PICTURE CHINA

Chongqing has long been the economic focus of southwest China due to its strategic location at the halfway point of the Yangzi river. It is a major center for shipping and commerce moving from the rural western part of China to the cities of the east. The population of Chongqing proper is just over 12 million people, the third largest city in China, but is expected to grow by another 10 million in the next decade. When the surrounding Chongqing municipality is added, the population reaches a staggering 32 million, making it, by some people’s estimates, the largest city in the world.

Chongqing has boomed in recent years as a result of the Chinese government’s “Go West” policy to develop and utilize the western half of the country. Chongqing is seen as a strategic link between the east and west of China and much of the over $100 billion spent in the past five years on infrastructure has directly benefited the growing metropolis.

As in many Chinese cities, Chongqing’s rapid growth has lead to a host of problems for the city and its residents. The city is one of China’s post polluted and the gap between the businessmen who have benefited from the city’s boom and the poor immigrants who have provided the labor is glaringly evident. The city continues to build and grow in anticipation of the 2009 completion of the Three Gorges Dam which will create a giant reservoir leading to Chongqing and allow international ocean freighters to reach the city from the Yangzi’s mouth in Shanghai.

Every year over 8.5 million peasants from China’s rural areas move to its cities and nowhere in the country is this urban migration more evident than in Chongqing. Workers from the surrounding provinces have flocked to Chongqing in search of higher paying jobs and a better life. The reality is much less appealing as they often end up doing long hours of back-breaking labor for very little money.

Many of these migrant workers end up as part of what locals call the “Bang Bang Army”. This 100,000 plus army of laborers are identified by the bamboo poles (or bang bang in Chinese) that they use to carry heavy loads around the city. Due to the hilly topography of Chongqing, the bicycles used to transport goods in other Chinese cities have been abandoned and manual labor used instead. Bang bang workers are hired by everyone from business owners to tourists to move all sorts of goods from ships at the port into town or around the city. For their efforts a bang bang man will make an average of 20 Yuan ($2.50) for working a 12 hour day.