense, politics and economy during the wartime, has altered Chongqing’s economic nature and structure considerably. Besides, it also promoted the spatial expansion and overall construction of the city greatly, initiating a new mode of the expansion and urbanization of the city’s rural areas, thus forming in the suburbs and outer suburbs various distinctive streets and district centers which expanded and scattered in the more spacious areas of the four banks. This new mode has laid the spatial and material foundation for Central Chongqing’s city construction after the establishment of People’s Republic of China.Contemporarily, under the powerful thrust of social, political, economic and environmental forces, the scale of Chongqing urban has expanded substantially. Besides, under the pressure and influence of the population, social and economic development, the function layout of the city space also went through major adjustment, from the previous dispersed layout to the formation of multi-centered and clustered city spatial layout, and finally, to “the era of two rings“. In this course, political decisions, economic development and cultural influence have all played important roles after the establishment of New China. The peninsula in Chongqing urban becomes a multi-centered and clustered city across the two rivers, and after it came under the direct governing of the central government, the booing economy drove the city to expand again. The connection of the inner and outer city have become more convenient and efficient, the ever-growing social needs and modern technology are still altering the natural environment, and the traditional city layout almost disappeared. Chongqing, once a hilly city by the rivers, has turned into a metropolis filled with skyscrapers, with numerous modern bridges and tunnels interweaving among the rivers and mountains, presenting a brand new urban landscape.In present times, Chongqing is in the middle of our nation’s carrying out of the “one belt and one road” strategy, and it’s expanding rapidly with considerable scale, and the notion of Chongqing urban is now producing new political and economic meanings. Livable city and new-type urbanization are the key words for future city development, which, at the meantime, poses new requirements for respecting natural environment, historical traditions and regional culture. In the future, the expansion and planning of the city should, on the premise of social and economic development, be protective as well as prospective considering limited urban land sources, natural environment and the gradually vanishing urban culture. |
PDF Full Text Request