ABSTRACT
The era of China’s planned economy after 1949 was characterized by an urban and rural society with a pyramid of administrative hierarchy. This pyramid not only arranged individuals in urban and rural communities in a definite position of social hierarchy according to their social category (urban residents and peasants; and in the city, workers and cadres), but at the same time it gave cities a certain hierarchical administrative level (province, deputy provincial, prefectural and county) according to the administrative management system. In this way certain positions were occupied on the pyramid, and this created what was regarded as homogeneous and heterogeneous regional communities between China’s large, medium and small cities.
