During afternoon tea at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong, I told a friend that I had arrived by way of Chongqing.

“Ah. Chongqing’s time has come,” he said. It was a flattering comment, considering CQ, as it’s also called, isn’t as well known to Westerners as Chengdu, the seat of Sichuan province and Chongqing’s rival city.