Growth of new designated cities in China

Abstract

The opening of the economy has contributed to the rapid urban development in China over the last 17 years from 1979 to 1996. It is worthwhile to note three new development trends of Chinese urban system. The first trend identifies the emergence of mega-urbanization regions. The second trend rebuilds a closer tie between the Chinese urban system and the global urban system through the development of the world (global) cities and international cities. The third trend shows the fast-polarized development in hinterlands and peripheries around advanced economic regions. However, the research literature on Chinese urbanization in English has shown the scarcity of good databanks and the analysis results are incomplete. Some researchers also always question the quality of the data. Using the most completed and most recent data, this paper reviews the growth of China’s new designated cities since 1949. This paper also seeks to examine the various policies and to explore the underlying factors that have affected the growth of China new cities. From the development of China’s cities in the past 47 years from 1949 to 1996, it is easy to find that metropolitan cities developed with a relatively high rate compared with smaller ones, but the ratio of number and population to whole country cities remained stable; Chinese urban system development had entered a phase of small cities development; in terms of cities regional distribution, the south and east region is still the central area of urban development.