The “Turn The Pearl River Delta Into One” scheme will create a 16,000 sq mile urban area that is 26 times larger geographically than Greater London, or twice the size of Wales. The new mega-city will cover a large part of China’s manufacturing heartland, stretching from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and including Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing. Together, they account for nearly a tenth of the Chinese economy.
Over the next six years, around 150 major infrastructure projects will mesh the transport, energy, water and telecommunications networks of the nine cities together, at a cost of some 2 trillion yuan (US$310 billion). A high speed rail line will also connect the hub with nearby Hong Kong.
Megacities at wikipedia Greater Tokyo has about 35 million people.
1 Tokyo Japan 34,200,000 incl. Yokohama, Kawasaki, Saitama 2 Guangzhou China 24,900,000 Northern Pearl River Delta incl. Dongguan, Foshan, Jiangmen, Zhongshan (4% annual growth) 3 Seoul Korea (South) 24,500,000 incl. Bucheon, Goyang, Incheon, Seongnam, Suweon 4 Delhi India 23,900,000 incl. Faridabad, Ghaziabad (4.6% annual growth) 5 Mumbai India 23,300,000 incl. Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Ulhasnagar (2.90% annual growth) 6 Mexico City 22,800,000 incl. Nezahualcóyotl, Ecatepec, Naucalpan (2.00% annual growth) 7 New York USA 22,200,000 incl. Newark, Paterson 8 São Paulo Brazil 20,800,000 incl. Guarulhos 9 Manila Philippines 20,100,000 incl. Kalookan, Quezon City 10 Shanghai China 18,800,000
Residents would be able to use universal rail cards and buy annual tickets to allow them to commute around the mega-city.
Twenty-nine rail lines, totaling 3,100 miles, will be added, cutting rail journeys around the urban area to a maximum of one hour between different city centres. According to planners, phone bills could also fall by 85 per cent and hospitals and schools will be improved.
By the end of the decade, China plans to move ever greater numbers into its cities, creating some city zones with 50 million to 100 million people and “small” city clusters of 10 million to 25 million.
In the north, the area around Beijing and Tianjin, two of China’s most important cities, is being ringed with a network of high-speed railways that will create a super-urban area known as the Bohai Economic Rim. Its population could be as high as 260 million.
The process of merging the Bohai region has already begun with the connection of Beijing to Tianjing by a high speed railway that completes the 75 mile journey in less than half an hour, providing an axis around which to create a network of feeder cities.
As the process gathers pace, total investment in urban infrastructure over the next five years is expected to hit £685 billion, according to an estimate by the British Chamber of Commerce, with an additional £300 billion spend on high speed rail and £70 billion on urban transport.
There is no name for the city. Mega-City One (from Judge Dredd) seems appropriate
Several more supermegacities seem likely to be formed.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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