The government will speed up development of city clusters by offering administrative upgrades to counties and townships within them that meet the requirements of city status, according to National Development and Reform Commission.
Major city clusters include Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Big Bay Area, Western Taiwan Straits Economic Zone, Guanzhong Plain, Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos-Yulin Area and Lanzhou-Xining Area, according to 21st Century Business Herald.
Meanwhile, six cities—Shenyang, Hangzhou, Changsha, Nanjing, Qingdao and Xi’an—are competing to become ‘national central cities’, says the paper. They will be evaluated based on a range of criteria including population size, economic strength, cultural environment, innovation capacity, and their status within city clusters. Existing national central cities include Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Zhengzhou.