IN CHONGQING, CHINA'S LARGEST CITY

CHONGQING, China - Early this month, when the collapse of a highway bridge in Chongqing made brief news headlines, few outsiders were aware that this unassuming river port in Sichuan Province now ranks as the largest city in the most populous country on Earth. Last year, by government fiat, the city's borders were expanded to include more than 30 million people in its metropolitan area. The old capital of both the ancient kingdom of Ba, which had its heyday 3,000 years ago, and briefly of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist China, the hot, humid city once known as Chungking is reasserting its traditional strengths.  Long known as one of the "furnace cities" of central China, Chongqing swelters in the summer and fall, when daily downpours turn to steam and veil everything in mist. It's said that in Chongqing, dogs bark when they see the sun shine.

Topographically, the city bears many similarities to Pittsburgh. Situated on the steep, stony slopes between the confluence where the Jialing Jiang river flows into the Yangtze, Chongqing's Golden Triangle is bounded on three sides by water.  Located at the highest navigable point on the Yangtze River by ships of any size, Chongqing was always a trading port and never known for art or architecture. Three years of Japanese bombing during World War II erased what little of ancient beauty there was, and generally reduced everything to rubble.  The city that has grown from the ashes over the last 50 years is nonetheless an impressive accomplishment, a warren of tortuous roads and soaring concrete towers shoe-horned into every available nook and cranny. Blessed with good rail and air connections, in addition to its river access to the sea, Chongqing is again a lively, practical place, which relies on energy and productivity rather than good looks or breeding.  Unlike other cities in China, where bicycles are ubiquitous, Chongqing is a place where people walk or ride cable cars. Its citizens work hard, but they also exhibit a warm joie de vivre, one that fills its parks with strolling families by day and its karaoke bars and Sichuan hotpot restaurants at night.  These hotpot meals are a unique dining experience. A bubbling cauldron is situated in the center of a round table, and divided into two sections, one with spicy oil and the other with sweetened oil. Small saucers of various ingredients are dropped into the bubbling mixture and cooked to suit. What distinguishes Sichuan hotpots from other fondue-like dining is the range of ingredients. Along with vegetables familiar and otherwise, the menu included thin slices of beef, pork, squid, eel, chicken, along with exotic fare such as ox tripe and duck intestines. Locals say that in a Sichuan hotpot, you can find "everything with four legs except a table, everything in the water except a boat, and everything with wings, except an airplane."  Perhaps less used to visitors than other cities in China on the tourist routes, Chongqing somehow also feels more authentic. Street signs and store windows are in Chinese, and people still stop and turn curiously at the sight of a foreigner.  Among the city's touristic attractions is a new museum to honor Vinegar Joe Stilwell and the "humpsters," a squadron of Allied pilots who air-lifted supplies over the Himalayas to the city during World War II. Another interesting stop is the artist's village, an enclave in a serene spot on a bluff overlooking the Jialing Jiang river where 17 state-sanctioned artists, aged 50 to 80, live with their families and practice their arts.

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