ABSTRACT
In the process of transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, China is experiencing historically unprecedented urbanization. At the beginning of the socialist period in 1949, 10.6 per cent of China’s popu - lation lived in areas that were officially designated as urban (NBS 1983: 104). Thirty years later, at the end of the Maoist era and just prior to the onset of the socioeconomic reforms that would usher in the post-socialist era,1 only 19 per cent of a total population of 975 million people were counted as urbanites. In the quarter of the century since the beginning of the reform era, however, China has experienced a rapid increase in urbanization levels. By 2007 the proportion of urban dwellers had risen to 45 per cent (NBS 2008).
