Hi, As I mentioned, according to the data of 2005, the resident population of Beijing is about 13.8 million, Shanghai is about 13.4 million. The natural growth rate of Beijing resident population is about 0.1% (2005 is 0.07%), (data from http://www.bj.xinhuanet.com/bjpd_sdzx/2005-12/06/content_5751145.htm) While, the natural growth rate of Shanghai resident population is -0.03% (2005) and has been kept nagative for 8 years. (data from http://www.happyhome.net.cn/read.asp?subjectid=212&infoid=1452&forumid=14117). Though, the growth rate of floating population of both cities are very high. More and more people come to Beijing and Shanghai from other provinces for work. Regards James Su On 4/28/06, Robert Elz <kre@munnari.oz.au> wrote:
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 13:02:16 +0800 From: "Zhe Su" <james.su@gmail.com> Message-ID: <278a3d0604272202t58aa5802nf0b11c63bfe110bb@mail.gmail.com>
| Following this rule, "Asia/Beijing" should be used instead of | "Asia/Shanghai", because more people prefer "Asia/Beijing" in China, | as Beijing has more people than Shanghai :-)
If the population of Beijing is greater than that of Shanghai then you're right, the zone name should be changed (with the old one left as an alias for a while for people who are used to it). It would not be the first time that names have changed for this reason (when relative populations of different cities alters).
Of course, if it is a close thing, and it is possible that Shanghai may overtake Beijing again next year (or something) then keeping switching backwards and forwards would be irrational - so just keeping things stable should be better, but if (which I would certainly imagine is possible) that Beijing is simply growing faster than Shanghai and has now grown bigger, the zone name can change.
kre