Wtf 5 million in population?
That's the population of the entire Prefecture.
China's prefecture-level city is actually a small state in Germany or Japan's prefecture.
As I have said in my previous comments, the city in most cases only refers to the core urban districts.
On wiki, it is called "built-up" region.
But actually, outside the core regions, there are numerous counties and county-level city.
Each county has numerous built-up towns or townships.
Among these towns or townships, the main town is called county town 县城, the administrative centre of that county.
These county towns are CITY in their own rights.
Other towns could be real cities, could also be urbanised towns, or more country-style township.
Every town or township has large area of countryside, that is the real countryside......
(Urban district can also have towns and countryside in the outskirt)
Anyway, China's administrative regions' name could be very confusing to foreigners.
From Wiki
Similarly to a higher-level administrative units, the borders of a town (zhen) would typically include an urban core (what one would call a "town" in Europe or America - a small town with the population on the order of 10,000 people), as well as rural area with some villages (村 cun, or 庄 zhuang).
One town in Yi County (a town=an urban core+rural areas of villages)in Central China
You can see less-built-up villages in the background, all belong to this town.
Another interesting administration is County-level City.
This is former Panxian County, now called Panzhou City, a ceremony to celebrate the establishment of the new city.
But this city is still under the upper Liupanshui Prefecture-level City
A county-level municipality (Chinese: 县级市), county-level city, or county city is a county-level administrative division of mainland China. County-level cities are usually governed by prefecture-level divisions, but a few are governed directly by province-leveldivisions. Formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949-1970: Chinese: 专辖市; 1970-1983: Chinese: 地辖市).
County-level cities are not "cities" in the strictest sense of the word, since they usually contain rural areas many times the size of their urban, built-up area. This is because the counties that county-level cities have replaced are themselves large administrative units containing towns, villages, and farmland. To distinguish a "county-level city" from its actual urban area (the traditional meaning of the word "city"), the term 市区 shìqū, or "urban area", is used.
All these counties or county-level cities are not tier-N cities....
Usually only prefecture-level or higher-level cities are recognised as real CITY.
Many years ago, I strolled down the Shiji Boulevard in Shanghai. It's in the middle of Pudong and at midday virtually empty. I asked my Chinese friend who accompanied me why the gov. Is wasting so much space in the most expensive real estate where so few people seem to use. His explanation was quite interesting. He told me that's the utopia so many Chinese have been dreaming about as most of them have been living under crowded conditions all their life. The government is just answering to that dream of spaciousness, emptiness and at the same time modernity. From my point of view it's just wasted land that should be used for farming.
German large cities are usually very compact and yet very green without much overcrowding. In fact, many East Asians visiting Germany tell me that German streets seem to be empty, on Sunday you can virtually shoot 360 degree with an MG without hitting anyone, even in many parts of a big city.
What Chinese cities need is more compactness to save land for agriculture. It's a balance act. I also think any urban areas with more than 200 k population need at least a light rail system, cities with more than 500 k needs a mixture of light rail and metro. Cities larger than 1 Mio. need a metro and a suburb rail like our S-Bahn.
That man must be very in his dream....
Central Avenue has two types of congestion, one on the surface (during peak hours)
and one underneath (subway Line 2 along this road, 1+million ridership per day)
German large cities are usually very compact and yet very green without much overcrowding. In fact, many East Asians visiting Germany tell me that German streets seem to be empty, on Sunday you can virtually shoot 360 degree with an MG without hitting anyone, even in many parts of a big city.
Germany's larger cities like München and Stuttgart are similar to the cities mentioned in this thread, do you agree? Population wise?
What Chinese cities need is more compactness to save land for agriculture. It's a balance act. I also think any urban areas with more than 200 k population need at least a light rail system, cities with more than 500 k needs a mixture of light rail and metro. Cities larger than 1 Mio. need a metro and a suburb rail like our S-Bahn.
On mass transport I agree.
All these cities mentioned here are building or planning trams+BRT+Skyrail.
(I personally prefer BRT)
S-Bahn is useless here.
There is no such defined CBD here, even in my hometown of 10 million people.
Multicentrered in China vs One CBD in western cities
If the density of a city is small, even with 1-2million, heavy rails are just a waste.
People work very closer to their homes.
(I know nearly every S-Bahn system in Germany, even the one in Lübeck)
Another issue is landscape around railways.
Most Chinese just hate overground railways dividing cities.
In China, you can nearly see zero railway crossing.
kids are in their kindergartens or schools; adults are working at the factories or offices; elders are watching TV at home, or playing mahjong with their neighbors. Very few homeless people wandering on the streets, also few jobless people, and few school-less kids. Also not many tourists, because the tier-5 or -6 cities shown here, are even unknown to many Chinese.
The picture below is from Shanghai. The streets look "empty" too. But come on, this is Lu Jia Zui, the core CBD area in Shanghai, who dares to say Lu Jia Zui is empty??
View attachment 424390
Yes.
People go out at night.
Girls and boys go out having BQQ at 10pm.
Aunties and uncles start to go to parks or playgrounds around 7-8pm after lunch.
Women work too, as doctors, factory workers, bus drivers, CEOs, etc.
Forget the name...from one of the links
All these parks and squares are full of people after 6pm.