China is planning to build the largest city in the world by fusing nine big cities into one gigantic megacity.

With a current population of about 57 million people within a 15,000-square-mile-perimeter, China's Pearl River Delta is now about the same size as West Virginia but with a population 30 times bigger.

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The megacity combines several different cities including Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Zhaoqing, Zhongshan, and Zhuhai.

Each of these cities has an estimated population between 2 million to over 14 million individuals. Fourteen years from now, China plans to unite these cities into a powerful megacity, with an economic output of around $2 trillion.

The Chinese government first announced this project in 2008 after the population increased in the nine cities, hitting the 1-million mark.

To realize its Pearl River Delta dream, construction of various infrastructures including bridges, factories, highways, hospitals, and railways has been scaled up. Authorities have also started demolishing dilapidated buildings and constructing high-rise residential towers to make room for a traffic hub.

However, there is no uniformity in the construction process. Like the case in Guangdong province, developers build sky rise buildings first before eliminating shanties down, thus jarring the cityscapes.

Other problems include air pollution and water pollution. Furthermore, with China's plan to move 80 million people within the borders of Pearl River Delta by 2030, the government is faced with the challenge of convincing citizens to relocate.

More than half 64 percent of Chinese citizens are still residing outside the urban areas of Pearl River Delta. Therefore, a number of apartment buildings are empty. However, the Chinese government plans to allocate $322 billion to draw people from outside the borders toward the megalopolis.

If all these plans are realized, the Pearl River Delta will be well-connected, making travel easier and faster. For instance, traveling time from Hong Kong to Guangzhou will be cut to under an hour instead of the usual two hours and 48 minutes.

"Within a few decades, this window of opportunity will close... and future generations will be left to deal with the consequences of how we urbanize today," a World Bank report stated.

Tagschina, Pearl River Delta