Is the biggest city in China Beijing or Shanghai?

Shanghai is known as the largest city in China, but this statement is not accurate. To be exact, it should be said that Shanghai is the most populous city in China. In terms of urban area, Shanghai is still relatively small compared with Beijing.

Let's take a look at the area under its jurisdiction first. Beijing 16808 square kilometers, Shanghai 6340 square kilometers, only 38% of Beijing. This algorithm is obviously extremely unscientific, so Chongqing is the largest city in China, because this figure is the area of the whole municipality directly under the Central Government, and the municipality directly under the Central Government of China is a provincial administrative unit. It is obviously not advisable to use the area of a province to represent a city.

Let's look at the downtown area again. Since liberation, both Beijing and Shanghai have actively carried out county work. According to China's statistical method, the population of counties under the jurisdiction of a city cannot be included in the urban population, and only the urban residents under the jurisdiction of a city can be included in the urban population. County-based districts make the urban areas of Beijing and Shanghai bigger and bigger. Many counties in Shanghai have made the urban area of Shanghai more than 5,000 square kilometers. Among the nearly 20 districts and counties in Shanghai, only Chongming Island is still a county. However, with the formal establishment of Huairou District and Pinggu District in Huairou County and Pinggu County of Beijing this year, only Miyun County and Yanqing County are left. There are 16 municipal districts in Beijing: Dongcheng District, Xicheng District, Chongwen District, Xuanwu District, Chaoyang District, Haidian District, Fengtai District, Shijingshan District, Tongzhou District and Fangshan District. The total area of this 16 municipal district is12,492 square kilometers, which is almost twice the area of the whole Shanghai municipality. Both the jurisdiction area and the urban area of Beijing are more than twice that of Shanghai, which is not an order of magnitude at all. However, this city algorithm is obviously unscientific. Cities in China are divided into administrative divisions, and almost every city has thousands or even tens of thousands of square kilometers. In fact, most of them are rural areas, far from cities. Seoul is one of the best cities in Asia with an area of 608 square kilometers, only 1/20 in Beijing and 1 1.5 in Shanghai.

Let's take a look at the most scientific comparison of urban area, that is, the actual urban area, that is, the "planned urban area" approved by the State Council, that is, the internationally recognized urban area. Since liberation, the actual urban areas of Beijing and Shanghai have been expanding. In the past ten years, the urban area of Beijing has expanded by 65,438+000 square kilometers. With the development of Pudong, the urban area of Shanghai is also expanding. According to authoritative figures, the actual urban area of Shanghai now is 440 square kilometers, which is about three-quarters of that of Seoul. This is the real downtown. The actual urban area of Beijing reached 490. 1 km2 in 1999, and now it has exceeded 500 km2. According to the overall urban planning, the urban planning area of Beijing is 1040 square kilometers. By 20 10, Beijing's urban construction land will reach 6 10 square kilometers, while Shanghai will only have 2020. Beijing's planned urban area is built in the form of "decentralized groups", that is, the whole planned urban area is composed of several relatively independent marginal groups around the central city. The urban area of Beijing consists of a central area of 324 square kilometers and ten marginal groups, each of which is equivalent to a medium-sized city in China.

No matter from the jurisdiction area, urban area or actual urban area, Beijing is bigger than Shanghai, so it is unscientific to say that Shanghai is the largest city in China, or rather, it is the most populous city in China.