image:CQ People's Liberation Monument.jpg Chongqing ( ; Postal map spelling: Chungking; Wade-Giles: Ch'ung-ch'ing) is the largest and most populated municipality of the People's Republic of China's four provincial-level municipalities. It is also the only one of these municipalities in the western region of China. Formerly (until 14 March 1997) a sub-provincial city within Sichuan Province, the municipality of Chongqing has a registered population of 31,442,300 (2005). The boundaries of Chongqing municipality reach much farther into the city's hinterland than the boundaries of the other three provincial level municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin), and much of the municipality, which spans over 80 000 km², is rural. The population of the urban area of Chongqing proper was 5.09 million (2000).
