I am laughing because something very similar happened to me. I visited a friend in one of those "smaller" cities in China (3M; not even in the top 30). He told me that his parents had moved to a nearby "village" after retirement. The village: >200k.

My wife is from a city of 7 million in China. Not only would you not have heard of it, most Chinese I've met also need some explanation of where it is.

I've traveled in China, and sometimes we just stop at some convenient roadside "village" for lunch, the kind of place that would have a Denny's and a gas station in the US. Except in China, the restaurant has five stories and it's bumper to bumper traffic outside. The population difference is really hard to get used to.

China has over 100 cities with a population north of 1 million.

Something similar kind of happened to me ... the university I am at (normally) comprises 50k people. No idea where they are ... especially because Bielefeld University is just one building.