Chongqing, a metropolitan area with 31 million people, took center stage at a conference that drew almost 400 construction professionals to the heartland of China. The Nov. 5 event focused on how to achieve sustainable development, a central issue for this city, which is expected to “urbanize” another 500,000 rural residents next year alone.
The city is located at the center of China, and although it is not familiar to many Westerners, it is playing a major part in the economic development of the country’s vast southwest region and the upstream range of the Yangtze River. The 2009 Chongqing International Construction Summit, co-hosted by ENR’s parent, McGraw-Hill Construction, the Chartered Institute of Building (U.K.) and Construction Times, a national construction industry newspaper in China, presented speakers on urban issues and sustainability.