'Super city' tier part of urban planning

China has added a "super large-sized cities" tier to its new city classification system to improve population management and city planning, as the country's development rapidly expands cities.

The State Council, China's cabinet, issued a statement saying it added a tier to the system, increasing the number of tiers from four to five. The classification is based on a city's population, it added. The additional tier classifies cities with a population of over 10 million as "super large-sized cities."

Those whose population is between 5 million and 10 million are called "extra large-sized cities." Other tiers are "large-sized cities" with a population from 1 to 5 million, "medium-sized cities," between 500,000 to 1 million, and "small-sized cities," with a population under 500,000.

"There is a significant increase in the number and size of cities since China's opening-up. The old city tier system is outdated. China's cities are undergoing a critical period of development," the statement noted. It said the new system will respond to the needs of economic and social development. Wang Xiaolu, a deputy director of the National Economic Research Institute at the China Reform Foundation said that hukou registration requirements will vary from city to city. The hukou is China's household registration system.

"The hukou registration requirements in larger cities are stricter than smaller ones as they have to prevent overpopulation in those cities. Without these requirements, many problems like traffic jams and pollution will emerge," he said.