ABSTRACT
At first glance, it seems to be impossible to analyze all the dimensions of the economic, social, and political processes of change discussed in Chapter 1 in relation to China’s reforms since 1978. Therefore, we try to demonstrate the process of rural urbanization with the help of a type of settlement that has its place between the urban and the rural. To properly describe such a type of small town, we used a complex procedure based on numerous indicators and variables. To simplify this process, we have chosen examples of officially designated small towns (jianzhi zhen). There exist four types of small towns in China: seats of county governments (xian zhengfu suozaidi), seats of city governments at the county level (xian [shi] zhengfu suozaidi), towns under a county government (xianxiazhen), and towns under a county-level city government (shixiazhen) 1 Of course, some might object to this classification, saying that on the one hand, numerous rural market towns (jizhen), mostly seats of township administrations (xiangzhengfu suozaidi) or towns not possessing a jianzhi zhen status, show equally urban elements, while on the other hand, so-called fully developed cities (shi) in some regions still bear rural traits. However, there is no question that the majority of those jianzhi zhen possess certain urban features, and thus the precondition is given to select seven case studies (see Chapter 1) from a comparatively homogeneous category of settlements. Two of our selected zhen are the xianxiazhen type, and five are the shixiazhen type.
