Chongqing 'full of promise,' Xi says

President Xi Jinping made his first visit to the southwestern city of Chongqing on Monday since he took office as China's top leader.

The trip, whose many details were yet to be fully disclosed by official media, is widely watched because Chongqing, one of the four municipalities directly overseen by the central government, was once clouded by the corruption scandal of its former Party chief, Bo Xilai, now serving a life sentence.

But the presidential visit on the first workday of 2016 was also seen by the domestic media as highlighting Xi's high expectations for the municipality, which has the largest population of all Chinese cities, and its role in leading changes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and China's vast hinterlands.