If we want to talk excitedly about Britain’s northern powerhouse, we should try not to think about China’s. Both countries have a problem with their overweening south – the core of which is London in the UK, and is split between Chongqing, Guangzhou/Hong Kong and Shanghai in China. But whereas a megacity made up of Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds would have a population of around 15 million and might squeak into the world’s 20 largest, the Chinese equivalent – Jing-jin-ji – offers a vastness you only expect to contemplate in science fiction.
As envisaged by Chinese state planners, the new urban area would combine the cultural and hi-tech industries of Beijing, which has just announced its part of the strategy, with Tianjin’s port facilities and the resources of the surrounding province of Hebei, or Ji as it is known. Hence Jing-jin-ji. Currently the area has a population of approximately 130 million people, which is about the same as Britain and France combined, or 41% of the United States. Its area of 212,379 sq km is difficult to comprehend, so traditionalists might like to think of it as just over the size of 10 Waleses. Or, to put it another way, Jing-jin-ji will be about the same size as Scotland and England stuck together. Which, for the time being, they are.
