A visitor looks at 5G C-Band Book RRU at the booth of Huawei at the comprehensive exhibition area of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 8, 2020. Chinese enterprises demonstrated latest innovations and technologies such as 5G and AI at the fair. (Xinhua/Pan Siwei)

Beijing has become the second city in China, after Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province, to achieve full coverage of 5G independent networking, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday.

As of the end of July, Beijing has opened 44,000 5G base stations, and the figure is expected to reach more than 50,000 by the end of 2020, the statement noted. All these base stations have been connected into 5G independent networking, which means that the whole city is covered by 5G signals.

Currently, there are about 5.06 million 5G users in Beijing. China's three major telecom operators have cooperated with relevant companies on more than 1,000 telecom projects, noted the statement.

Before Beijing, Shenzhen had already achieved full coverage of 5G independent networking with its 46,000 base stations, the mayor of Shenzhen had disclosed at a press conference on August 17, adding that Shenzhen has the highest density of 5G base stations in the world.

Wang Zhiqin, associate dean of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, also revealed that China had set up 41,000 5G base stations by the end of June. In total, the country plans to build 500,000 5G base stations in 2020.

According to independent telecom analyst Xiang Ligang, China is not the first country to announce commercial use of 5G, but it certainly is the world's leader in actual push of the industry, whether it comes to 5G infrastructure construction, penetration of 5G phones or development of peripheral products.

"The 5G industry has advanced in China with a speed that exceeds market expectation. I expect China to be able to build about 800,000 5G base stations by the end of this year," Xiang said. China had originally planned to build 500,000 5G base stations by this year but it's too easy a target considering China's current building speed, Xiang said.