Chongqing, alternately romanized as Chungking, is a municipality in southwest China.
Administratively, it is one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of the central government of the People's Republic of China, and the only such municipality located deep inland. The municipality of Chongqing, roughly the size of Austria, includes the city of Chongqing as well as various discontiguous cities. Due to a classification technicality, the Chongqing municipality can claim to be the largest city proper in the world—though it does not have the world's largest urban area.
During the Republic of China era, Chongqing was a municipality located within Sichuan Province. It served as its wartime capital during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The current municipality was separated from Sichuan province on 14 March 1997 to help develop the central and western parts of China. The Chongqing administrative municipality has a population of over 30 million. The city of Chongqing, comprising 9 urban and suburban districts, has a population of 8,750,000 as of 2018.