Original Liu Bo Team 01 The metropolitan area is entering the "inflation" stage. Currently, there are more than 30 large and small metropolitan areas across the country, and 14 national-level metropolitan areas have been approved, covering almost all major megacities except Beiji

Original Liu Bo team

1

The metropolitan area is entering the "inflation" stage.

At present, there are more than 30 large and small metropolitan areas in the country, and 14 national-level metropolitan areas have been approved, covering almost all major megacities except Beijing and Shanghai.

Along with the title of metropolitan area, there is also the area of ​​​​the metropolitan area.

Although the National Development and Reform Commission has repeatedly stated that it is necessary to control the area of ​​metropolitan areas, it still cannot restrain the tendency of various places to "grow big and seek completeness" and confuse "metropolitan areas" with "urban agglomerations".

For example, the Shanghai metropolitan area covers an area of ​​56,000 square kilometers, which is the size of a city agglomeration. Precisely because the "Shanghai Metropolitan Area" is too big, it is impossible for it to obtain approval from the National Development and Reform Commission.

The official definition of metropolitan area is: "The spatial form of urbanization within an urban agglomeration centered on super large megacities or large cities with strong radiation driving functions and with a one-hour commuting circle as the basic scope."

How do you understand this definition?

First, a metropolitan area must be anchored by a core city. There are too many cities and they are bundled together, which is the concept of urban agglomeration.

Second, 1 hour commuting circle. People have a certain tolerance limit for commuting time, which generally does not exceed one hour. If the commuting distance is too long, the time cost and transportation cost will become higher. It is not cost-effective, difficult to persist, and has no routine.

Therefore, a real urban area has a radius of about 50-100 kilometers, and the geographical area corresponds to within 20,000 square kilometers.

Based on the above definition, we believe that there are four options for China's strongest metropolitan area: Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area, Shanghai metropolitan area, Guangzhou metropolitan area and Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area.

The scope of the four major first-tier city metropolitan areas mentioned here is different from the official announcement. Official planning is subject to factors such as administrative divisions, which often results in matching or breaking up lovers.

For example, Shenzhen and Hong Kong are a compact metropolitan area, with many people doing cross-border consumption, commuting, and going to school. However, because Hong Kong is a separate customs territory and the mainland generally does not plan for Hong Kong, the official plan is There is no "Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area".

But in fact, Hong Kong has planned a northern metropolitan area close to Shenzhen, and has finalized an integrated development plan with Shenzhen to form four "sub-circles." This shows that the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area is advancing in an all-round way.

The four major first-tier city metropolitan areas mentioned in this article are defined in accordance with the principles of marketization and real occurrence (or possible occurrence), excluding the superficial and superficial parts.

The Shanghai metropolitan area includes Shanghai, Suzhou and Jiaxing, with a total area of ​​18,900 square kilometers.

Shanghai’s economic spillover is mainly in Suzhou and its secondary direction is Jiaxing. Although the Shanghai metropolitan area is very large, as mentioned above, it is an urban agglomeration.

The real commuting occurs mainly between Shanghai, Suzhou and Jiaxing. Strictly speaking, it is relatively difficult to reach Zhangjiagang from Shanghai, and it is also more difficult to reach Tongxiang and Haining in Jiaxing.

The Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area includes Beijing, Langfang and Tianjin, covering an area of ​​34,700 square kilometers.

The Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area seems to exceed the maximum area of ​​a metropolitan area, but the mountainous area of ​​​​Beijing accounts for about 62% of the total area, about 10,000 square kilometers. Therefore, the actual scope of the Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area is smaller.

Due to the opening of intercity railways, in the one-hour commuting circle around Beijing, about 100,000 people commute from Tianjin to Beijing every day, and Beijing and Tianjin are closely connected by commuting.

The Guangzhou metropolitan area includes Guangzhou and Foshan, covering an area of ​​11,200 square kilometers. Although the urban areas of Shaoguan, Qingyuan, Zhaoqing and Yunfu, which are relatively far away from Guangzhou and Foshan, are in the official planning, they are not currently connected with Guangzhou and have commuting significance.

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area, including Shenzhen and Hong Kong, plus Dongguan, Huiyang in Huizhou and Daya Bay, has an area of ​​only 0.68 square kilometers.

Data shows that the average daily travel volume in Shenzhen and Dongcheng has reached 1.32 million, and the average daily travel volume in Shenzhen and Huizhou is about 500,000.

From January to September this year, a total of 172.7839 million people entered and exited the Shenzhen port, and the number of cross-border vehicles at the land port reached 8.0932 million. If converted, about 640,000 people and 30,000 vehicles travel between Shenzhen and Hong Kong every day.

2

Among the four major first-tier Chengdu metropolitan areas, who is the strongest?

Let’s look at the basic situation table first.

Looking at the total volume of the four major metropolitan areas:

h The Shanghai metropolitan area ranks first in total GDP, reaching 7.9 trillion yuan in 2023; the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area ranks second, with 7.47 trillion yuan, the Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area ranks third, with 6.43 trillion yuan, and the Guangzhou metropolitan area ranks third Four, 4.36 trillion yuan.

The total amount of funds gathered, that is, the balance of domestic and foreign currency deposits of financial institutions, ranks first in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area, reaching 30.11 trillion yuan. The second is the Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area, reaching 30.03 trillion yuan, the third is the Shanghai metropolitan area, with 27.3 trillion yuan, and the Guangzhou metropolitan area is the least, with 11.46 trillion yuan.

In terms of total fiscal revenue and permanent population of the cities in the metropolitan area, Shanghai ranks first in the metropolitan area.

The total fiscal revenue of the Shanghai metropolitan area is 1.14013 billion yuan, and the permanent population is 43.417 million.

From a total perspective, the Shanghai metropolitan area ranks first in major indicators.

The Shanghai metropolitan area ranked first in the three indicators of gdp, permanent population and fiscal revenue.

But the core indicator that truly reflects comprehensive strength-the total amount of funds, was ranked first by the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area.

Therefore, Shanghai metropolitan area and Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area, these two metropolitan areas are the strongest.

Let’s look at the per capita indicator.

The above picture shows the per capita general budget revenue, per capita total funds, and per capita GDP of the four major metropolitan areas in 2023.

It can be seen that the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area won all the championships in the three major indicators.

The total per capita capital of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area reached 809,500 yuan; the per capita GDP was 200,800 yuan; and the per capita local fiscal revenue was 29,500 yuan.

The Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area ranked second in one category and third in two categories; Shanghai ranked second in two categories and third in one category; the Guangzhou metropolitan region ranked lowest in all three indicators.

Let’s look at the regional average indicator:

In the three major indicators of GDP per area, permanent population per area, and total capital per area, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area also ranked first in all, and was far ahead, many times that of other metropolitan areas.

For example, the total amount of funds per square kilometer is 442,800 yuan in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area, 144,400 yuan in the Shanghai metropolitan area, 102,300 yuan in the Guangzhou metropolitan area, and only 86,500 yuan in the Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area.

In terms of per capita and per area indicators, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area is China's largest metropolitan area.

3

Finally summarize.

The bigger the metropolitan area is, the better. If it is too large, there will be no actual commuting, and it will become a more loosely related urban agglomeration.

It is a good thing that the metropolitan area is smaller. Within a limited scope, it can more efficiently gather production factors such as capital, technology, and talents, accelerate the concentration and upgrading of industries, and form more competitive industrial clusters.

Moreover, a smaller scope is also conducive to formulating targeted development strategies and facilitating infrastructure construction, making the polarization effect more significant.

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area is not only the metropolitan area with the largest total wealth, but also the metropolitan area with the best per capita and per area indicators.

This metropolitan area is also the main part of the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" technology cluster. It has been recognized by the World Intellectual Property Organization as the world's second-ranked technology innovation cluster for many years in a row, indicating that there is huge development potential here.

The total amount of funds (domestic and foreign currency deposit balances of financial institutions) gathered by the Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area (30 trillion) and Shanghai metropolitan area (27.3 trillion) is second only to the Shenzhen-Hong Kong metropolitan area (30.1 trillion). The total capital of the Guangzhou metropolitan area is only 11.46 trillion, which is significantly weaker than the three major metropolitan areas of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.