Introduction

China is an economy of vast size and is primarily rural. As such, China is in the midst of a most rapid urbanization and the Chinese government has made it a developmental priority to further urbanize. Urbanization refers to both aspects of urban population growth and urban place expansion. The latter is a spatial measure, which, in China, is indicated by the administrative adjustment of rural villages to townships and towns, and towns to urban cities. China has upgraded many towns into urban cities and rural townships into towns. The number of cities has increased from 450 in 1989 to 663 in 2000 (China Urban Statistical Yearbook, 1990-2001). The number of towns increased from 2176 at the beginning of the reform to 20,374 in 2001 (China Small City Series I, CCTV, 1 May 2002).