Our special issue dedicated to the cities of the future has its eye squarely toward China, because the cities of the future are increasingly going to be speaking Mandarin -- even more than you realize. It's no longer news that China has embarked on the largest mass urbanization in history, a monumental migration from country to city that will leave China with nearly a billion urbanites by 2025 and an astonishing 221 cities with populations over 1 million. But this isn't just about size: It's about global heft. And that's where the scale of China's transformation into a world leader is truly astonishing. In an exclusive index for FP, the McKinsey Global Institute has run the numbers to produce what we're calling The 75 Most Dynamic Cities of 2025 -- an extraordinary 29 of which are in China. Some are already global powers, from top-ranked Shanghai to manufacturing dynamo Shenzhen; others, from Fuzhou to Xiamen, were little more than provincial backwaters in the 20th century but look to be household names in the 21st, powering the global economy not just through their sheer size but also through their urban innovation and pulsing drive. Europe, meanwhile, will manage only three cities on the list by 2025; the United States finishes second to China -- a very distant second -- with 13. Still think that debate about Western decline is overblown?
The Most Dynamic Cities of 2025
'Twitter Is My City': An Exclusive Interview with Ai Weiwei
The East Is Rising: 29 Chinese Cities Powering Global Growth
Weapons of Mass Urban Destruction
By Peter Calthorpe
7 Chinese Innovations That Will Change the Way We Live
By Dustin Roasa
The Rise and Fall and Rise of New Shanghai
By Daniel Brook
Beijing Forever: The Capital Where Change Is the Only Constant
By Michael Meyer
Postcards from the Future
Mr. Happy: Is this Communist Party Boss About to Make the Big Time?
By Geoff Dyer
Building a Better China
By Richard Dobbs and Jaana Remes
China's Debt Bomb
By Jonathan Kaiman
Unlivable Cities
By Isaac Stone Fish
Once Upon a Time in Shanghai
Life in a Big Box
By Matthew Niederhauser
The Souls of Chinese Cities
By Christina Larson