Urban Transition in Western China

Abstract

China has experienced considerable urban growth in the past sixty years, especially since the implementation of Economic reform and Opening Policy in 1978. In 1949, there were only 132 cities with an urban population of 27.4 million, while in 2007 it had 655 cities with a total urban population of 500 million. Such an urban growth is attributed to the boost in the number of cities and the urban population. Urban expansion enhanced geographic inequality between the three major regions in China. Compared to the Eastern and Central regions, Western China only has 19% of the total cities and 17% of the urban population. The urbanization rate was 36% for the Western region in 2007, while it reached 53.7% for the Eastern regions and 43.1% for Central China. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) and statistical analyses, this study aims at explaining the structure and spatial development of urban growth, and highlighting the current issues of urban inequality in Western China during the past two decades. The conclusions are the following: 1. Urban growth disparities between East and West have become increasingly obvious, but seem to be evolving slowly since the establishment of the government's Western Development Priority policy in 2000; 2. Cities were of various sizes expanded in Western China, and the main factors which effected the urban growth are population numbers and density, government investment and geographic conditions; 3. Current patterns of urbanization in the Western region are distributed unevenly between provinces.