Left picture is of city of Chingqing. Note: Chongqing's total population is 28,000,000. The central city has a population of 7,457,000. Over 1/11 of China lives in these 12 cities. There are over 200 cities in China with a population over one million. In one neighborhood in Shanghai 51,000 people live in one square kilometer (0.4 square miles) making it 2.5 times more denser than New York City.

In China the numbers shown to the left reflect only the metropolitan area. Excluded in these numbers are the outlying areas under the control of that city. Shanghai for example has a population total of some 23,017,000 covering 5809 adminstrative levels. This includes, for example 13 districts, 210 township-level divisions, 109 towns, 2 townships, and 99 subdistricts. These are in turn divided into the following village-level divisions: 3,661 neighborhood committees and 1,704 village committees.