CHONGQING HA L'OPPORTUNITÀ DI SVILUPPARE IN UNA "CITTÀ GLOBALE"?

In the current era of globalization, a city, as a gathering place for wealth, technology, and talents, has an increasingly prominent function as a development node. Cities in different countries and regions are becoming more and more closely connected, and at the same time, the competitiveness and international status of node cities are rising significantly. Since the 1970s, with the implementation of the “reform and opening up” policy, China's urbanization has embarked on a fast track. In the 1990s, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, etc., the rapid development of big cities created miracles. Today, Beijing and Shanghai are the only two “global city” in mainland China, which are regarded as successful examples of “globalization” in China’s urban development. The study of “Global city” or “urban globalization” has attracted many experts and scholars. However, no one city’s development experience can become a standard template for other cities to copy and paste exactly in the world. A “Global city” has many characteristics, such as an international right of speech in the field of economy, politics, and culture, the location of many international financial services and multinational corporations' headquarters, with the high-quality education system and research institutions, and a well-developed infrastructure. In short, it has a strong influence, both “hard power” and “soft power”. With globalization as the theoretical background, I apply Saskia Sassen’s “Global city” theory and choose to study Chongqing’s urban development for two reasons: On the one hand, Chongqing is the only municipality under the central government in western China and is an important link between the “Belt and Road” initiative and the “Yangtze River Economic Belt”, which means that its urban development is of strategic importance. On the other hand, in recent years, a number of international projects have landed in Chongqing, the China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, the Chongqing Xinjiang-Europe international Railway, the West China (Chongqing) Science City, etc. These projects provide the foundation for Chongqing to develop into a “Global city”. Therefore, the research in this paper has practical significance. By analyzing Chongqing’s urban spatial structure, economic trade, population, cultural and social infrastructure, I explore Chongqing’s development opportunities and challenges and make some suggestions to better solve existing problems.