Chongqing had total population of 230,000 when it was established in February 1929. After the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out, the National Government announced Chongqing to be a municipality directly under the central government in May 1939, and made it the wartime capital in September 1940. From that time till April 1946 when the government returned to its capital back in Nanjing, Chongqing not only was the political, economic and cultural center in the rear areas, but also was the seat of the Far East theater command of the allied forces against Fascism.

Meanwhile, the South China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Liaison Office of the Eighth Route Army were also set up in Chongqing. Much work was done with fruitful results by the Communists represented by Zhou Enlai to consolidate national unity against Japanese aggression, which formed the culture in the War of Resistance with the Hongyan Sprit as the core. After the victory of the war, Mao Zedong came to Chongqing in person and held talks with Chiang Kai-shek, and eventually concluded the October 10th Agreement with Kuomintang. Numerous building and places witnessed these history-making events, and some of them are still standing today, including the Hongyan Village, Zou Enlai' s former residence, Guiyuan(the place where the October 10th Agreement was signed), Linyuan ( former official residence of Mr. Lin Sen, chairman of the National government), the former residence of Soong Chingling ( Mme Sun Yat-sen ), the former residences of Mr. and Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek at Huangshan Hill, the South Hot Spring, Shandong and in the downtown area, the site of the villa of General Marshall, sits of foreign embassies, and the site of the Provisional Government of Korea, and sites of houses where Mr. Guo Moro, Xu Beihong and other noted cultural figures used ot live and places related to them. At eh same time, the Baigongguan and zhazidong prisons, the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery at the foot of Gele Mountain that witnessed the crimes of reactionaries also stand in the suburbs, praising the heroes and denouncing the criminals.