Across China: Beijing

Number of cities down

At the end of last year, China had 656 cities, slightly less than in 2006, after five were absorbed into bigger ones, the China News Service quoted the 2007 Urban Development Report of China as saying.

Of the cities, 22 had an urban population of more than 2 million, 33 had between 1 million and 2 million, 85 had between 500,000 and 1 million, 230 had between 200,000 and 500,000, and 286 had less than 200,000, the report said.