A Mechanism of Urban Formation in Developing Asia: A Case of the Pearl River Delta Region, China

Abstract

This paper aims at considering a mechanism of urban formation in Asia, focusing on the growth of small towns under the economic reform since the 1980s in the Pearl River Delta region, southern China. A discussion on the extended pattern of urbanization in Asia and some models of China's economic development are reviewed as a frame of reference. The extended urban formation in the Pearl River Delta region is considered to be the incorporating process of the region into the New International Division of Labour. Some Hong Kong-based enterprises have started to locate large-scale factories to the region, while they have left headquarters functions in Hong Kong. Those factories have employed a lot of workers from a segmented regional labour market of immigrants. Local communities in rural areas have accumulated land profits from the compensation of land expropriation and rent of collective-owned land to promote land development in their domains. While foreign enterprises aggressively invest in the region in pursuit of preferable location for their production, local communities in rural area as well as local government competitively develop their land and construct facilities on it in order to invite more foreign investment. As a result, these movements have brought about rapid changes in the landscape of the region.