How big are Chinese cities? That depends on how you measure them.
Back in 2005, Time magazine proclaimed that Chongqing had become “the largest city not only in China but in the world”, with a population in excess of 30m.
But any Chinese citizen will tell you that Beijing and Shanghai, both with real urban populations below 15m, are larger than their supposed competitor in China's southwest.
Common confusion over the true population size of Chongqing and other Chinese cities reflects the fact that China has highly complex and confusing urban and city statistical data.
Confusion over urban population sizes arises because the boundaries of large Chinese cities typically encompass an urbanised core surrounded by numerous scattered towns and large stretches of rural territory, usually with dense farming populations.
These cities are so large in area that they are more aptly called regions. Chongqing, which has an administrative area roughly the size of Austria, is the most extreme example.
Chongqing's official population of 32m does not represent the true metropolitan population because more than two-thirds of the employed workers in the so-called municipality are actually engaged in agriculture.
There are two main ways to define urban areas in China: by administrative boundaries or by objective criteria such as the density of population and buildings. In Chinese cities, administrative boundaries and objectively urbanised zones overlap, often confusingly.
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