Kigali vs Longchang

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Kigali (Kinyarwanda: [ci.ɡɑ́.ɾi]) is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It's near the country's geographical centre in a region of rolling hills, with a succession of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. The town has been Rwanda's economic, cultural, and transportation hub because it became the capital following independence from Belgian rule in 1962. In a place controlled by the Kingdom of Rwanda from the 17th century and then by the German Empire, the city was founded in 1908 when Richard Kandt, the colonial resident, chose the site for his headquarters, citing its central location, views and safety. Foreign merchants started to trade in the city during the German era, and Kandt opened some government-run schools for Tutsi Rwandan students. Belgium took control of Rwanda and Burundi during World War I, forming the mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. Kigali remained the seat of colonial administration for Rwanda but Ruanda-Urundi's capital was at Usumbura (currently Bujumbura) in Burundi and Kigali remained a small city with a population of just 6,000 at the time of independence. Kigali grew slowly during the next decades. It wasn't initially directly affected by the Rwandan Civil War between government forces and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which started in 1990.

However, in April 1994 Rwanda's president was killed when his aircraft was shot down near Kigali. Social tensions erupted from the genocide that followed, with Hutu extremists loyal to the interim government killing an estimated 500,000--1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu nationwide. The RPF resumed fighting, finishing a cease-fire of over a year. They slowly took control of most of the country and captured Kigali on 4 July 1994. Post-genocide Kigali has experienced rapid population growth, with much of the town rebuilt. The city of Kigali is one of the five provinces of Rwanda, with boundaries set in 2006. It's divided into three districts--Gasabo, Kicukiro, and Nyarugenge--which historically had management of significant areas of local governance. Reforms in January 2020 moved a lot of the districts' power into the city-wide council. The town also hosts the main residence and offices of the President of Rwanda and many government ministries. The largest contributor to Kigali's gross domestic product is the service industry, but a significant proportion of the population works in agriculture such as small subsistence farming. Attracting international visitors is a priority for city authorities, including leisure tourism, conventions and exhibitions.

Source: Wikipedia

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Longchang (Chinese: 隆昌; pinyin: Lóngchāng) is a county-level city of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of Neijiang city. Longchang has a population of nearly 760,000, covering 792 square kilometer. Longchang seizes an important geographic location as the boundary of Sichuan and Chongqing, and plays as distributing center of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing. Since the advantageous location, many important traffic ways pass through Longchang, like the Chengdu–Chongqing Railway, highway, public road, East Chuanyun (Sichuan to Yunnan) road, Longna (Longchang to Luzhou) highway, Longya (Longchang to Ya'an) road, Longhuang (Longchang to Huangtong Guizhou) railway.

To get out of Sichuan Province and further go to the sea, you could choose Longchang as the best way. Thus it is called the east gate of Sichuan. In the long history, Longchang is famous for memorial arches and blue stone. Longchang is a feature to develop tourism. Nowadays, Longchang has finished the plan of bluestone cultural city with eight bluestone image views, including gate, culture, city's dining room, lounge, green park, landscape, business district, landmark. Still this county has some other tourism resources, like groups of memorial arches, Guyu artificial lake, Yunding stockaded village, and Lamp Mountain.

Source: Wikipedia