An online survey has revealed that 59.91% of netizens support the potential merger of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou into a supercity. The proposal, which would also involve the absorption of some counties formerly under the jurisdiction of Shanwei, is to be discussed at the annual session of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, which began yesterday, Southern Metropolis Daily reports.

The proposal, the virtues of which were outlined in a lengthy essay by a Shenzhen blogger in October, has its basis in the fact that Guangdong has the largest number of prefecture level cities of any province. Guangdong has 21, Shandong is in second with 17, and Jiangsu is in third with 13. Economic output in Guangdong is currently mostly concentrated in Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan and Shenzhen, and there is a school of thought that says mergers into supercities may change this.

The survey of 2,148 netizens, all of whom were over 30 and more than half of whom lived in one of the three cities, threw up some interesting results. Here are the results of the survey, which was jointly run by the newspaper and Guangdong Wang:

Do you support the merging of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou?

Support - 59.91%
Oppose - 25.65%
None of my business - 14.43%

If they merge, which city will benefit the most?

Shenzhen - 20.91%
Dongguan - 9.49%
Huizhou - 54.53%
None - 7.94%
Don’t know - 7.13%

If the cities merge, which problem would be most exacerbated?

Traffic - 13.03%
Pollution - 15.45%
Officials’ abuse of power - 20.38%
Increasing housing prices - 28.96%
Poverty in less developed areas - 13.16%

Do you agree that Guangdong has too many prefecture level cities?

Agree - 69.95%
Disagree - 30.05%

Is the merger feasible?

Very feasible - 36.45%
Unfeasible - 39.44%
Possibly feasible - 24.1%

What would a Shenzhen, Dongguan, Huizhou supercity be like?

Very good, there is all kinds of room for development - 43.6%
Not bad, there would be both competition and cooperation - 32.96%
Not good, competition would exceed cooperation - 23.44%

Do the three cities already have their distinct character?

Yes - 77.83%
No - 14.47%
Don’t know - 7.7%

Zhou Chunshan, vice president of the School of Geography and Planning Studies at Sun Yat-sen University said such a merger would be more difficult than, say, a merger between Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang, as the cities were larger and the stakes were higher.

Could it really happen?