Wanzhou District () 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 (). Prior to Chongqing's formation as a direct-controlled municipality, Wanzhou was part of Sichuan province. The urban core of Wanzhou is 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" (). Due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, 47% of Wanzhou's old urban area was submerged and had to be relocated.
The district was part of Wanxian Prefecture (), then the prefectural Wanxian City (). It was renamed to Wanzhou in late 1990s.
It was part of Quren County of Ba Commandery () in the Qin dynasty. It became Yangqu County () in 216 (the Eastern Han dynasty). In 230 (the Shu-Han Kingdom), it was renamed to Nanpu (); in 553 (the Western Wei dynasty), to Yuquan (); in 557 (Northern Zhou dynasty), to Anxiang (); in 584, to Wanchuan (); and in 598 (Sui dynasty), to Nanpu again.
In 619 (Tang dynasty), Nanpu Commandery () was established. In 625, the name was changed to Pu Prefecture (), and in 634, to Wan Prefecture (). In 1373 (Yuan dynasty), Wan was demoted to a county ().
In the 19th century, it was known in English as Wanhsien and Wan County. In 1935, it became Wanxian Prefecture (). On 12 December 1992, the State Council abolished Wanxian Prefecture and its subordinate Wanxian City and created the prefecture-level Wanxian City, which administered the districts of Longbao (), Tiancheng (), Wuqiao () and the counties of Kai, Zhong, Liangping, Yunyang, Fengjie, Wushan, Wuxi, and Chengkou.
The entire Wanxian City was merged into Chongqing on 20 December 1997. The merge necessitated the abolishment of Wanxian City and creation of Wanxian District and Wanxian Migration Development Area (). Wanxian City's three districts were converted to administrative committees (, abbreviated ) of Wanxian District. The migration development area included the counties formerly in Wanxian City, except Liangping and Chengkou, which were administered by Chongqing directly.
On 22 May 1998, the State Council approved that the two areas named Wanxian were both renamed to Wanzhou. The migration development area later dissolved and its counties were directly controlled by Chongqing. On 19 July 2000, the district's administrative committees were changed to migration development areas.
The 26,000-capacity Wanzhou Pailou Sports Stadium is located in Wanzhou. It is used mostly for association football and also sometimes for athletics. One stand is covered with a roof.
Wanzhou spans 30ð24â²âÂÂ31ð14â² N latitude and 107ð55â²âÂÂ108ð53â² E longitude, and is situated at the eastern edge of the Sichuan Basin. It reaches a maximal northâÂÂsouth extent of and eastâÂÂwest width of , covering an area of . Elevations range from in the town of Tailong () to at Shaping Peak () of the Qiyao Mountains (). Bordering county-level divisions:
Similar to the city proper of Chongqing, Wanzhou has a monsoon-humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa) with short, mild winters, and very hot, humid summers, and is in fact on average warmer during the day. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in August, while the annual mean is .
The 4 primary subdivisions were 3 migration development areas (Longbao, Tiancheng, Wuqiao) and Jiangnan New District (). Now Wanzhou is subdivided into 92 township divisions are 16 sub-districts, 33 towns, and 43 townships (see Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China#Levels). In 2000, the district included 32 towns, 45 townships, 14 sub-districts, and 1277 neighborhood and village committees.
Wanzhou has three Yangtze River crossings. It has two railway stations: Wanzhou North offers high-speed service and Wanzhou offers infrequent conventional services.