GuessTheDot is a free geography guessing game: you get a place name and a map full of dots, then click the one you think is right.

These are the places most people already know by name, capitals and major hubs with a large population. They tend to sit on a coastline, a river, or a border, and their outline on the map is usually distinctive.

In China this set is spread across 29 different provinces, with Guangdong home to the most of them (8).

How this category is defined

Place kinds on GuessTheDot are a practical grouping by population and place type for gameplay, not a legal or historical designation. A place can hold official city rights (or an old city charter) and still show up here as a village if it stayed small, and the other way around: this is a rough size ladder for guessing, not a statement about a place's official status.

Places in this set

57

Smallest population

2,227,733

Largest population

24,874,500

Median population

3,841,873

Two you might get asked about

Yantai
2,227,733 inhabitants, Shandong
The kind of place that is easy to miss on a map. Good practice for the sharpest players.

Shanghai
24,874,500 inhabitants, Shanghai
One of the better known ones in this set, a fair starting point if you are new to this category.

Play Big cities in China →

All 57 big cities in China

Sorted by population, biggest first.

Place	Population	province
Shanghai	24,874,500	Shanghai
Beijing	18,960,744	Beijing
Shenzhen	17,494,398	Guangdong
Guangzhou	16,096,724	Guangdong
Chengdu	13,568,357	Sichuan
Tianjin	11,090,314	Tianjin
Wuhan	10,392,693	Hubei
Dongguan	9,644,871	Guangdong
Xi’an	9,600,000	Shaanxi
Nanjing	9,314,685	Jiangsu
Hangzhou	9,236,032	Zhejiang
Foshan	9,042,509	Guangdong
Chongqing	7,457,599	Chongqing
Wuzhong	7,202,654	Ningxia
Qingdao	7,172,451	Shandong
Shenyang	7,050,000	Liaoning
Suzhou	6,715,559	Jiangsu
Harbin	5,242,897	Heilongjiang
Hefei	5,050,000	Anhui
Dalian	4,913,879	Liaoning
Changchun	4,714,996	Jilin
Xiamen	4,617,251	Fujian
Wuxi	4,396,835	Jiangsu
Jinan	4,335,989	Shandong
Taiyuan	4,303,673	Shanxi
Zhengzhou	4,253,913	Henan
Shijiazhuang	3,938,513	Hebei
Kunming	3,855,346	Yunnan
Zhongshan	3,841,873	Guangdong
Nanning	3,839,800	Guangxi
Shantou	3,838,900	Guangdong
Fuzhou	3,740,000	Fujian
Ningbo	3,731,203	Zhejiang
Puyang	3,590,000	Zhejiang
Shiyan	3,460,000	Hubei
Tangshan	3,372,102	Hebei
Lüliang	3,346,500	Shanxi
Changzhou	3,290,918	Jiangsu
Zibo	3,129,228	Shandong
Changsha	3,093,980	Hunan
Guiyang	3,037,159	Guizhou
Ürümqi	3,029,372	Xinjiang
Lanzhou	3,000,000	Gansu
Huizhou	2,900,113	Guangdong
Haikou	2,873,358	Hainan
Linyi	2,743,843	Shandong
Baoding	2,739,887	Hebei
Bazhong	2,712,894	Sichuan
Wenzhou	2,650,000	Zhejiang
Yunfu	2,612,800	Guangdong
Huai'an	2,494,013	Jiangsu
Nanchang	2,357,839	Jiangxi
Hohhot	2,350,000	Inner Mongolia
Shaoxing	2,300,000	Zhejiang
Nantong	2,273,326	Jiangsu
Baoshan	2,265,900	Shanghai
Yantai	2,227,733	Shandong

Tips for this category

Look for proximity to water or a border first: big cities rarely sit in the middle of nowhere.
If two dots look close together, the bigger one on a real map is usually the one with more infrastructure around it, not necessarily the one nearer the center.

Other place kinds in China

Cities Big villages Villages Small villages

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