The largest urban area in China is Guangzhou–Shenzhen, followed by Shanghai and Beijing. Guangzhou–Shenzhen has 43.0 million people on 6,454 km² of built-up land. 83 urban areas in China have at least 1 million people or are a national capital; the table lists them all.
| # | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guangzhou–Shenzhen | 43.0 million |
| 2 | Shanghai | 30.7 million |
| 3 | Beijing | 18.2 million |
| 4 | Suzhou–Wuxi | 11.5 million |
| 5 | Shantou–Jieyang | 10.6 million |
| 6 | Chongqing | 8.45 million |
| 7 | Wuhan | 8.08 million |
| 8 | Nanjing | 8.06 million |
| 9 | Tianjin | 7.33 million |
| 10 | Hangzhou | 6.39 million |
| 11 | Shenyang | 6.18 million |
| 12 | Hefei | 5.65 million |
| 13 | Chengdu | 5.61 million |
| 14 | Xi'an | 5.30 million |
| 15 | Zhengzhou | 5.13 million |
| 16 | Hong Kong | 4.81 million |
| 17 | Harbin | 4.59 million |
| 18 | Taiyuan | 4.33 million |
| 19 | Ürümqi | 3.97 million |
| 20 | Wenzhou | 3.84 million |
| 21 | Jinan | 3.82 million |
| 22 | Nanning | 3.70 million |
| 23 | Qingdao | 3.68 million |
| 24 | Nanchang | 3.64 million |
| 25 | Dalian | 3.60 million |
| 26 | Changchun | 3.52 million |
| 27 | Quanzhou | 3.38 million |
| 28 | Changsha | 3.25 million |
| 29 | Kunming | 3.22 million |
| 30 | Shijiazhuang | 3.10 million |
| 31 | Ningbo | 2.95 million |
| 32 | Fuzhou | 2.88 million |
| 33 | Changzhou | 2.77 million |
| 34 | Guiyang | 2.76 million |
| 35 | Lanzhou | 2.69 million |
| 36 | Tangshan | 2.65 million |
| 37 | Nantong | 2.61 million |
| 38 | Putian | 2.46 million |
| 39 | Zhuhai–Macau | 2.25 million |
| 40 | Wuhu | 2.14 million |
| 41 | Handan | 2.10 million |
| 42 | Hohhot | 2.03 million |
| 43 | Yinchuan | 1.91 million |
| 44 | Xuchang | 1.82 million |
| 45 | Anyang | 1.74 million |
| 46 | Huai'an | 1.72 million |
| 47 | Zibo | 1.68 million |
| 48 | Xiamen | 1.68 million |
| 49 | Baotou | 1.65 million |
| 50 | Luoyang | 1.60 million |
| 51 | Yichang | 1.57 million |
| 52 | Datong | 1.57 million |
| 53 | Linyi | 1.56 million |
| 54 | Zhangzhou | 1.54 million |
| 55 | Anshan | 1.50 million |
| 56 | Ganzhou | 1.48 million |
| 57 | Jilin City | 1.47 million |
| 58 | Cixi | 1.46 million |
| 59 | Binhai New Area | 1.43 million |
| 60 | Xining | 1.42 million |
| 61 | Taizhou | 1.40 million |
| 62 | Haikou | 1.37 million |
| 63 | Liuzhou | 1.32 million |
| 64 | Xuzhou | 1.31 million |
| 65 | Kaifeng | 1.30 million |
| 66 | Yancheng | 1.21 million |
| 67 | Jinhua | 1.20 million |
| 68 | Zunyi | 1.19 million |
| 69 | Luohe | 1.18 million |
| 70 | Huainan | 1.18 million |
| 71 | Yueqing | 1.14 million |
| 72 | Shiyan | 1.13 million |
| 73 | Nanchong | 1.11 million |
| 74 | Zhangjiagang | 1.10 million |
| 75 | Dengzhou | 1.10 million |
| 76 | Linfen | 1.09 million |
| 77 | Tuen Mun–Yuen Long | 1.08 million |
| 78 | Ma'anshan | 1.07 million |
| 79 | Huizhou | 1.06 million |
| 80 | Yichun | 1.04 million |
| 81 | Tengzhou | 1.03 million |
| 82 | Fuyang | 1.03 million |
| 83 | Zhuzhou | 1.01 million |
Urban area = contiguous built-up land and the people living in it in 2025, drawn the same way for every city regardless of administrative boundaries. Source: GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (CC BY 4.0); some names adjusted to the city names people use, and country attribution follows the dataset.
Official city limits are drawn differently in every country: some take in farmland and mountains, others stop at the historic core. Ranking cities by those limits mostly ranks boundary decisions. These lists use the built-up area instead, so a city's figure includes its suburbs wherever they are continuous with it, and nothing beyond.
For figures inside official limits, see the city-limits rankings; for the background, read how to compare city sizes honestly. Click any city to see it on a map at the same scale as another.