This book analyses the particular nature, characteristics and current conditions of urbanization in China. It reviews the theory of “urbanization with a diversified process” and puts forward the basic principles for promoting urbanization on the basis of a perspective reflecting the diversified sizes of towns and cities. Further, it assesses the overall strategic planning for advancing urbanization and explores the characteristics of an urban society formed on the basis of diversified urbanization.

This book analyses the particular nature, characteristics and current conditions of urbanization in China. It reviews the theory of "urbanization with a diversified process" and puts forward the basic principles for promoting urbanization on the basis of a perspective reflecting the diversified sizes of towns and cities. Further, it assesses the overall strategic planning for advancing urbanization and explores the characteristics of an urban society formed on the basis of diversified urbanization.

In the last 30 years, China’s record economic growth lifted half a billion people out of poverty, with rapid urbanization providing abundant labor, cheap land, and good infrastructure. While China has avoided some of the common ills of urbanization, strains are showing as inefficient land development leads to urban sprawl and ghost towns, pollution threatens people’s health, and farmland and water resources are becoming scarce. With China’s urban population projected to rise to about one billion – or close to 70 percent of the country’s population – by 2030, China’s leaders are seeking a more coordinated urbanization process. Urban China is a joint research report by a team from the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council which was established to address the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in China and to help China forge a new model of urbanization. The report takes as its point of departure the conviction that China's urbanization can become more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. However, it stresses that achieving this vision will require strong support from both government and the markets for policy reforms in a number of area. The report proposes six main areas for reform: first, amending land management institutions to foster more efficient land use, denser cities, modernized agriculture, and more equitable wealth distribution; second, adjusting the hukou household registration system to increase labor mobility and provide urban migrant workers equal access to a common standard of public services; third, placing urban finances on a more sustainable footing while fostering financial discipline among local governments; fourth, improving urban planning to enhance connectivity and encourage scale and agglomeration economies; fifth, reducing environmental pressures through more efficient resource management; and sixth, improving governance at the local level.

This book considers the implications of the emerging post-pandemic reality for public space and the built environment. It addresses changes to our cities, parks, neighborhoods, transportation modes, schools, streetscapes, cultural spaces, and engineering systems present in each of these. The chapters’ broad topics include public space and the built environment; tactical urbanism and temporality; designing built environments and hybrid remote spaces; engaging community and participation; connection with nature for mental health and wellness; the future of post pandemic space; and disaster preparedness. Recurring themes are design flexibility, repurposed cities, building standards, virtual connectedness, environmental vigilance, refocus on wellness and green space, gender perspectives, and community organization. It will be an important reference work for researchers, students and practitioners.

Prior to the initiation of economic reforms and trade liberalization 36 years ago, China maintained policies that kept the economy very poor, stagnant, centrally-controlled, vastly inefficient, and relatively isolated from the global economy. Since opening up to foreign trade and investment and implementing free market reforms in 1979, China has been among the world's fastest-growing economies, with real annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaging nearly 10% through 2016. In recent years, China has emerged as a major global economic power. It is now the world's largest economy (on a purchasing power parity basis), manufacturer, merchandise trader, and holder of foreign exchange reserves.The global economic crisis that began in 2008 greatly affected China's economy. China's exports, imports, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows declined, GDP growth slowed, and millions of Chinese workers reportedly lost their jobs. The Chinese government responded by implementing a $586 billion economic stimulus package and loosening monetary policies to increase bank lending. Such policies enabled China to effectively weather the effects of the sharp global fall in demand for Chinese products, but may have contributed to overcapacity in several industries and increased debt by Chinese firms and local government. China's economy has slowed in recent years. Real GDP growth has slowed in each of the past six years, dropping from 10.6% in 2010 to 6.7% in 2016, and is projected to slow to 5.7% by 2022.The Chinese government has attempted to steer the economy to a "new normal" of slower, but more stable and sustainable, economic growth. Yet, concerns have deepened in recent years over the health of the Chinese economy. On August 11, 2015, the Chinese government announced that the daily reference rate of the renminbi (RMB) would become more "market-oriented." Over the next three days, the RMB depreciated against the dollar and led to charges that China's goal was to boost exports to help stimulate the economy (which some suspect is in worse shape than indicated by official Chinese economic statistics). Concerns over the state of the Chinese economy appear to have often contributed to volatility in global stock indexes in recent years.The ability of China to maintain a rapidly growing economy in the long run will likely depend largely on the ability of the Chinese government to implement comprehensive economic reforms that more quickly hasten China's transition to a free market economy; rebalance the Chinese economy by making consumer demand, rather than exporting and fixed investment, the main engine of economic growth; boost productivity and innovation; address growing income disparities; and enhance environmental protection. The Chinese government has acknowledged that its current economic growth model needs to be altered and has announced several initiatives to address various economic challenges. In November 2013, the Communist Party of China held the Third Plenum of its 18th Party Congress, which outlined a number of broad policy reforms to boost competition and economic efficiency. For example, the communique stated that the market would now play a "decisive" role in allocating resources in the economy. At the same time, however, the communique emphasized the continued important role of the state sector in China's economy. In addition, many foreign firms have complained that the business climate in China has worsened in recent years. Thus, it remains unclear how committed the Chinese government is to implementing new comprehensive economic reforms.China's economic rise has significant implications for the United States and hence is of major interest to Congress. This report provides background on China's economic rise; describes its current economic structure; identifies the challenges China faces to maintain economic growth; and discusses the challenges, opportunities, and implications of China's economic rise.

The urban-rural relationship in China is key to a sustainable global future. This book is particularly interested in peri-urbanization in China, the process by which fringe areas of cities develop. Recent institutional change has helped clarify property rights over collective land, facilitating peri-urban area development. Chapters in this book explore how rural industrialization has changed the landscape and rules about land use in peri-urban areas. It looks at the role of rural industrialization and provides a detailed exploration of peri-urbanization theory, policy, and its evolution in China. Leading discussions find out how fragmented bottom-up industrialization, urbanization, and lax governance have led to a series of social and environmental problems. The progress in redevelopment of peri-urban areas was initially slow due to the spatial lock-in effect. This book offers practical solutions to environmental issues and explains how policymakers have the potential to redevelop a future collaborative, inclusive, and sustainable approach to peri-urban areas. This in-depth approach to urbanization will be useful to academics in urban planning and governmental organizations. It will also be advantageous to NGOs and professionals involved in urban planning, public administration, as well as land-use work in China and other developing countries.

This book provides unique perspectives into newly changed political and socioeconomic urban landscapes due to COVID-19 in diverse cities and aims to provide ways to improve the resilience of cities using a global perspective, especially in a post-pandemic era. This book is divided into three sections with seventeen chapters overall. It explores the impacts of the COVID-19 on city planning, building, and maintenance; it considers city resilience and what urban risks cities are facing; and it examines urban development from diverse socioeconomic and political perspectives. The book contains multidisciplinary work by authors from China, African nations (Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria), Canada, Italy, Poland, and France. This manuscript provides a global perspective as cities from Africa, China, as well as some developed countries, such as France and South Korea, were used to collect data and information concerning urban development and risks, past, present, and future responses to COVID-19 as well as any other pandemics and cities' resilience. This book is a valuable asset to urban researchers, urban city planners, urban policymakers, public officials, undergraduates, and postgraduates interested in a comprehensive comparison between diverse socioeconomic and political cities with a unique global and post-pandemic perspective in order to improve urban city resilience.