🇨🇳 Cities in China — API & JSON data

Geomelon's China coverage: 617,780 cities across 32 regions, with name translations in 43 languages — start with Chongqing, the country's largest city at 32,054,159 people.

Data updated: 2026-07-14

Live demo

Type to search China cities…

Top 10 cities by population

City	Region	Population
Chongqing	—	32,054,159
Shanghai	—	24,870,895
Beijing	—	21,893,095
Chengdu	Sichuan	20,937,757
Guangzhou	Guangdong	18,676,605
Shenzhen	Guangdong	17,681,600
Tianjin	—	13,866,009
Suzhou	Jiangsu	12,748,262
Zhengzhou	Henan	12,600,574
Chongqing Shi	Chongqing	12,135,000

Sample API response

GET /cities/search?countryCode=cn&sort=population_desc&limit=3

[
  {
    "id": "71b24858-377c-48f2-abfb-9dfaf4a1089b",
    "name": "Chongqing",
    "population": 32054159,
    "countryName": "China",
    "countryCode": "CN",
    "countryEmoji": "🇨🇳",
    "regionName": null
  },
  {
    "id": "05256ed4-5714-471e-a166-64db0ca7cd33",
    "name": "Shanghai",
    "population": 24870895,
    "countryName": "China",
    "countryCode": "CN",
    "countryEmoji": "🇨🇳",
    "regionName": null
  },
  {
    "id": "0d9ff5c9-8842-49b3-8f8c-798e33e76b29",
    "name": "Beijing",
    "population": 21893095,
    "countryName": "China",
    "countryCode": "CN",
    "countryEmoji": "🇨🇳",
    "regionName": null
  }
]

Try it

curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://geomelon.p.rapidapi.com/cities/search?countryCode=cn&sort=population_desc&limit=10' \
  --header 'x-rapidapi-host: geomelon.p.rapidapi.com' \
  --header 'x-rapidapi-key: YOUR_API_KEY'

const res = await fetch(
  'https://geomelon.p.rapidapi.com/cities/search?countryCode=cn&sort=population_desc&limit=10',
  {
    headers: {
      'x-rapidapi-host': 'geomelon.p.rapidapi.com',
      'x-rapidapi-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    },
  },
)
const cities = await res.json()

Multilingual city names

City names in China are available in 43 languages.

en: Chongqing
zh: 重庆市
ar: تشونغتشينغ

Free dataset

Prefer a static file? Download 5,000 China cities as JSON (716 KB, no API key) from the China cities dataset page.

FAQ

How many cities in China does the API return?

Geomelon currently has 617,780 cities in China across 32 regions. Results are paginated, up to 100 per request.

Is there a free tier?

Yes. RapidAPI's free tier covers a fixed number of requests per month with no credit card required. There is also a free, no-key city-autocomplete endpoint (the demo above) for prefix search.

Can I get China city names in other languages?

Yes — city names in China are available in 43 languages. Pass the languages you want via the preferredLanguages parameter, most-preferred first.

Do I need an API key?

The main search and lookup endpoints require a free RapidAPI key. The prefix-search autocomplete endpoint used in the demo above is public and does not require a key.

Try free on RapidAPI