ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters have traced the main dimensions of the urban transformation in contemporary China. Our main thesis is that the Chinese urbanization process must be seen as the result of mélange of processes that are being driven by globalization, national policy and local bureaucratic entrepreneurial initiatives. We have also emphasized that the urbanization process must be set within the particular regional context in which it is occurring. In the midst of these dramatic changes it is possible to identify three main directions. First, city leaders are repositioning their cities so that they capture an increased proportion of global, national and regional transactions. Most obviously this is done by building new “gateway functions” such as international airports, freeway systems and container ports. Part of this package are attempts to market the city as livable, sustainable and efficient, which are often parts of newly developing city strategic plans. But this process is intensely competitive, none more so than in the province of Guangdong where Hong Kong had assumed a leading role in global interactions in the post-war period while it remained a British colony. But in the post-1978 period as Guangdong was opened-up to global investment as a result of Deng’s open door policy, that has enabled Guangdong to become the leading industrial province in China (in terms of exports). Many new cities have sprung up in Guangdong including the special cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai and many of the county urban cores such as Dongguan, Shunde, Zhongshan and Nanhai. This has presented a major challenge to the city core of Guangzhou as the provincial capital and forced city administrators to attempt to find new roles for the city in the urban system of the province.
