Le sigh

Norway Population 2022: 5,518,814 (Source)

Chinese Cities by Population (Source)

Largest Cities in Mainland China by Population of Urban Area
Rank City Province Latest Estimate[3]
1 Shanghai — 24,870,895
2 Beijing⍟# — 21,167,303
3 Guangzhou#* Guangdong 18,810,600
4 Shenzhen#~ Guangdong 17,633,800
5 Chengdu#* Sichuan 15,025,554
6 Tianjin#† — 13,929,152
7 Chongqing#* — 12,313,714
8 Nanjing* Jiangsu 9,320,689
9 Wuhan#* Hubei 8,546,775
10 Xi'an#* Shaanxi 8,438,050
11 Hangzhou* Zhejiang 7,969,372
12 Shenyang* Liaoning 7,469,474
13 Dongguan Guangdong 7,489,198
14 Foshan Guangdong 7,462,797
15 Harbin* Heilongjiang 6,612,795
16 Dalian~ Liaoning 5,871,474
17 Qingdao~ Shandong 5,818,255
18 Zhengzhou#* Henan 5,621,593
19 Jinan* Shandong 5,606,374

"19 cities in China bigger than Norway"

Total in these 19 cities = 209,977,864

209,977,864 (cities) / 5,518,814 (Norway) = 38.04 Norways AKA "Those 19 cities are almost 40 Norways between them" 38 is almost 40, no?

China 2022 Population = 1,452,250,110 (Source)

1,452,250,110 (China) - 209,977,864 (19 cities) = 1,242,272,246 (rest of China)

1,242,272,246 (rest of China) / 5,518,814 (Norway) = 225 Norways

"And then the rest of China is still about 240 Norways"

Dang. Got me. Doing multiple steps of 10 digit math in my head I was off by 6%. 6% is not within the universal standard for the definition of "about". Everyone knows the internationally accepted maximum margin of error is 5% when used on the internet to support the statement "Big China is big". I will now hide in shame and never do hand wavy math on the internet again for using the Imperial unit of 6% "about" rather than the ISI sanctioned metric 5% "about".

The only thing I can say in my defense is that Big China is so fucking big it's easy to lose an extra 15 Norways and not even notice it.