Chaotianmen in Chongqing重慶朝天門

唐悅航

“The gate has a story. The gate has a history...” I am growing up with the nursery rhyme（ 歌謠）. 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（ 擴建） 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（ 詔諭） toChongqing， local officials would meet at the Chaotianmen Wharf （ 朝天門碼頭） 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，秦將張儀滅巴國后修筑巴郡城池時所建。朝天門曾刻有“古渝雄關”四個字。古時朝天門的主要作用，是“迎官接圣”，即有重要官員或者皇帝有圣旨到重慶，地方官員都到朝天門碼頭迎接，這也是朝天門得名之由。

（The wharf looks like a huge ship ready to sail far into the river. Standingon the Chaotianmen Wharf， you can enjoy the spectacular（ 壯觀的） sceneryof the Jialing River and the Yangtze River meeting with two clearly differentcolors. People jokingly call this special scene “double-flavor hot pot”（ 鴛鴦火鍋）. In 2012， a grand project started in Chaotianmen. It was ChongqingRaffles（ 來福士）， 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（ 城市綜合體） 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（ 批發市場） 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（ 討價還價） 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（ 從遠處）.