ABSTRACT
This chapter studies two fast-developing county-level cities, Nanhai and Panyu, in the inner Pearl River Delta (see Map 8.1) in Guangdong province. They were formerly counties, but following the policy of abolishing counties and establishing cities in the more developed localities, they gained county-level city status in 1992. 1 County-level cities are at the lowest level in China’s hierarchy of cities. As more counties in China gain city status, we may have considerable difficulty understanding China’s level of urbanization. 2 However, many of the count-level cities are basically rural communities with substantial rural populations. Nanhai and Panyu are also basically rural communities, but they are different from the average county-level cities in the country in that the rapid industrialization and economic growth in the past two decades have quickly set in train a process of rapid urbanization. This introductory section sets out the rationale behind selecting these two localities for analysis and discusses the analytical foci of this chapter and how this analysis is relevant to understanding local economic development in China in the reform period. Location of Nanhai and Panyu in the Pearl River Delta https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203976081/d229322e-6f89-4648-800e-a1c11f2dd6b9/content/fig8_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
