Wanzhou, Chongqing
district of Chongqing, China
Wanzhou District (Chinese: 万州区; pinyin: Wànzhōu Qū) is Chongqing's second most populated urban core area on the upper reaches of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River in China. It is currently governed as a district of Chongqing Municipality, bordering Sichuan to the northwest and Hubei to the southeast. It was formerly known as Wanxian or Wan County (simplified Chinese: 万县; traditional Chinese: 萬縣; pinyin: Wànxiàn). Prior to Chongqing's formation as a direct-controlled municipality, Wanzhou was part of Sichuan province. The urban core of Wanzhou is 228 km (142 mi) away from Chongqing's city proper.
The characters for "Wanzhou" mean "myriad-prefecture"; which is derived from the phrase "the place where myriad rivers converge and myriad traders gather" (万川毕汇、万商云集). Due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, 47% of Wanzhou's old urban area was submerged and had to be relocated.
History
The district was part of Wanxian Prefecture (万县地区), then the prefectural Wanxian City (万县市). It was renamed to Wanzhou in late 1990s.
It was part of Quren County of Ba Commandery (巴郡朐忍县) in the Qin dynasty.
“Wanzhou, Chongqing” enters the record as district of Chongqing, China. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wanzhou, Chongqing and district can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Wanzhou, Chongqing” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Wanzhou, Chongqing and district provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q713825. VIAF identifies the subject as 136269883. The Library of Congress control number is n2008066801. Authority coordinates are 30.900, 108.467. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Wanzhou, Chongqing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.