For the first half of 2018, the GDP of four major cities in China including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have exceeded the one trillion yuan mark, The Paper reported.
It is also the first time the four cities to hit the trillion mark together.
Shanghai leads the GDP with 1.5558 trillion (US$230 billion) for the first six months, breaking through the 1.5 trillion mark for the first time, followed by Beijing with 1.4051 trillion yuan.
While Shenzhen, which secured third place in GDP with 1.1 trillion yuan, leads the four cites with a growth rate of 8%.
Guangzhou was 35.6 billion yuan behind Shenzhen, but followers such as Tianjin, Chongqing and Suzhou basically have no possibility of surpassing the latter in the short term.
Insiders say the competition between cities has also become a competition between traditional industries and the new economy. The four first-tier cities enjoy great advantages of innovation capacity.