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China to Quicken the Pace of Urbanization China expects to quicken the pace of urbanization during the next 15 years, with the urbanization rate rising from the present 30 percent to 50 percent. Cities are playing the role of the engine of economic growth. Windows of Reform and Opening Chinese cities have been serving as the windows of reform and opening-up. In 1979, the Chinese Government designated the four cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen as special economic zones, launching the opening-up program in China. In 1984, some 14 coastal port cities (Tianjin, Shanghai, Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai) were cited as coastal open cities. In 1985 , the 51 counties and cities in the Pearl and Yangtze river deltas and the Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou triangle area in south Fujian Province were designated as coastal economic open areas. In 1988, the coastal economic open areas were extended to the Liaodong Peninsula, Shandong Peninsula and other cities and counties in coastal areas. Soon afterwards, the Hainan Special Economic Zone was established. As a result, an opening-up pattern was initially formed in coastal areas, comprising special economic zones, coastal open cities and coastal economic open areas. The coastal open areas, covering 426,000 square km of land area, embrace 293 counties and cities with a combined population of 280 million. The momentum of opening-up with the focus on cities was maintained in the 1990s. In 1990, the Government approved the opening and development of the Pudong New Area in Shanghai, spurring the progress of China’’s largest city. In 1992, in the wake of Deng Xiaoping’’s inspection tour of south China, the Chinese Government opened all inland provincial capital cities, some cities along the Yangtze River ( Wuhu, Jiujiang, Huang-shi, Yueyang and Chongqing) and the Three Gorges reservoir area, as well as 13 border cities in Jilin, Heilongjiang and Yunnan provinces, and Inner Mongolian, Xinjiang Uygur and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions. Over the past 20 years, Chinese cities have consistently stood on the front-line of reform and opening-up , playing the role of windows in opening the market, learning from modern management expertise and importing advanced technology. Propelling Economic Growth China’’s economic reform, which began in rural areas, has been gradually introduced to the cities. Now, centering on the cities, the reform focuses on replacing the planned economic structure with a market economic structure, with the goal of establishing a socialist market economy. The urban economy mainly relies on secondary and tertiary industries, which feature concentrated enterprises and fairly high labor productivity. The cities, therefore, represent the most dynamic force in the national economy. Between 1988-1996, the GDP of Chinese cities registered an average annual increase of 18 percent, with the growth rate exceeding 28 percent between 1992 and 1994. In 1998, the GDP of Chinese cities reached 5 ,896. 2 billion yuan, accounting for 74. 1 percent of the national total. At present, the main task for China’’s macro-economic control is to expand domestic demand. Obviously, the main force for accomplishing this task lies in the cities. According to statistics, with the fast growth of the income of urban residents, the urban consumption level has increased rapidly, with the a-mount of consumption of each urban resident equaling that of three rural inhabitants. In addition, China’’s urban infrastructure construction requires tremendous investment. According to statistics, 400 billion yuan is required for the construction of urban roads, 30 billion yuan for sewage treatment facilities if the existing handling rate increases from 10 percent to 30 percent, and 20 billion yuan for garbage disposal to increase the current handling rate from 50 percent to 80 percent. Experts estimate that for every 1-percentage-point growth in the proportion of urban population, the volume of social retail sales and the GDP will rise by 1. 4 percentage points and 0. 4 percentage point respectively. This demonstrates the important role played by cities in advancing the national economy. The Wonder of Shenzhen Industrialization is of cardinal importance to the urbanization process of various countries worldwide. Equally, urbanization also helps quicken the pace of industrialization. Urbanization not only provides greater market demands for industrialization, but also helps raise the ratio of the secondary and tertiary industries in the economic structure, thereby propelling the process of industrialization of a country as a whole. In China, the development of Shenzhen and other newly emerging cities has followed the aforementioned course. In the early days of reform and opening-up, Shenzhen was merely a small town neighboring Hong Kong. Supported by the Government’’s preferential policies, Shenzhen, relying on its favorable geographical location, absorbed huge amounts of overseas capital and began its process of urbanization, along with the gradual dwindling of the primary industry and the expansion of processing industries. The development of urbanization has attracted large quantities of labor force and capital and many talented people, and promoted urban infrastructure construction and environmental improvement, thus quickening the pace of urbanization. The development of the city has attracted more human talents, and diversified its city function from a simple processing industry base to a financial and trade center. To meet the expanded market and consumption demand, the city has developed electronic, manufacturing and service industries, which has readjusted and optimized its industrial structure and further advanced the progress of industrialization. Shenzhen, which formerly had a population of 23 ,000 and a land area of 3 square km, has grown into a large city, with its total land area reaching 101 square km, combined population exceeding 1. 08 million (789,100 of non-agricultural population) , and a GDP hitting 95 billion yuan in 1996. Compared with 1979, in 1991, the city’’s GDP, industrial added value, social retail sales and export volume rose by 44 percent, 65. 5 percent, 41. 8 percent and 63. 7 percent respectively. In 1979, the city used US $ 15. 37 million of foreign capital and registered US $ 16. 76 million in import and export volume. In 1995, the amount of these two items soared to US $ 1. 74 billion and US $ 38. 77 billion respectively, ranking first in China, and the city’’s per-capita GDP reached 2,338 yuan, which also came first in the country, thus creating a wonder in China’’s history of development. East-West Gaps At present, the urbanization rate on the Pearl River Delta that has a fairly high industrialization level is 38.3 percent, greatly exceeding China’’s average of 30.04 percent. In this area, there is a city on each 2,700 square km of land. In 1995, the eastern region, which accounts for 13.5 percent of the country’’s total land area, had a city on each 4,600 square km of land. In the western region, which accounts for 56.3 percent of the country’’s land area, there was only a city on each 47,800 square km of land. This increased the 1990 gap between the eastern and western regions in the density of cities by 2.3 percentage points to more than 10 fold. According to the report, China’’s economic reform began in cities and then penetrated into rural areas.