Development and Planning of Small Towns in China: Speculation, Reassessment and Prospect

Abstract

Small town development has been one of the most remarkable features of urbanization in China: This paper systematically examines different definitions of small towns and critically assesses various interpretations of the functions performed by Chinese towns in national development. Prior to the- 1980s, small towns were enthusiastically portrayed as storage reservoirs that can dam the flux of the surplus rural labor force into large cities. Existing problems associated with the growth and planning of small towns have resulted in a sober reassessment of the role played by the towns. Despite the partial retreat of enthusiasm about the town-based urbanization strategy, small towns continue to flourish spontaneously in the grassroots level of the Chinese countryside. A new pattern of ’urbanizationfrom below’, motivated primarily by the growth of township and village enterprises and centeredaround small towns, is quickly taking shape in the country patticularly in the coastal extended metropolitan regions.