ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

A forest of skyscrapers blocks the mountain views in Chongqing, where the emerald Jialing River meets the great Yangtze. From here, throngs of tourists clamber aboard cruise ships headed for the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project and an awe-inspiring feat of humanity harnessing nature.

The dam, around 600km away in neighbouring Hubei province, has done more than put Chongqing on the bucket lists of domestic sightseers. It also supplies this landlocked south-western city with unlimited green energy and allows oceangoing ships to access its river port. The dam’s completion, improvements in road and rail connections to the rest of China and beyond, and government initiatives to spur growth in western and central China have all led to a flurry of direct foreign investment over the past 20 years.

Home to more than 30 million people, at one point