| Abstract: | This article describes recent changes in urban patterns in Shanghai-Nanjing, Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan, Canton-Hong Kong, and Dalian-Shenyang. The urban patterns in these metropolitan areas are viewed as part of an urban transition that is responding to population growth, a structural shift in employment, relaxed rules on migration and household registration, and foreign investment and trade. It is argued that these metropolitan coastal areas will form the key growth centers and will lead China's economic development. Urban transition is defined as the shift from rural to urban and from agricultural employment to industrial, commercial, or service employment. China's large cities always dominated as important centers of politics and trade. The recent shift is from interior to coastal cities due to a new world view and a movement away from the isolationism of prior centuries. It is assumed that cities are formed to take advantage of economies of scale in production, consumption, and distribution and to conform to regional specialization. Governments can intervene in growth processes. China's development of cities reflects state controls and market forces. The size and scale of China's population influenced the development process, which resulted in differences in the shape and process of the urban transition. It was under Chinese communism that cities became more than a set of discrete regional urban systems. Reference is made to Oshima's model of change that is specific to monsoon countries. Oshima argues that monsoon agricultural conditions require a distinct strategy based on full employment in order to achieve industrial transition. Rice cultivation requires a large and disciplined labor force. The discussion focuses on other models as well, such as the McGee's model of the extended metropolis and its extension by Zhou Yixing to China. China's changes may not follow Skeldon's models of urbanization in developing countries, because of state control of migration. However, the longer migrants remain in cities the more likely Skeldon's models of early European transitions apply to China's urban transition. |
