Fuling

Fuling sits at the confluence of the Yangtze and Wujiang rivers in the heart of Chongqing's Three Gorges reservoir area, the municipality's second-largest district by area and home to roughly 1.1 million residents. It is a genuine global food capital in miniature: Fuling zhacai, a pickled mustard-root condiment first made here in the late Qing dynasty, is now produced and exported worldwide and remains one of China's best-known pickled vegetables. Yangtze Normal University, whose roots trace back to an academy founded in 1901, gives the district a significant student population and positions it as an educational center for the wider region. Its signature landmark is the Baiheliang Underwater Museum, built over a submerged Tang-dynasty stone ridge once used to measure Yangtze water levels and recognized by UNESCO as the world's first underwater museum accessible without diving. Just outside the city, the jade-green Wujiang Gorge cuts through red sandstone cliffs, and the dramatic Wuling Mountain Grand Canyon offers a 500-meter vertical drop for hikers. Fuling North Railway Station places the district on the Chongqing-Lichuan and Chongqing-Wanzhou rail corridors, keeping it well connected to the rest of the municipality.