On development of large cities in China

Abstract

The large cities in China have grown rapidly during the past 40 years. By the end of 1990, there were 59 large cities with a population of 0.5 million or more in the mainland China, of which 31 cities have a population of more than 1 million. Under the situation of controlling and developing, the characteristics of the large city grooth may be generalized as follows: 1. Large cities have developed rapidly, but their proportion of number and population in the whole national urban system has droppe. 2. The proportion of coastal large cities some what dropped, the inland large cities increased rapidly. 3. Most of the provincial capitals have developed into large cities. Due to the concentration of Industry and population to the cities, especially to the large cities, the cities scales are expanding and the urban problems are strenghtened. The economic efficiency in large cities is decreasing, the problems in infrastructure construction are becoming more and more serious. The coming 10 to 20 years are an important period for large city development in China. With the social and economic development, the large city growth will continue. The urbann agglomerations-taking the extra-large and medium-sized cities as their centres will come into being in China. the Industries such as finance, trade, information and real estate will increase greatly and will form the major part of urban area, with the restructuring of industries in metropolitan regions.