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NO, YOU haven’t slipped into a dream within a dream within a dream. This megacity, which you’d be forgiven for thinking is the dream-limbo city featured in the movie Inception, is . It is home to 8.7 million people. One of the main criteria for the prize is that the city must have a beautiful environment.

Chinese slang for urban sprawl is tan da bing, which means “spreading pancake”. The pancake sure has spread rapidly since the country’s economic reforms of the 1970s and 80s. These reforms have caused the middle class in China to steadily grow, and led to much of the rural population migrating to cities. By 2025, it is estimated that a total of 1 billion Chinese will live in urban areas. As of now, the country has at least 160 cities with over 1 million people. .

Of course this means more housing, more public transportation and consequently more pollution. It’s home to a number of cement and coal factories spewing filth into the atmosphere. (Qing, ironically, translates as “lush” or “green”.)

Only 1 per cent of China’s urban population is breathing air considered clean by European Union standards. because of horrendous air quality, with another 60,000 dying early due to unclean drinking water.

China aims to generate 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources, so in August this year to help achieve that. The country is now the world’s largest maker of wind turbines and is increasingly focused on solar and nuclear energy. The goal is to clear the skies over the spreading pancake, not to stop the spread itself.