Editors' Introduction

Abstract

With its population approximating a quarter of mankind, China has more cities and towns and a larger population than any nation on earth. Indeed, China's urban population is larger than the total population of any country save the United States, the Soviet Union, and India. The early Chinese cities ranked among the most ancient in the world and were found in one of the cradles of civilization on the flood plain of the Huang He. The important contributions Chinese ancient cities made to the evolution of urban planning and urban construction is affirmed by the monumental treatise of Wheatley.1 The vibrancy and the effective city-region articulation of the preindustrial city were demonstrated in an early study of Shanghai by Murphey.2 Despite its lengthy and uninterrupted tradition, China remains largely a rural country. When the present regime came to power in 1949, only 10.6 percent of China's population lived in urban places. By 1982, the latest census year, China's urban population had doubled to 20.6 percent, which was still markedly below the developing-country average of 32 percent in 1982.3