Abstract

Urbanization in China is proceeding rapidly in step with population growth and a structural shift in employment from farming to industrial, commercial, and service jobs. Two additional causal factors drive the recent rapid urbanization. First, policies related to migration and household registration have been relaxed to allow more farmers to move to cities as transient workers. Second, economic reforms have resulted in new rules and regulations that promote foreign investment and trade activities in coastal areas. The results are seen in the emergence of four extended metropolitan regions in coastal areas (Shanghai-Nanjing, Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan, Canton-Hong Kong, and Dalian-Shenyang). These metro regions have markedly different demographic, employment, migration, and foreign investment patterns from other parts of China. Such patterns presage the likely future form of China's urbanization as the country enters a period of accelerated urbanization.