Administrative divisions of China By its political level, when a "city" is referred to, it can be a: By its actual area and population, it can be: When used in the statistical data, the word "city" may have three different meanings: It is important to specify the definition of "city" when referring to statistical data of Chinese cities, otherwise, confusion may arise. For example, Shanghai is the largest city in China by population in the urban area but is smaller than Chongqing by the population within the administration area. Before the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, China was ruled by a network of kings,
High-speed rail in China detail is an almost impossible job for inspectors. Despite having the second largest route-kilometer growth after Turkey since 2017, whether constructing high-speed railways in China is economically efficient has been a hot debate. Conservative scholars and officials are worried about the profitability of high-speed railway construction, and its influence on low income population. While all high-speed rails built on the eastern part of China except Beijing-Tianjin high-speed rail have started to make positive profit since 2015, the middle-west railways are constantly loss-making and far from being even possible to pay their cost off. Zhengzhou–Xi'an high-speed railway is estimated to run