China plans to merge nine cities along the Pearl River into one huge mega-city that will cover an area twice the size of Wales and initially have a population of 42 million people.
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 (£190 billion). An express rail line will also connect the hub with nearby Hong Kong.
"The idea is that when the cities are integrated, the residents can travel around freely and use the health care and other facilities in the different areas," said Ma Xiangming, the chief planner at the Guangdong Rural and Urban Planning Institute and a senior consultant on the project.
The new mega-city does not yet have a name. Nearby Hong Kong, with another seven million people, will not be included in the new mega-city. Link -via Metafilter
Newest 3 Comments
Bird Flu Cemetery has a ring to it.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)
42 -- The answer to life.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)
Call it Hong Kong. Clearly that city was source of this population, wealth, and industry in the first place. This is really just a bigger Hong Kong. But there is a good reason why they do not want it included; that city has a fairly autonomous government and a democratic capitalist society.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)