ABSTRACT
In China, urban growth and financial/economic globalisation are intimately connected. A special feature of China's urban economic growth is the central role of global investment capital, though this is rapidly being replaced by locally generated capital. Since the 1990s the world has watched China with fascination and trepidation, as pictures of vast factories, gleaming skyscrapers, fast railway lines and urban motorways clogged with cars hit global television screens. While India is still a mainly rural country, dominated by villages, it actually has the world's second largest urban population, after China. Latin America, like many other regions, has changed dramatically in the last 50 years, from mainly rural to predominantly urban. In Nigeria, Lagos, Africa's largest city, is truly a 'Petropolis' - the premier port city of one of the world's major oil exporters. The expansion of global trade has led to coastal populations and economies exploding on every continent.
