A City of 260 Million. Where Else But China?


Gordon Chang writes:
Beijing is planning to combine nine southern Chinese cities into the world’s largest urban area.  Called the “Turn the Pearl River Delta into One” scheme, the plan will effectively merge Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Huizhou, Zhaoqing, Jiangmen, Zhongshan, and Zhuhai into a single megacity with a geographical size larger than Switzerland.
Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, is already considered the world’s second largest metropolis with 24.9 million residents.  The other eight cities in the Pearl River Delta plan will mean that the new unit will have a total of 42 million inhabitants.  Add in the neighboring Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, which some Chinese planners would like to do, and you have a megacity of 50 million people.
The PRD, as the Pearl River Delta is known to locals, is already an economic unit that accounts for a tenth of China’s economy and a quarter of the country’s trade by value. Government officials and private developers have already linked the nine cities with roads, tunnels, and bridges, but planners would like to see even more connecting infrastructure.
Read more: http://blogs.forbes.com/megacities/2011/04/11/a-city-of-260-million-where-else-but-china/?partner=commentary_newsletter

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