Tale of 2 megacities: how did Beijing and Shanghai’s GDPs surpass 5 trillion yuan?

As China’s two largest cities by economic output, Beijing and Shanghai are widely seen as barometers for the country’s broader economic performance.

In 2025, Beijing’s gross domestic product reached 5.2 trillion yuan (US$748 billion), making it the second Chinese city to cross the 5-trillion-yuan mark after Shanghai, which breached the threshold in 2024 and did so again in 2025 with a GDP of 5.67 trillion yuan. Based on last year’s figures, each city’s economic size is comparable to that of a smaller European country, such as Sweden or Belgium.

In this explainer, the Post examines economic data from both megacities, breaking down what has sustained their growth and how policymakers are positioning them for the next stage of development.

What sustained the economic growth?

In 2025, both Beijing and Shanghai posted GDP growth of 5.4 per cent, beating the national average of 5 per cent, according to official data released on Wednesday.

In Beijing, growth was driven mainly by the information, software and IT services sector and finance, which together accounted for 51.8 per cent of GDP and contributed more than 80 per cent of overall growth, according to the city’s statistics bureau.

Manufacturing also showed strong momentum in the national capital, with double-digit growth in electric vehicle output and a 47.6 per cent rise in service robot production. The city accounted for about one-third of China’s humanoid robotics industry by August, according to Beijing’s mayor, Yin Yong. [3]

In Shanghai, services remained the main growth engine, led by finance and the information and IT sector. Meanwhile, hi-tech manufacturing – including integrated circuits, artificial intelligence (AI) and new energy – recorded double-digit output growth, far above the city’s overall industrial growth rate.

AI firms’ revenues jumped nearly 40 per cent year on year to 435 billion yuan in the first three quarters in Shanghai, official data showed.

South China Morning Post