Saturday Telegraph £500 Prize Crossword 30/12

[porilo]

Not a question as such but I noticed a mistake in 19d. The clue is "Largest city in China (8)" and the only answer that fits in is Shangahi, but the largest city is Beijing. It's almost three times larger than Shanghai! Did anyone else notice that?

[mallyh]

google says shanghai is the largest city

[goodgoalie]

Probably means 'by population', in which case Shanghai is bigger with 24 million

[porilo]

Yes, I know, but Google also says that Shanghai is 6340 square kilometres and Beijing is 16808 kilometres, so how can Shanghai be the largest?

[porilo]

Well I suppose they could mean by population but I didn't think of that. In which case Shanghai is correct, but it's a very poor clue in my opinion. It should be "Most populous city in China" not "largest city in China."

[saintstim]

Shanghai is larger by area. Beijing is the second largest city.

[porilo]

Then why is Beijing listed as 16,808 km² but Shanghai listed as 6,340 km² both on the interest and also in my reference books?

[porilo]

(that should have been "Internet" not "interest". Silly auto-correct.

[saintstim]

No idea but Shanghai is bigger than Beijing. That can be confirmed by google.

[porilo]

So Google thinks that 6,340 km² is bigger than 16,808 km² ?? Very interesting and one of the reasons why I never trust Google. Even a primary school child could see which is the biggest.

[saintstim]

Please yourself.If you're not going to accept the help there seems no point in asking for it. I take your last comment as an insult.

[porilo]

If you care to ready my original message carefully I was not asking for help, neither did I insult you. I was merely pointing out that there was a mistake in the crossword clue and despite what Google says, Beijing is far larger than Shanghai. You should learn not to put all your trust in Google. They are not always correct.

[dannyk13]

Porilo, largest cities are usually based on population.Ergo Shanghai iis the answer to the question.

[porilo]

Thanks, at last a helpful comment. I did not know that. I assumed that largest meant largest in area. The clue does not ask for the city with the largest population. That was my point in my original question. Beijing is far larger in area than Shanghai and I felt that the clue was misleading.