Suzhou joins China's super-large cities

(ECNS) -- East China's Suzhou City has announced that it has become a super-large city.

Located in Zhejiang Province, Suzhou is home to 5.1251 million permanent residents, data from the seventh national population census of 2020 showed.

The Suzhou Bay in Suzhou City, Zhejiang Province. (Photo/China News Service)

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) updated its classification codes for urban and rural areas (including Open Economic Zones) across the country, which changed the code of a number of communities under Suzhou’s jurisdiction from Town Center Area (121) to Urban Area (111).This is not due to any alternations in administrative divisions but anadjustment of statistics caliber.

Standards released by the State Council in 2014 for city-scale division defined that cities with a population between five and 10 million are classified as super-large while those exceeding 10 million are termed megacities.

In September 2021, the NBS released a list according to the 2020 national population census through Qiushi, which includes seven megacities and 14 super-large cities. With its population surpassing five million, Suzhou has now joined the club of super-large cities like Wuhan, Dongguan, and Xi’an.

Feng Wenmeng, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, noted that a super-large city enjoys more preferential policies like villagerenovation projects, etc..

Suzhou's upgrade will increase the efficiency of providing high-level public services, which is important in encouraging people’s long-term settlement. Furthermore, a super-large city can motivate innovations and help promote the emergence of new models and upgrade industries.

However, he also pointed out challenges like Metropolitan diseases where resource prices skyrocket, weakening relative competitive advantages. Thus, careful planning and preemptive measures are required for city management. 

Nanning seems poised to become the next. In recent years, its permanent population has continued to grow. With nearly nine million population of long-term residents and 4.5675 million within administrative city limits, it seems not far from the threshold.