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Chongqing's steep slopes, back alleys and bicycle-free streets immediately set the city apart from others in China, though things have changed from the heady 1890s when George Morrison , an Australian journalist who later became an adviser to the mendacious warlord Yuan Shikai, described an enormously rich port with mighty walls, temples, pagodas and great public buildings - seemingly financed by the surrounding fields of opium poppies . Wealth is still visible, and even the basic, congested street plan seems unaltered, but the opium trade, old buildings and walls have since fallen victim to relentless expansion, and today Chongqing is best characterized by inner-city development and urban sprawl.