Focusing primarily on the period 1995-2005 and on research published in English, this
article reviews the contributions geographers have made to the field of urban China
studies, which are broadly grouped around three themes: internal change and
reorganization of cities; the interplay with external globalizing forces; and
political and social transformations. This article also proposes research emphases
for further consideration.
Cartier, Carolyn
. “City-Space: Scale Relations and China’s Spatial
Administrative Hierarchy”. In Restructuring the Chinese
City: Changing Society, Economy and Space, ed.
Laurence J. C. Ma
and
Fulong Wu
, 21-38.
London: Routledge
, 2005.
2.
Chan, Kam Wing
. Cities with Invisible Walls: Reinterpreting Urbanization in Post-1949
China.
Hong Kong: Oxford University Press
, 1994.
3.
Chan, Kam Wing
, and
Li Zhang
.
“The Hukou System and Rural-Urban Migration in China: Processes
and Changes”.The China Quarterly, no. 160 (1999):
818-855
.
4.
Chan, Kam Wing
, and
Ying Hu.“Urbanization in China in the 1990s: New Definition, Different
Series, and Revised Trends”.The China Review3, no. 2 (2003):
49-71
.
5.
Chan, Roger C. K.“Urban Development Strategy in an Era of Global Competition: The
Case of South China”.Habitat International20, no. 4 (1996):
509-523
.
6.
Deng, F. Frederic
, and
Youqin Huang
.
“Uneven Land Reform and Urban Sprawl in China: The Case of Beijing”.Progress in Planning61 (2004):
211-236
.
7.
Fan, Cindy C.“Of Belts and Ladders—State Policy and Uneven Regional
Development in Post-Mao China”.Annals of the Association of American Geographers85, no. 3 (1995):
421-449
.
8.
Fan, Cindy C.“The Elite, the Natives, and the Outsiders: Migration and Labor
Market Segregation in Urban China”.Annals of the Association of American Geographers92, no. 1 (2002):
103-124
.
9.
Fan, Cindy C.“The State, the Migrant Labor Regime, and Maiden Workers in China”.Political Geography23, no. 3 (2004):
283-305
.
10.
Fan, Cindy C.
,
Laurence J. C. Ma
,
Clifton W. Pannell
, and
Kok-Chiang Tan
. “Geography of China”. In Geography
in America at the Dawn of the 21st Century, ed.
Gary L. Gaile
and
Cort J. Willmott
, 668-678.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
, 2003.
11.
Feng, Jian
, and
Yixing Zhou
.
“Suburbanization and the Changes of Urban Internal Spatial
Structure in Hangzhou, China”.Urban Geography26, no. 2 (2005):
107-136
.
12.
Gaubatz, Piper Rae
. Beyond the Great Wall: Urban Form and Transformation on the Chinese
Frontiers.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
, 1996.
13.
Gaubatz, Piper Rae
.
“China’s Urban Transformation: Patterns and Processes
of Morphological Change in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou”.Urban Studies36, no. 9 (1999):
1495-1521
.
14.
Gaubatz, Piper Rae
. “Globalization and the Development of New Central Business
Districts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou”. In
Restructuring the Chinese City: Changing Society, Economy and Space,
ed.
Laurence J. C. Ma
and
Fulong Wu
, 98-121.
London: Routledge
, 2005.
15.
Gong, Hongmian
.
“Spatial Patterns of Foreign Investment in China’s
Cities, 1980-1989”.Urban Geography16, no. 3 (1995):
198-209
.
16.
Gu, Chaolin
, and
Christian Kesteloot
. “Beijing’s Socio-spatial Structure in
Transition”. In Studies in Segregation and
Desegregation, ed.
Itzhak Shnell
and
Wim J. M. Ostendorf
, 285-311.
Aldershot: Ashgate
, 2002.
17.
Gu, Chaolin
,
Fahui Wang
, and
Guili Liu
.
“The Structure of Social Space in Beijing in 1998: A Socialist
City in Transition”.Urban Geography26, no. 2 (2005):
167-192
.
18.
Han, Sunsheng
, and
Yong Wang
.
“The Institutional Structure of a Property Market in Inland
China: Chongqing”.Urban Studies40, no. 1 (2003):
91-112
.
19.
Hayter, Roger
, and
Sun Sheng Han
.
“Reflections on China’s Open Policy towards Foreign
Direct Investment”.Regional Studies32, no. 1 (1998):
1-16
.
20.
He, Shenjing
, and
Fulong Wu.“Property-led Redevelopment in Post-Reform China: A Case Study of
Xintiandi Redevelopment Project in Shanghai”.Journal of Urban Affairs27, no. 1 (2005):
1-23
.
21.
Ho, Samuel P. S.
, and
George C. S. Lin
.
“Emerging Land Markets in Rural and Urban China: Policies and Practices”.The China Quarterly, no. 175 (2003):
681-707
.
22.
Hsing, You-Tien
. Making Capitalism in China: The Taiwan Connection.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
, 1998.
23.
Hsing, You-Tien
. “Global Capital and Local Land in China’s Urban
Real Estate Development”. In Globalization and the
Chinese City, ed.
Fulong Wu
, 167-189.
Abingdon: Routledge
, 2006.
24.
Hu, Xiuhong
, and
David H. Kaplan
.
“The Emergence of Affluence in Beijing: Residential Social
Stratification in China’s Capital City”.Urban Geography22, no. 1 (2001):
54-77
.
25.
Huang, Youqin
. “From Work-Unit Compounds to Gated Communities: Housing
Inequality and Residential Segregation in Transitional
Beijing”. In Restructuring the Chinese City: Changing
Society, Economy and Space, ed.
Laurence J. C. Ma
and
Fulong Wu
, 191-221.
London: Routledge
, 2005.
26.
Huang, Youqin
, and
William A. V. Clark
.
“Housing Tenure Choice in Transitional Urban China: A Multilevel Analysis”.Urban Studies39, no. 1 (2002):
7-32
.
27.
Kirkby, Richard J. R.Urbanization in China: Town and Country in a Developing Economy, 1949-2000
AD.
New York: Columbia University Press
, 1985.
28.
Knapp, Ronald G.China’s Walled Cities.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
, 2000.
29.
Leung, Chi Kin
.
“Foreign Manufacturing Investment and Regional Industrial Growth
in Guangdong Province, China”.Environment and Planning A28, no. 3 (1996):
513-536
.
30.
Li, Si-Ming
.
“Life Course and Residential Mobility in Beijing, China”.Environment and Planning A36, no. 1 (2004):
27-43
.
31.
Li, Si-Ming
, and
Yat-Ming Siu
.
“Commodity Housing Construction and Intra-urban Migration in
Beijing—An Analysis of Survey Data”.Third World Planning Review23, no. 1 (2001):
39-60
.
32.
Lin, George C. S.Red Capitalism in South China Growth and Development of the Pearl River
Delta.
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press
, 1997.
33.
Lin, George C. S.“China’s Industrialization with Controlled
Urbanization: Anti-Urbanism or Urban-biased?”Issues & Studies34, no. 6 (1998):
98-116
.
34.
Lin, George C. S.“State, Capital, and Space in China in an Age of Volatile Globalization”.Environment and Planning A32, no. 3 (2000):
455-471
.
35.
Lin, George C. S.“The Growth and Structural Change of Chinese Cities: A Contextual
and Geographic Analysis”.Cities19, no. 5 (2002):
299-316
.
36.
Lin, George C. S.
, and
Samuel P. S. Ho.“The State, Land System, and Land Development Processes in
Contemporary China”.Annals of the Association of American Geographers95, no. 2 (2005):
411-436
.
37.
Liu, Weidong
,
Peter Dicken
, and
Henry W. C. Yeung
.
“New Information and Communication Technologies and Local
Clustering of Firms: A Case Study of the Xingwang Industrial Park in Beijing”.Urban Geography25, no. 4 (2004):
390-407
.
38.
Liu, Yuting
, and
Fulong Wu.“The State, Institutional Transition and the Creation of New
Urban Poverty in China”.Social Policy and Administration40, no. 2 (2006):
121-137
.
39.
Ma, Laurence J. C.“Urban Transformation in China, 1949-2000: A Review and Research Agenda”.Environment and Planning A34, no. 9 (2002):
1545-1569
.
40.
Ma, Laurence J. C.“Urban Administrative Restructuring, Changing Scale Relations and
Local Economic Development in China”.Political Geography24, no. 4 (2005):
477-497
.
41.
Ma, Laurence J. C.
, and
Biao Xiang
.
“Native Place, Migration and the Emergence of Peasant Enclaves in Beijing”.The China Quarterly, no. 155 (1998):
546-581
.
42.
Ma, Laurence J. C.
, and
Edward W. Hanten
. Urban Development in Modern China.
Boulder, CO: Westview
, 1981.
43.
Ma, Laurence J. C.
, and
Fulong Wu
, eds. Restructuring the Chinese City: Changing Society, Economy and
Space.
London and New York: Routledge
, 2005.
44.
Marton, Andrew M.China’s Spatial Economic Development: Restless Landscapes in the
Lower Yangzi Delta.
London: Routledge
, 2000.
45.
Ng, Mee Kam
, and
Wing Shing Tang
.
“Urban System Planning in China: A Case Study of the Pearl River Delta”.Urban Geography20, no. 7 (1999):
591-616
.
46.
Olds, Kristopher
.
“Globalizing Shanghai: The ‘Global Intelligence
Corps’ and the Building of Pudong”.Cities14, no. 2 (1997):
109-123
.
47.
Pannell, Clifton W.“China’s Urban Geography”.Progress in Human Geography14, no. 2 (1990):
214-236
.
Shen, Jianfa
.
“Urban and Regional Development in Post-Reform China: The Case of
Zhujiang Delta”.Progress in Planning57 (2002):
91-140
.
50.
Shen, Jianfa
.
“Cross-Border Urban Governance in Hong Kong: The Role of State in
a Globalizing City-Region”.Professional Geographer56, no. 4 (2004):
530-543
.
51.
Shen, Jianfa
. “Space, Scale and the State: Reorganizing Urban Space in
China”. In Restructuring the Chinese City: Changing Society,
Economy and Space, ed.
Laurence J. C. Ma
and
Fulong Wu
, 39-58.
London: Routledge
, 2005.
52.
Shen, Jianfa
,
Kwan-Yiu Wong
, and
Zhiqiang Feng
.
“State-sponsored and Spontaneous Urbanization in the Pearl River
Delta of South China, 1980-1998”.Urban Geography23, no. 7 (2002):
674-694
.
53.
Shi, Yulong
, and
Chris Hamnett
.
“The Potential and Prospect for Global Cities in China: In the
Context of the World System”.Geoforum33 (2002):
121-135
.
54.
Sit, Victor F. S.
, ed. Chinese Cities: The Growth of the Metropolis since 1949.
Hong Kong: Oxford University Press
, 1985.
55.
Sit, Victor F. S.
, and
Chun Yang
.
“Foreign-Investment-induced Exo-urbanisation in the Pearl River
Delta, China”.Urban Studies34, no. 4 (1997):
647-677
.
56.
Smith, Christopher J.“The Transformative Impact of Capital and Labor Mobility on the
Chinese City”.Urban Geography21, no. 8 (2000):
670-700
.
57.
Solinger, Dorothy J.
, and
Kam Wing Chan
. “The China Difference: City Studies under
Socialism”. In Understanding the City: Contemporary and
Future Perspectives, ed.
John Eade
and
Christopher Mele
, 204-221.
Oxford: Blackwell
, 2002.
58.
Sun, Yifei
.
“Sources of Innovation in China’s Manufacturing Sector:
Imported or Developed In-house?”Environment and Planning A34, no. 6 (2002):
1059-1072
.
59.
Tian, Guangjin
,
Jiyuan Liu
, and
Zengxiang Zhang
.
“Urban Functional Structure Characteristics and Transformation in China”.Cities19, no. 4 (2002):
243-248
.
60.
Walcott, Susan M.“Chinese Industrial and Science Parks: Bridging the Gap”.Professional Geographer54, no. 3 (2002):
349-364
.
61.
Wang, Donggen
, and
Si-Ming Li.“Housing Preference in a Transitional Housing System: The Case of
Beijing, China”.Environment and Planning A36, no. 1 (2004):
69-87
.
62.
Wang, Fahui
, and
Yixing Zhou
.
“Modelling Urban Population Densities in Beijing 1982-1990:
Suburbanisation and Its Causes”.Urban Studies36, no. 2 (1999):
271-287
.
63.
Wang, Shuguang
, and
Ken Jones
.
“Retail Structure of Beijing”.Environment and Planning A34, no. 10 (2002):
1785-1808
.
64.
Wang, Shuguang
, and
Yongchang Zhang
.
“The New Retail Economy of Shanghai”.Growth and Change36, no. 1 (2005):
41-73
.
65.
Wang, Yaping
. Urban Poverty, Housing and Social Change in China.
Abingdon: Routledge
, 2004.
66.
Wang, Yaping
, and
Alan Murie
. Housing Policy and Practice in China.
Basingstoke: Macmillan Press
, 1999.
67.
Wang, Yaping
, and
Alan Murie
.
“Social and Spatial Implications of Housing Reform in China”.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research24, no. 2 (2000):
397-417
.
68.
Wei, Yehua Dennis
, and
Chi Kin Leung
.
“Development Zones, Foreign Investment, and Global City Formation
in Shanghai”.Growth and Change36, no. 1 (2005):
16-40
.
69.
Williams, Jack F.“Geographers and China”.Issues & Studies38 and 39, nos 4 and 1 (2002):
217-247
.
70.
Wong, Kwan-Yiu
, and
Jianfa Shen
, eds. Resource Management, Urbanization and Governance in Hong Kong and
the Zhujiang Delta.
Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press
, 2002.
71.
Wu, Fulong
.
“The Global and Local Dimensions of Place-Making: Remaking
Shanghai as a World City”.Urban Studies37, no. 8 (2000):
1359-1377
.
72.
Wu, Fulong
.
“China’s Changing Urban Governance in the Transition
towards a More Market-oriented Economy”.Urban Studies39, no. 7 (2002):
1071-1093
.
73.
Wu, Fulong
.
“Urban Poverty and Marginalization under Market Transition: The
Case of Chinese Cities”.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research28, no. 2 (2004):
401-423
.
74.
Wu, Fulong
, ed. Globalization and the Chinese City.
London: Routledge
, 2006.
75.
Wu, Weiping
.
“Proximity and Complementarities in Hong Kong-Shenzhen Industrialization”.Asian Survey37, no. 8 (1997):
771-793
.
76.
Wu, Weiping
.
“Migrant Housing in Urban China: Choices and Constraints”.Urban Affairs Quarterly38, no. 1 (2002):
90-119
.
77.
Xu, Jiang
, and
Anthony G. O. Yeh
.
“City Repositioning and Competitiveness Building in Regional
Development: New Development Strategies in Guangzhou, China”.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research29, no. 2 (2005):
283-308
.
78.
Yan, Xiaopei
,
Li Jia
,
Jianping Li
, and
Jizhuan Weng
. “The Development of the Chinese Metropolis in the Period
of Transition”. In The New Chinese City: Globalization
and Market Reform, ed.
John R. Logan
, 37-55.
Oxford: Blackwell
, 2002.
79.
Yang, Chun
.
“From Market-led to Institution-based Economic Integration: The
Case of the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong”.Issues & Studies40, no. 2 (2004):
79-118
.
80.
Yeh, Anthony G. O.
, and
Fulong Wu.“The New Land Development Process and Urban Development in
Chinese Cities”.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research20, no. 2 (1996):
330-353
.
81.
Yeh, Anthony G. O.
,
Xueqiang Xu
, and
Huaying Hu.“The Social Space of Guangzhou City, China”.Urban Geography16, no. 7 (1995):
595-621
.
82.
Yeung, Henry W. C.“Local Politics and Foreign Ventures in China’s
Transitional Economy: The Political Economy of Singaporean Investments in China”.Political Geography19, no. 7 (2000):
809-840
.
83.
Yeung, Yue Man
, and
Xuwei Hu
, eds. China’s Coastal Cities: Catalysts for
Modernization.
Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press
, 1992.
84.
Yeung, Yue Man
, and
Xiaojian Li.“Bargaining with Transnational Corporations: The Case of Shanghai”.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research23, no. 3 (1999):
513-533
.
85.
Zhang, Jingxiang
, and
Fulong Wu.“China’s Changing Economic Governance: Administrative
Annexation and the Reorganization of Local Governments in the Yangtze River Delta”.Regional Studies40, no. 1 (2006):
3-21
.
86.
Zhang, Li
, and
Simon X. B. Zhao
.
“Re-examining China’s ‘Urban’
Concept and the Level of Urbanization”.The China Quarterly, no. 154 (1998):
330-381
.
87.
Zhang, Li
,
Simon X. B. Zhao
, and
Jianping Tian
.
“Self-Help in Housing and Chengzhongcun in China’s Urbanization”.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research27, no. 4 (2003):
912-937
.
88.
Zhao, Simon X. B.
,
Roger C. K. Chan
, and
Kelvin T. O. Sit
.
“Globalization and the Dominance of Large Cities in Contemporary China”.Cities20, no. 4 (2003):
265-278
.
89.
Zhao, Simon X. B.
,
Li Zhang
, and
Danny T. Wang
.
“Determining Factors of the Development of a National Financial
Center: The Case of China”.Geoforum35, no. 5 (2004):
577-592
.
90.
Zhou, Yu
, and
Tong Xin
.
“An Innovative Region in China: Interaction between Multinational
Corporations and Local Firms in a High-Tech Cluster in Beijing”.Economic Geography79, no. 2 (2003):
129-152
.
91.
Zhou, Yixing
, and
Laurence J. C. Ma
.
“Economic Restructuring and Suburbanization in China”.Urban Geography21, no. 3 (2000):
205-236
.
92.
Zhou, Yixing
, and
Laurence J. C. Ma
.
“China’s Urbanization Levels: Reconstructing a Baseline
from the Fifth Population Census”.The China Quarterly, no. 173 (2003):
176-196
.
93.
Zhu, Yu.New Paths to Urbanization in China: Seeking More Balanced Patterns.
Commack, NY: Nova Science Publications
, 1999.
