Is Chongqing the biggest city in the world?

华人网 2025-5-30 16:46

Is Chongqing the Biggest City in the World? I Had to See for Myself

Hey everyone — it’s Emma here. If you’ve been following my blog, you know I have a soft spot for the lesser-known giants. Not just the places on every Top 10 list, but the ones that make you pause and go, “Wait, really?”

That’s exactly what happened the first time I heard someone claim:
“Chongqing is the biggest city in the world.”

I blinked. Chongqing? Not Tokyo? Not Shanghai or New York?
So I booked a flight, packed a notebook, and decided to find out for myself.

The First Surprise: It’s Massive… On Paper

Here’s where things get interesting.
If you look at official numbers, Chongqing has a population of over 30 million people. That sounds enormous, right? Bigger than Tokyo’s metro area, bigger than São Paulo, even more than Jakarta.

But then you dig a little deeper.

Chongqing’s population figure includes a huge area — I’m talking over 80,000 square kilometers. That’s basically the size of Austria. Imagine calling all of Austria “one city,” and you’ll start to understand why this statistic is so misleading.

In fact, only about 9 million people live in the actual urban core — the part that looks and feels like a dense, vertical megacity. The rest live in towns, villages, and sprawling countryside that fall under Chongqing’s administrative umbrella.

So technically, yes: Chongqing is the largest city in the world by administrative population size.
But no, it’s not the largest urban city in the world.

What Does It Feel Like, Though?

This is where I had my mind blown.
I landed at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport at night and took the light rail into town. As we entered the city proper, it felt like arriving in Blade Runner.

Skyscrapers built into cliffs. Glowing bridges spanning rivers. Neon reflections bouncing off endless high-rise windows. The city feels vertical, fast, and cinematic.

I stayed in Yuzhong District, right in the heart of urban Chongqing. This area alone feels bigger than some entire European capitals. At street level, there’s food sizzling everywhere — spicy noodles, barbecue skewers, boiling hot pot. The streets are alive late into the night, with locals playing cards outside, chatting, dancing in parks.

It’s chaotic in the best way.

So, Why the Confusion?

The real issue comes down to how China defines its cities.
In most countries, a “city” means a dense metropolitan zone. But in China, some cities are more like provinces — and Chongqing is one of four municipalities that report directly to the central government. That means it controls a huge area of mountains, farms, towns, and rivers.

So when we say “Chongqing has 30 million people,” we’re really talking about a region, not just the high-rise-packed skyline I saw from my hotel window.

In contrast, Tokyo’s metro area, which often ranks as the biggest in the world, has about 37 million people living in an urban sprawl — no countryside, no small farms. Just pure city.

So it really depends on how you define “city.”

Fun Fact: Most People Have Never Heard of It

Here’s the wild part: almost nobody I know had even heard of Chongqing before I mentioned it. I told my friends I was going there, and they said, “Wait, where’s that?”

And yet, it’s home to more people than the entire population of Australia.

That’s part of what makes Chongqing so fascinating. It’s enormous, important, and growing fast — yet it flies under the radar outside of China.

So, Is Chongqing the Biggest City in the World?

Yes — if you go by administrative population and area.
No — if you’re talking about urban density and global influence.

But maybe that’s the wrong question.

Chongqing isn’t trying to be Tokyo or New York. It’s its own thing — steeped in fog, bathed in red lights, full of spice and soul and hustle. It’s wild, it’s weird, and it’s worth a visit for anyone who loves cities that feel like a challenge.

I didn’t come away with a neat answer.
But I did come away with an unforgettable story — and maybe that’s even better.