Shanghai (Photo/People's Daily Online)

As China still enjoys a medium-high rate of economic growth, more cities will join the trillion-yuan club in the coming years, said Zhang Jianping, director of the Research Center for Regional Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce.

The number of Chinese cities with a GDP of more than 1 trillion yuan ($156.5 billion) increased to 16 by the end of last year.

By the end of the third quarter of this year, 12 cities in China have joined the club. The GDP of Shanghai and Beijing has exceeded 2 trillion yuan respectively, and that of another 9 cities has achieved GDP of more than 1 trillion yuan.

In the first three quarter of this year, Foshan in southern China's Guangdong province secured a 790 billion yuan GDP, up by 7 percent year-on-year. It is expected to be the 17th city to join the trillion-yuan club.

Among the current 16 cities, 11 cities are in the east of China, 3 in the central region and 2 in the western region. In the first three quarters, Chengdu, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou, all cities in the central region recorded GDP growth of 8.1 percent, 7.8 percent and 7.2 percent respectively, higher than the 6 percent average seen among top eastern cities in terms of GDP.

This shows that the economic gap among the eastern, central and western regions is in fact narrowing.

Zhang also believes that in fact development among different regions is a vital component of overall high-quality development.