Chongqing, as a famous historic city in China and the cradle of Ba Ethnic culture enjoys a great cultural heritage. It is a component part of the Chinese culture that maintains unique regional features of cultural pattern.
Chongqing is particularly rich in human landscape as well as in cultural relics and historic sites. There are now 49 national, provincial and municipal preservation places of treasured historical relics. In 1999, the UNESCO listed The Dazu Stone Sculptures on World Register of Culture Heritage. In its 12 museums and memorial halls displays and exhibitions are held every year.
The artistic performance of Chongqing flourishes in a great variety, outstanding with strong folk color among the pageant of arts in China. There are 3,000 organizations including 29 professional troupes. The acrobatics of Chongqing is well-known all over the world. “Kicking Bowls on a Balancing Board” performed by the Chongqing Acrobatics Troupe won a Silver Medal at the 9th Festival of Circus Tomorrow and a Golden Lion Medal on the event of National Acrobatics Competition. The Sichuan opera has also built a system of stylized movement and its acting is both exquisite and vivid with a series of stunts including “face- changing”. Since the founding of New China, the Chongqing's artistic troops have realized performance tours and cultural exchange in more than 30 countries and regions such as United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Peru, Colombia, Denmark, Australia, Mexico, Netherlands, Argentina, Canada, Burma, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan and Macao, etc.
The mass-oriented cultural activities in Chongqing have the goal to popularize the folk art as the lead forming a network around 46 community centers of art and culture, 1,211 cultural stations and 1,944 units of film projection. The popular culture in its modern form is growing rapidly, including performance, entertainment, videos, books and periodicals, fine art, movies, cultural relics, advertisement, and fashion shows.
The public libraries are starting to take shape in Chongqing. There are 43 public libraries with a deposit of 8.23 million volumes of books. Built with an investment of 17 million yuan, the Chongqing Municipal Library is one of the archives collection units consigned by the United Nations.
Prosperous development has occurred in press publishing and broadcasting, there are in Chongqing 2 municipal broadcasting stations with 5 program channels and 17 district-level TV & broadcasting stations with 14 radio program channels plus 2 TV program channels. Coverage of population by broadcast and TV is 86.93 and 86.39 percent respectively. Over 130 newspapers and publications are issued every year and the total printed copies reached over 2 million in 1999.
