Bāxiàn

Ba County was the old county of Chongqing, its seat sharing the city at the meeting of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. Its origins reached back to Jiangzhou, established under the Qin, and the name Ba recalled the ancient people of the region. For centuries the county magistrate governed alongside the higher authorities seated within the same city. In 1754 the territory north of the Yangtze was separated from Ba County and placed under a new administration at Jiangbei. This division altered the government of the populous river crossing while the old county seat remained on the southern side of the Jialing, within Chongqing's walls.