Chaotianmen in Chongqing重庆朝天门

唐悦航

“The gate has a story. The gate has a history...” I am growing up with the nursery rhyme（ 歌谣）. It is about Chaotianmen， a famous landmark in Chongqing.

Chaotianmen was built in 314 BC when the Qin general Zhang Yi destroyed BaState and built the city walls of Ba County. During the Ming Dynasty， the old citywas expanded（ 扩建） with 17 gates built and the largest one was Chaotianmen.

Why is it called “Chaotianmen”？ Its said that in ancient China， whenever royalofficials visited Chongqing or when the emperor issued sacred decrees（ 诏谕） toChongqing， local officials would meet at the Chaotianmen Wharf （ 朝天门码头） togreet them. There are two meanings behind the name—one is to flatter（ 奉承） theemperor， and the other is to yearn（ 渴望） for unity.

Chaotianmen W h a r f i s a nimportant part of Chaotianmen. Itserved as a major port（ 港口） wheregoods were loaded and unloaded fromboats. With time going by， ChaotianmenWharf has undergone big changes in itsappearance.朝天門是公元前314 年，秦将张仪灭巴国后修筑巴郡城池时所建。朝天门曾刻有“古渝雄关”四个字。古时朝天门的主要作用，是“迎官接圣”，即有重要官员或者皇帝有圣旨到重庆，地方官员都到朝天门码头迎接，这也是朝天门得名之由。

（The wharf looks like a huge ship ready to sail far into the river. Standingon the Chaotianmen Wharf， you can enjoy the spectacular（ 壮观的） sceneryof the Jialing River and the Yangtze River meeting with two clearly differentcolors. People jokingly call this special scene “double-flavor hot pot”（ 鸳鸯火锅）. In 2012， a grand project started in Chaotianmen. It was ChongqingRaffles（ 来福士）， which was invested by Singapore. The project wascompleted and open to the public on September 6， 2019. The tall buildingis called Chaotian Yangfan. It is an urban complex（ 城市综合体） whichowns shopping malls， office buildings， apartments and hotels and so on. Thebuilding looks like a sail. So the whole wharf looks like a huge ship sailing onthe river with a huge sail. It has become a popular destination for locals andtourists.The area around the wharf has also been developed into a busycommercial area with shopping centers， restaurants， and entertainment places.Chaotianmen Wholesale Market（ 批发市场） is famous for rich goods at goodprices. In the morning every day， you can feel the hustle and bustle（熙熙攘攘）of the market. People come here bargain（ 讨价还价） for their favorite goods.If you are good at bargaining， you can get the goods at the lowest price here.

In May 2016， Chaotianmen was elected as one of the Top Ten CulturalSymbols of Chongqing. A visit to Chaotianmen offers you a glimpse intoChongqings past， present， and future. You can feel the daily busy and noisylife here. You can feel the river wind blowing your face， and hear the steamerwhistling afar（ 从远处）.