HE transference of the seat of the national government of China from Nanking to Chungking has given an impetus to the growth of that strategically located city, nearly fourteen hundred miles from the sea at the confluence of the Yangtze and Kialing Rivers. The city, which was opened to foreign trade in i89i,' is the first commercial entrepot and the financial center of the province of Szechwan. The municipality of Chungking normally has a population of about 500,000, which places it among the major urban areas of China. Chinese governmental policy now gives large urban areas special political status: a large city may be organized into a municipality by including several smaller near-by cities and areas formerly under different political administrations. Chungking Municipality is now made up by the two county-seat cities Pahsien and Kiangpei and a certain rural area outside these cities containing a large number of villages (Fig. 4), the most important of which are those on the South Shore-Wangchiatou, Lungmenhao, Shihtzushih, and Haitangchi.2 Both the names Pahsien and Chungking have been applied to the main city. On most recent maps the city appears as Pahsien, for the municipality was organized only a few years ago. The Post Office is again using the name Chungking indiscriminately for the municipality and for the main city, and, in the absence of a recognized national geographic board, postal usage is the safest guide to Chinese place names. This study deals primarily with the main city, since it is here that most change is taking place. The municipality is less modernized or Occidentalized than most other Chinese urban areas; but during the last decade Szechwan has steadily become less isolated,