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A big group of economic giants has emerged in east China's Yangtze River Delta, which features a number of cities with gross domestic product (GDP) above 50 billion yuan (6 billion US dollars) or even 100 billion yuan (12 billion dollars).

These 15 cities clustered in under 100,000 sq km recorded GDP of more than 1,686 billion yuan (about 203.13 billion dollars) last year, 17.6 percent of the national total. Their imports and exports made up nearly 30 percent of China's total trade last year.

Among these cities, Shanghai recorded GDP of 495 billion yuan (about 59.64 billion dollars) in 2001, topping the GDP chart for Chinese cities. Three other delta cities, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Wuxi also rated in the top 10.

Thousands of China's top enterprises have settled in this area, including the Yangtze Ethylene Co., Shanghai Volkswagen Co. and Shanghai Bell Telephone Equipment Manufacturing Co.

Multi-national companies are keenly aware of the trend and to date more than 400 of the Fortune 500 enterprises have invested here. Contractual foreign investment in the area has approached 150 billion US dollars.

According to Chinese experts, the delta is internationally recognized as the sixth largest city grouping in the world.