GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: China's New Super-City Will Merge Nine Urban Centers into a Single, 16,000-Square-Mile Megatropolis

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: POPSCI

31January2011 5:03pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: If you’re going to build the world’s biggest megatropolis in the world’s most populous country, you don’t start from scratch. You take nine existing population centers and merge them. At least, that’s the thinking behind the “Turn the Pearl River Delta Into One” initiative, which aims to do exactly that. Merging nine cities, China plans to create a 16,000-square-mile urban swath populated by 42 million people in the southeast near Hong Kong.

In terms of geography, the new mega-city will be roughly twice as big as New Jersey. More than 150 infrastructure projects costing some $300 billion will link the nine cities together over the next six years, reducing redundancies and bringing nearly ten percent of China’s economy under a single umbrella. (read full article)

The Pearl River Delta The new super-city will take in all the cities above (excepting Macau and Hong Kong), as well as Zhaoqing (due West of Foshan but out of frame. Croquant via Wikimedia