In a rapidly urbanizing world, China is expected to play animportant role, chiefly because of its size and the speed atwhich it is changing. In 1980, China’s urban population was191 million. By 2007, it was 594 million, excluding itsfloating migrant population. In the middle of the twentiethcentury, China had 69 cities. In 2007, it had 670 cities,almost ten times as many. The growth in the number of cities inChina is a consequence of migration from villages, togetherwith the natural increase in the populations of small townswhich were then reclassified as cities. How China copes withthis large and continuing flow of people into cities willstrongly influence rural-urban inequality, the pace at whichurban centers expand their economic output, and the urbanenvironment. A new book, “China Urbanizes”, edited byShahid Yusuf of the World Bank’s Development Research Groupand Tony Saich of Harvard University, brings China’surbanization strategies, successes, and challenges into focusat a time when urban development is of growing importanceacross the developing world.
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