1. China’s Urban Transformation Weiping Wu Professor and Chair Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning Tufts University weiping.wu@tufts.edu

2. Outline Scope and speed of change ◦ Urbanization and migration ◦ Urban space and form Understanding urban China ◦ What’s unique? ◦ What’s the future?

3. China’s urbanization at a glance ~1980~2010% change Urbanization level (%)19.451.0162.9 Number of cities193657240.4 Eastern region69344398.6 Central region84218159.5 Western region4095137.5 Cities by population size Super large (> 2 million)-42 Extra large (1-2 million)1382530.8 Large (0.5 -1 million)27110307.4 Small & medium (< 0.5 million)153423176.5 Agriculture’s share in employment (%)6439-39.1 Ratio of urban-rural per capita income2.63.223.1

4. Context of China’s urbanization Marketization – command to market economy Decentralization – central-local fiscal relations Industrialization – agricultural to manufacturing economy Migration – rural-based to urban-based society Globalization – autarky to open regime

5. Defining urban Urban place ◦ Cities (657 in 2010)  Criteria changed in 1955, 1963, 1984, 1986, & 1993  Generally, population greater than 100,000 ◦ Officially designated towns (19,410)  Population over 20,000  At least 10 percent is non-agricultural Urban person ◦ Nonagricultural v. agricultural ◦ Locally registered v. migrants

6. Urbanization and regions

7. Central policies at work “Cities leading counties” policy in 1990s ◦ More than 1,200 counties under 280 cities Reclassification of counties as cities in 1983, 1986, and 1993) or as urban districts Case in point – Chongqing ◦ Original city merged with 40 surrounding counties in 1997 ◦ Population changed from 15 to 30 million and land area multiplied

8. Is Chongqing China’s largest city? http://www.fnetravel.com/travel_info/english/chongqing-info/images/map-chongqing.gif

9. Migration as key driver Unprecedented magnitude ◦ >200 million – primarily from rural-urban Primarily short-distance migration ◦ 70 percent within province Coastal region as key destination ◦ Much inter-provincial migration originates from central and western regions Circular or seasonal migration ◦ Primarily aged 15-34, males outnumber females, and family migration about a third

10. Net interprovincial flows, 1995-2000 (Source: Fan 2005)

11. Main destinations of FDI, 2008

12. Reconfiguration of urban space No longer the egalitarian, low-profile, and walking-scale socialist city Linkage between work and residence has all but disappeared ◦ End of cellular-type of housing built around work units Unprecedented residential mobility ◦ Rising role of real estate development ◦ Cessation of work-unit compounds ◦ Less pedestrian and bicycle oriented

13. Changing modes in Shanghai

17. What’s unique? Urbanization and urban growth guided by developmental state Balanced urban system, unlike most other developing countries ◦ Not dominated by a primate city Urbanization driven by ◦ Primarily migration ◦ In-situ urbanization

18. What’s unique? Continued centrality of downtown ◦ Enormous demand for downtown living and commerce (differs from US cities) Distinct pattern of suburbanization ◦ Suburbs are subordinate to central city in their functions (again, differs from US)

19. What’s the future? Urban China is becoming more stratified both within and across cities Urban system most likely centered around strategically located city-regions Fragile human-environment relationship severely challenged by rising urbanization ◦ Urban expansion, often in fragmented and sprawling fashion, will intensify depletion of land, water, and other resources

20. The book The Chinese City By Weiping Wu and Piper Gaubatz Routledge 2013, 978- 0-415-57575-1 http://www.routledg e.com/books/details/ 9780415575751/ http://www.routledg e.com/books/details/ 9780415575751/