Chinese Urbanization Research

Generally speaking, the city is the centers of economy, politics, science and technique, culture and education in a country or region. Comparative advantage, economies of scale and gathering economy are the main economic powers for the city's formation and development. Urbanization means population concentrate, the city quantity increase and their scales extend under the function of the gathering mechanism because of the development of the social productivity and division of labor in society. The city grows up to regional economic growth pole by the gathering economy and economies of scale, makes full use of the pole effect and drop effect. And its material progress and cultural and ideological progress develop and diffuse continuously, industrial structure convert to higher grade, the urban and rural develop together and become integration.Urbanization, as one of the markings of human civilization progresses, had already developed gradually in the long agriculture economic age. But the real urbanization in human society should be from the beginning of England Industrial Revolution in 1760s'. Industrialization and urbanization were realized in England by using the primitive accumulation of the agriculture surplus and other industry workers' income of local deprival and overseas colonial loot. In the industrialization age the long-term economy development with industry as the main contents is a continual motive mechanism, urbanization and industrialization keep on having the consistency with promoting the function mutually. Since the second world war, particularly 1960-1970s', the relationship between urbanization and industrialization is not so close, and even no longer the same process for post-industrial countries even some developing countries. There appeared the trend of looseness, the third industrial then began to play more and more predominant function obviously. There appeared the phenomenona of "delayed urbanization" and "advanced urbanization" because of lagging andlacking of industrialization in developing countries.After the founding of the P. R. China, influenced by a series of factors home and abroad and the road of industrialization of the former Soviet Union, China chose the road to develop the heavy industry in advantage. Accompanied by this development strategy, China carried out the policy to control the buying and sailing of the farmer's products and a series of economic and social polices of the diadactic structure to separate rural from urban, which deprived the agriculture, the rural area and the peasants' interests to build up the comprehensive modern industry, national defense and the national economy system. But the development strategy, characterized with high accumulation, high speed, to develop the heavy industry in advantage, make the urbanization promoted by the government. As a result, the strategy led to the serious imbalance of economic proportion and caused the basic agriculture fluctuated and become the bottle - neck of the industrialization. The diadactic structure of the household registration system made people's free migration to towns and cities difficult. The capital and technology intensive mode of industrialization also repel the labor forces to enter the second and third industry. All these caused the great fluctuation and slowing of the urbanization, and the level of the urbanization increased not more than 2%, from 10.6% in 1949 to 12.54% in 1978.Since the reform and openness, the contracted responsibility system with remuneration linked to output was carried out, the town and township enterprises have developing quickly , and the national enterprises have been promoting the reformation, the open policy are being expanded , and the target of the socialist market economy system has been put forward and is being established, a series of great adjustments of national economic system have been made, the national economic proportion has been improved, and the household registration system has been changing. All these causedthe rate of urbanizat...