The tag of a big city can bring new development momentum to a city and is the pursuit of many cities. On October 13, the topic #100 Big Cities announced for the first time# became the hottest headlines.
days ago, the "2020 China Population Census Divisional Information" (hereinafter referred to as the "County Divisional Information") compiled by the Office of the Leading Group of the Seventh National Population Census of the State Council announced 105 major cities across the country. In addition to the familiar Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the four county-level cities of Kunshan , Cixi , Yiwu , and Jinjiang "defeated" most of the prefecture-level cities in the country and became the ranks of big cities.
Experts pointed out that the so-called big cities are not just the label of large populations, but dominant industries and supporting facilities, employment opportunities, population attraction, surrounding radiation capacity, etc. are also essential characteristics of big cities.
Four county-level cities are crowded into big cities
According to the "County Data", there are 105 big cities in the country, including 7 megacities, 14 megacities, 14 type I cities and 70 type II cities. The top five urban populations are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Guangzhou. From the perspective of provinces, except Tibet, all 30 provinces have large cities, and the number is basically decreasing from the eastern coast to the western inland, with Jiangsu, Shandong and Guangdong in the top three.
The seven megacities are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Tianjin. The 14 megacities are Wuhan, Dongguan , Xi'an, Hangzhou, Foshan , Nanjing, Shenyang, Qingdao , Jinan, Changsha, Harbin, Zhengzhou, Kunming and Dalian. What is more special about
is that the four county-level cities of Kunshan, Cixi, Yiwu and Jinjiang "defeat" most prefecture-level cities in the country and become one of the big cities.
"These four cities have one common feature, which is that they have distinct and special economic status. Ruyiwu is the global small commodity center, Jinjiang is the core of Southern Fujian Golden Triangle , Kunshan is the top 100 in many years, and Cixi is the golden node city of Yangtze River Delta South Wing. These county-level cities have irreplaceable advantages and have an important position in the country and even the world." Domestic trade expert of the Ministry of Commerce, Beijing University of Technology and Business Economics Research Professor Hong Tao, director of the institute, analyzed that these county-level cities are even more famous than prefecture-level cities. For example, although Yiwu City belongs to Jinhua City , they are more famous than Jinhua City. Although Jinjiang City belongs to Quanzhou City , they are as famous as Quanzhou City, which is as famous as prefecture-level cities. The same is true for other county-level cities. They have unique geographical location, economic status, and relatively high social status.
In addition, this "County Branch Information" also released the population data of county-level units across the country, and the urban population data of 683 cities (including municipalities directly under the Central Government, municipalities with independent planning status, provincial capitals, ordinary prefecture-level cities and county-level cities) were also disclosed to the public. Looking through the data on counties in previous census, this is the first time that urban population data has been included.
Urban population is a key indicator for measuring big cities. In 2014, the State Council issued the "Notice on Adjusting the Standards for the Scale of Urban Scale" to divide cities into five categories and seven categories: cities with a permanent urban population of more than 10 million are megacities, 5 million to 10 million are megacities, and 3 million to 5 million are type I cities and 1 million to 3 million to 3 million are called large cities.
A large population is not necessarily a big city
Is it a big city? If you compare carefully, the capital cities of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu and Hainan in the west are all big cities, but their permanent population does not enter the top 105; on the contrary, the four provinces of Henan, Jiangxi, Hunan and Anhui in the central region have large population cities, which is not "big cities", resulting in the number of "big cities" less than the number of large population cities.
"Traditional urban stratification is determined by the size of the area and the population, such as five levels: super-large cities, super-large cities, large cities, medium-sized cities, and small cities. In order to pursue the scale of cities, many cities blindly increased their population in the past, which also led to many urban diseases."Hong Tao pointed out that since the reform and opening up, the administrative level was first broken to determine cities, and thus many county-level cities (such as Yiwu City) and town-level cities (such as Humen City) have far exceeded the area, population size and economic radiation range of many prefecture-level cities.
"This also shows from another perspective that the area, population size and economic radiation range of cities are not the only criterion for measuring the size of cities. "Hong Tao said that in addition to the permanent population of urban areas, big cities should also be combined with their economic scale, radiation range, importance of key nodes, brand influence, etc., and examined from the four dimensions of "city-urban agglomeration-economic region-globalization scope", which is also in line with the future development trend of economic, social and political globalization. How to define big cities is actually not a "everyone-supported" standard, but the large number of permanent population in urban areas does not necessarily mean that they are big cities. Economist Song Qinghui believes that in addition to looking at the permanent population of urban areas, we also need to look at factors such as employment opportunities and population mobility.
"Generally speaking, there are many employment opportunities in large cities with developed economy, which has a huge attraction to the migrant population, which is also one of the characteristics of the four breakthrough county-level cities. "Song Qinghui said.
Who is the next super city?
As the aforementioned scholar said, population is not the only characteristic of a big city. Systemically, the dominant industries and supporting facilities, employment opportunities, population attraction, surrounding radiation capacity are all essential qualities of a super city.
Almost every city is striving to become a big city, and who is the next super city is also particularly eye-catching.
"From the perspective of industrial attraction, cities in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta have more development potential. " researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and a researcher at the Intelligent Social Governance Research Center of Renmin University of China believes that among them, Foshan and Hangzhou, with a population of 8.538,900 and 8.741,700 respectively, have great potential. These two cities are in the core areas of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations, and have a good industrial foundation. On the one hand, there are policies for regional integration of urban development levels. There are also provinces with large populations around that can provide more human resources. "So in the long run, these two places have great potential and may become a megacity in the predictable future."
"If only tens of millions of urban populations are the same line, Wuhan and Dongguan, with a population of 9.953,000 and 9.557,600 respectively, have the potential to become the next officially defined megacity. "Wang Peng said, "The natural and mechanical growth rates of the census in these two cities have been positive in recent years. Over time, they can soon become megacities with tens of millions of people. "
Song Qinghui made specific city predictions based on his work experience. "Foshan and Dongguan in Guangdong Province are likely to become the next megacities. According to my research and observation in Guangdong Province, these two cities have a strong industrial foundation and a very developed manufacturing industry. At the same time, the settlement policy is relatively humane (the threshold is relatively low), so they can attract a large number of migrant population to stay every year and settle down here. This move lays the foundation for these two "mega-cities" to become the next "mega-cities" in the future. "
" With the development of my country's economy and society, the concept of urban stratification, corresponding measurement standards, and urban agglomeration structure are all changing, and the urban structure of China's urban agglomeration, China's international consumption center cities, and China's urban structure are also undergoing strategic changes. We will wait and see who is the next super city. "Hong Tao said.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Fang Binnan Lu Shanshan
