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Abstract: Recent years have seen increasing demand for wider application of strategic environmental assessment (SEA), especially SEA of major policies, as a powerful instrument to safeguard the environment during the rapid industrialization and urbanization in China. Debates on SEA are concentrated on its feasibility and effective implementation in practice. This study applies Emergy analysis within the framework of social–economic–natural complex eco-system theory to overcome the limitations of methods used for assessing regional sustainability so far. This established model is tested in the case of Chinese paper industry to assess the sustainability of 5 policy scenarios. The results show that Emergy-based Indices (EbI) are more effective to measure the sustainability of industry complex ecosystem, thus EbI approach is very useful in SEAs on policy scenarios of a given complex ecosystem. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As industrialisation and urbanisation aggressively take hold in China, all possible labour pools are being tapped to meet the market demands. Liushou women, or women who stay behind in rural areas as their spouses join the massive migrant workforce, are one such labour pool. Vocational training has been adopted by the Chinese state as a development strategy for Liushou women. Against this background, this paper explores how the current vocational training policies and programmes have promoted gender equity for Liushou women. Specifically, it conducts an extensive literature and policy review using a mix of analytical tools: women's empowerment framework and the social relations approach. Not only does it map the changing social relations within which vocational training for the women is embedded, it also addresses women's equity in the areas of welfare, access, conscientisation, participation and control.

Industrialization and urbanization are significant facets of modernization. The asynchronous development of the two is closely related to the agglomeration of producer services. This paper constructed an asynchrony index to describe the development gap between industrialization and urbanization. Various spatial weight matrices were introduced to test the spatial autocorrelation of the asynchrony index. Applying spatial econometric models, we explored the impact of agglomeration of producer services on the asynchrony index from two aspects: diversified agglomeration (DA) and specialized agglomeration (SA). The following conclusions are drawn from the empirical findings, which are based on data from 31 Chinese provinces between 2008 and 2019: (1) the asynchrony of industrialization and urbanization exhibits the spatial autocorrelation increasing over time; (2) SA exacerbates the asynchrony, while DA alleviates the asynchrony; (3) SA exerts greater impacts in highly industrialized and urbanized regions, while DA exerts greater effects in lowly industrialized and urbanized regions; and (4) agricultural dependence and infrastructure level weaken the impacts of SA and strengthen the impacts of DA. Income level weakens the impacts of both SA and DA. The results of this study provide a reference for policymakers to adjust the industrial layout in a targeted manner to regulate the asynchronous nature of modernization development. Peace and development are the themes of the world today. Most developing countries are experiencing or about to experience industrialization and urbanization. The world reality indicates that the two are not always synchronized in countries due to resource and cultural differences. Producer services not only improve agricultural and industrial production efficiency but also bring population agglomeration effects like other industries. In the era of informatization, the producer services exert a profound impact on industrialization and urbanization through two agglomeration modes. This technical paper quantifies the asynchrony between industrialization and urbanization using data from 31 provinces in China and verifies the opposite effects of two agglomeration modes on asynchrony. In cities with different levels of industrialization and urbanization, cities with higher or lower agricultural dependence, and cities with higher or lower infrastructure levels, the impact direction of the two agglomeration modes shows stability, while the magnitude varies. Cities with higher per capita income tend to develop into consumer cities, where industrialization should lag behind urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Territorial spatial planning involves fixability and flexibility in different driving factors related to control and development orientation, and they play an important role in regional sustainable development, especially in developing countries such as China. With rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, China has been impacted by conflicts between development and protection in territorial space. To integrate the contradictions among different territorial spatial planning measures, planners and scholars have started to focus on studies regarding fixability–flexibility relationships and integration. However, the relationship between and integration of fixability and flexibility in territorial spatial planning have yet to be clearly summarised. This paper explores an innovative research direction for the fixability–flexibility relations in territorial spatial planning from a new perspective, the Food–Energy–Water Nexus, which is a dynamic and comprehensive framework for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) studies. This paper covers the existing research on fixability and flexibility in territorial spatial planning. Moreover, after summarising the conflicts of fixability and flexibility, the dialectical relationship between and the integration of fixability and flexibility are researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to detail the relationships between urbanization, industrialization, the innovation ability of cities and local air quality in 284 cities in China using annual data. For the empirical outputs, the panel quantile regression analysis, which considers the heterogeneous nature of the data set, is employed. Initial findings indicate that (i) urbanization and industrialization negatively affect local air quality. (ii) Innovation capability of cities has a direct and improving impact on local air quality. Then, the paper estimates the moderating role of cities' ability to innovate in the polluting effect of urbanization and industrialization on local air quality. Remarkably, empirical evidence indicates that (iii) the innovation ability of cities also moderates the polluting impact of urbanization and industrialization on local air pollution. Based on the findings, the paper confirms the importance of both direct and moderator effects of the innovative environment in cities in tackling air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines and explains the "lock-in effect" in China's industrialization process using the county-level cities in southern Jiangsu while considering both internationalized and localized views. An empirical analysis of two typical representative indicators, per capita economic output and economic structure, using 2002, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019 official statistical data demonstrate that capital, labor and other traditional factors still play a role in the current "lock-in effect". New elements, such as human capital, are manifesting their growing importance. Public services, such as science and technology, education, medical and health care, social safety and employment, are gradually exerting their influence to optimize the economic structure. This paper promotes pertinent development decisions associated with the "lock-in effect" that must be considered during current industrialization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the STIRPAT model was developed to study the role of financial development in urban low-carbon economic transformation. The statistical analysis used data from 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2019. The results show that: (1) there is a positive U-shaped nonlinear relationship between financial development and urban low-carbon economic transformation. (2) Financial development not only directly affects the transformation of the low-carbon economy, but also indirectly affects it through three transmission channels: environmental regulation, industrial structure, and urbanization. (3) The financial development itself and the level of urbanization have a threshold effect on the transformation of the low-carbon economy. Under the threshold effect of environmental regulation and industrial structure, the role of financial development in the transformation of low-carbon economies presents a process of 'first decrease and then increase'. Therefore, improving the intensity of environmental regulation, implementing differentiated financial and industrial development policies, and controlling the urbanization process are effective measures to promote the transformation of low-carbon economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconsiders the classical theoretical question on the relationship between urbanisation and development and the effects of administrative status and path dependency on urbanisation using the dual‐track urbanisation framework. It examines the different effects of the determinants of urbanisation on state‐sponsored and spontaneous urbanisation in Fujian Province of China during the 2000–2010 period. Various explanatory variables describing administrative status and demographic and economic conditions were employed to explain the levels of dual‐track urbanisation using a multivariate statistical analysis of 67 county‐level units. It was found that administrative status affected both state‐sponsored and spontaneous urbanisation. The initial level of urbanisation had strong positive effects on state‐sponsored and spontaneous urbanisation. Most importantly, the development level was the most significant factor in state‐sponsored urbanisation in Fujian, although the secondary sector of the economy had the strongest effect on spontaneous urbanisation. It appears that state‐sponsored urbanisation is strongly path dependent and has advanced in highly developed areas, whereas spontaneous urbanisation is more dynamic and led by the expansion of the manufacturing sector. The paper reveals the different mechanisms of state‐sponsored and spontaneous urbanisation processes in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study exposes and maps a hitherto little‐known dimension of China's urban geography – that of shrinkage, directly affecting one in 10 of its cities. Urban shrinkage is revealed to be a growing concern for the most populous country on earth, with the absolute number of shrinking cities rising by 71% from 164 in the 1990s to 281 in the 2000s. By developing its own definition of the city as an urban area (UA) in the Chinese political‐administrative context, this paper builds a morphologic taxonomy of China's shrinking cities. This reveals the overall net population loss across Chinese shrinking cities more than doubling since 1990, reaching 7.3 million inhabitants in 2010. Sixty‐eight Chinese UAs, mostly in north‐eastern China, are found to have been shrinking continuously since 1990. Despite the multifaceted and entangled make‐up of urban shrinkage, the paper identifies four distinct causes of this geographical phenomenon in China: (1) state‐incubated reindustrialisation and economic restructuring, impacting upon 63% of all shrinking UAs; (2) the country's new economic geography, with the underlying centripetal forces of agglomeration pushing around 34% of all shrinking cities towards marginalisation; (3) state‐propelled demographic change, leading to natural population decline in 26% of Chinese shrinking cities; and (4) state‐sponsored mega‐shrinkage, responsible for urban population loss in almost 20% of all the cases. This study further provides a theoretically informed reflection on the peculiarity of shrinkage in China and its public policy implications. This study exposes and maps a hitherto little‐known dimension of China's urban geography – that of shrinkage, directly affecting one in ten of its cities. The paper also identifies four distinct causes of this geographical phenomenon in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the long‐ and short‐run impacts of the railway zones associated with the China Eastern and South Manchuria Railways in Manchuria, which were administered by Russia and Japan, respectively, from the early 1900s to the 1920s. Despite the fact that 'railway imperialism' impaired China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and constituted a humiliating quasi‐colonial episode in Chinese history, railway zones nevertheless had a noticeable impact on Manchuria's local economies. Through a reconstruction of the historical dataset and cliometrics, we show that, among the railway zones in northeastern China, only those attached to the South Manchuria Railway exerted a significant and positive impact. Specifically, its railway zone had higher urbanisation and literacy rates and a higher percentage of professionals in its industrial and commercial sectors in the 1930s, and these effects persist to the present day as an unintended outcome. Apart from the agglomeration of direct manufacturing investment in these railway zones, an additional channel through which the impact took effect was the provision of public goods, such as schools and hospitals, which served as necessary conditions for long‐term development. This study sheds light on understanding the persistence of colonial history as a root of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discussed the different impacts of urbanization, technical factors and resource utilization on CO2 emissions. Specifically, we investigated the urbanization process of a typical resource-based city, Xuzhou, in China to learn more about how the urbanization development of resource-exhausted cities can affect the urban economy and environment. We examined the urbanization speed and quality and then employed the STIRPAT model to analyze the actual relationship between urbanization and CO2 emissions. The results indicate that there are inverted U-shaped relationships between CO2 emissions and economic growth, the urbanization rate (UR) and urbanization quality (UQ). This proves the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve in the case of a resource-exhausted city. In addition, a decoupling development has gradually occurred between urbanization and CO2 emissions, and the UR has a greater influence on CO2 emissions relative to the UQ. Besides, the positive effect of industrial development on CO2 emissions gradually weakened from 2014 and may even be offset by the suppression effect of energy intensity in the future. Finally, the negative effect of the utilization rate of coal capacity indicates that optimizing energy utilization by cutting excess capacity is not only an effective way for urbanization transformation but also for improving the urban environment. These results have important implications for governmental policy decisions pertaining to the sustainable development of resource-exhausted cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes an interdisciplinary perspective to focus on the role played by the rural-urban dual system in China's urbanization and migration. We explain its establishment in China in the 1950s and its genealogy in the industrialization strategy adopted in the USSR in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the reform era, the system has been refashioned to suit a new set of demands of the state industrialization strategy to cater for the global economy. We analyze the mechanisms of the dual system, and how it has helped generate low-cost migrant labor for urban employers and siphon off revenues for urban governments by expropriating rural land. We also argue that there are fundamental differences between the dual system and the common "dualism," based on the Lewis dual-sector model, as observed in many developing countries. The plight of children of migrants is used to illustrate the main points made in the paper. Our research challenges the prevailing perspectives in Chinese geography and urban studies, many of which are based on market-driven neoclassical economics or global neoliberalism, often ignoring China's historical and institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Development zones have been an important spatial approach to promoting economic development since China's reform and opening-up. They have also been major contributors to the processes of China's industrialization and urbanization. Along with improvements in the worldwide industrial division of labor and the gradual implementation of China's development zones' Go Global strategy, it is necessary for Africa, a hot spot of global industrialization in recent years, to learn from China's development zone model. By attracting China's capital, technology and enterprises to Africa via Sino-African co-built development zones, a pattern of high complementarity and mutual development between China and Africa can be formed which does favor further improvement of the global industrial division of labor. In order to study the applicability and prospect of China's development zone model in Africa as per the above-mentioned international situation, this paper first sorts out the development course of China's development zones and discusses their roles in China's industrialization and urbanization. Subsequently, this paper analyzes the status quo of industrial development in Africa as a whole and the differences in industrial development between China and Africa, aiming to justify the timing of industrial transfer from China to Africa by constructing Sino-African co-built development zones. Lastly, this paper analyzes the current situation of six Sino-African co-built development zones by focusing on their operation modes, industry types and investment promotion models. In the authors' view, Sino-African co-built development zones can function as a new window of China-African cooperation, a new carrier of African industrialization, and a new engine of global industrial restructuring. China should adhere to the general principles of 'Sino-African Integration, Multi-Cooperation, Mutual Benefit, Scientific Location, Systematic Planning, Cluster Growth and Open Development' in the planning and construction of development zones in Africa, effectively promoting Africa as the very important part of the global industry system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to sort out the development history of China's urbanization, analyze the impact of urbanization on the intensive development of rural housing, and summarize the status quo and existing problems in China's rural housing management. On the basis of the foregoing, an intensive development model for rural housing is created, which is oriented towards urbanization, with a view to promoting the development of the new countryside construction. In this research, sample surveys on resident families under the program of intensive development of rural housing in Zhejiang Province are taken as the analysis object. It is concluded from the research that: The most prized dimension is the "governmental factor". The most prized indicator factors include: government-led business operations, urban employment opportunities, scientific planning, residential land use right transfer and residential environment. Based on the analysis of the empirical results, the following conclusions are put forth in this paper. In so doing, we hope to provide clear guidance and direction for the intensive development of China's rural residential houses in the context of urbanization. These efforts will help improve rural housing management, promote the intensive development of rural housing, and contribute to the urbanization process with Chinese characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Natural Resources / Ziran Ziyuan Xuebao is the property of Journal of Natural Resources and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The influence of abandoned mine subsidence on transportation facilities is a growing concern due to rapid urbanization and industrialization in China. Transportation infrastructures are being or will be developed in many areas with potential subsidence problems. Consequently, it is necessary to assess and mitigate the long-term and progressive residual subsidence effects on transportation facilities in such regions. This paper presents an integrated framework to identify and mitigate the risks of abandoned mine subsidence on highway infrastructures. The framework comprises four steps: comprehensive investigations of abandoned mine features; identification of subsidence mechanisms, conceptual model construction and risk assessment; optimization of remedial solutions and development of a management strategy. A case study that demonstrates a successful application of the framework is also presented in this paper. In this example, a technique that integrates remote-sensing analysis throughout surface features with conventional investigation methodologies is proved to be a potential tool to detect and understand areas that might be at risk of surface subsidence. Based on the analysis of the representative failure mechanisms observed in situ and the influencing factors, a methodology has been developed to assess the geohazards associated with mine subsidence. Moreover, the proposed criteria for stability classification allowed us to define three geohazard levels on a regional scale. Subsequently, based on a brief review of remedial works made in China, the paper gives some recommendations to identify the most appropriate solutions to mitigate residual subsidence risk on transportation infrastructures. Such integrated decision-making framework will assist practitioners and regulators in identifying the potential risks of residual subsidence on transportation routes, optimising the most appropriate alignments, and assessing risk management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship about the Chinesehukou(household registration) system has focused on the advantages and entitlements associated with urbanhukou.This paper shifts attention to the key entitlement provided by ruralhukou– village land. While earlyhukoureforms were mainly designed to open up urban labor markets to rural migrants, recent reforms have also begun to open up rural land markets, by replacinghukou-based land rights with market-based rights. These reforms are designed to facilitate land concentration and the transfer of land to outside developers and agribusiness companies, which has been hindered byhukou-based land rights. Underlying the reforms is the government's agenda of promoting large-scale agriculture and urbanization, both of which require the removal of a large portion of the rural population from the land. By focusing on land rights rather than urban benefits, this paper provides a new perspective on the evolution of thehukousystem, and highlights the negative implications of recent reforms for livelihood security in the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the language behavior of a sample of Jilin University students. The data were collected in 2008, and a total of 2682 questionnaires were processed. The sample was detailed as to place-of-origin, year of study, college, and gender, and addressed language behavior and language attitude. Students originated from three areas: the Northeast, the Mandarin dialect area, and Southeastern China. Most students came from township environments and grew up there. The NE is relatively more urbanized as the result of early industrialization, but the Southeast, as regards family income, was the richer area. The study relates the reported language behavior to urban status, education and income level of parents, as well as to level of PTH pronunciation. It also addressed students' attitude toward Putonghua dominance, and code-switching. Code-switching with English words also was studied. Generally, proportionally more students with backgrounds in major urban centers (provincial cities and municipalities) claim Putonghua as first and best language than students originating from townships. Larger numbers of students with the latter background, however, show increased proficiency in Putonghua. Language use data, finally, make clear that in all three areas, the local and regional dialects are the majority means of communication, whereas the use of Putonghua increases across generations from grandparents to same generation kin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to explore effective ways for energy conservation and emission reduction, seven correlated variables are selected in this paper according to the government statistics with the extended STIRPAT model, and the impact of China's industrialization and urbanization on carbon emission intensity of energy consumption is studied. The study found that urbanization rate and urban population employment rate are the main factors affecting per capita carbon emission of energy consumption in China;the industrialization has a reverse impact on per capita carbon emission of energy consumption, indicating that China's industrialization is relatively low and is not the main factor affecting per capita carbon emission of energy consumption; the service industry added value rate and the agricultural industry added value rate also have reverse effects on China's per capita carbon emission of energy consumption, and the degree of impact is relatively small. Therefore, China is supposed to develop industry vigorously in the future, to appropriately control the development speed of urbanization and to increase the agricultural industry added value rate moderately, so as to achieve effective control of per capita carbon emission intensity of energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of rapid industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, water resources have been facing a series of increasingly severe problems in China, especially in urban areas. However, the absence of an effective, scientific evaluation method may lead to a lack of awareness of sustainable water usage. Thus, this paper focuses on performance analysis for regional sustainable water use in China. First, the sustainable water management (SWM) efficiency is defined, and then, six indicators are selected to construct an evaluation index system. Given that experts are usually not completely rational in practice, we need to take the effect of the experts' nonrationality into consideration when evaluating the SWM efficiency. In view of the indicators' uncertainty and fuzziness, and the experts' nonrationality, the hesitant fuzzy TODIM (HF‐TODIM; TODIM is an acronym in Portuguese for interactive multicriteria decision making) method, which can capture the influence of the experts' psychological factors on the evaluation results, is used to evaluate the SWM efficiency. Furthermore, the assessment method is applied to some sample regions in Tuojiang River Basin. Based on the calculated results, some findings and implications for the SWM efficiency in the sample regions are analyzed. Finally, the applied results using the proposed method are compared with the results derived using the HF‐TOPSIS (hesitant fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution in hesitant fuzzy environment) method. Through the comparative analysis, we conclude that the HF‐TOPSIS method does not take the experts' psychological factors into consideration, but the HF‐TODIM method can avoid this issue and is very useful for the evaluation of the regional SWM efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-2000s, rural development and politics in China has entered a new phase that revolves around what the central government calls 'agricultural modernization'. Transforming the once-dominant smallholding, family-based agriculture has become a focal point of the government's programme of rural rejuvenation, where a range of economic changes unleashed by urbanization and industrialization also converge. We argue that in this new context, agrarian change has become the key vantage point from which to study rural China. We review key contributions of the papers in this special issue and highlight their insights on rural differentiation, land politics and rural livelihoods. We discuss how studying the ' Chinese path' of agrarian transition can contribute to ongoing debates on key themes in agrarian studies, including both the agrarian questions of capital and of labour, and how agrarian political economy offers unique perspectives on the overall processes of capitalist development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies indicated that industrialization and urbanization caused serious soil heavy metal pollution from industrialized age. However, fewer previous studies have conducted a combined analysis of the landscape pattern, urbanization, industrialization, and heavy metal pollution. This paper was aimed at exploring the relationships of heavy metals in the soil (Pb, Cu, Ni, As, Cd, Cr, Hg, and Zn) with landscape pattern, industrialisation, urbanisation in Taiyuan city using multivariate analysis. The multivariate analysis included correlation analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent-sample T test, and principal component analysis (PCA). Geographic information system (GIS) was also applied to determine the spatial distribution of the heavy metals. The spatial distribution maps showed that the heavy metal pollution of the soil was more serious in the centre of the study area. The results of the multivariate analysis indicated that the correlations among heavy metals were significant, and industrialisation could significantly affect the concentrations of some heavy metals. Landscape diversity showed a significant negative correlation with the heavy metal concentrations. The PCA showed that a two-factor model for heavy metal pollution, industrialisation, and the landscape pattern could effectively demonstrate the relationships between these variables. The model explained 86.71% of the total variance of the data. Moreover, the first factor was mainly loaded with the comprehensive pollution index (P), and the second factor was primarily loaded with landscape diversity and dominance (H and D). An ordination of 80 samples could show the pollution pattern of all the samples. The results revealed that local industrialisation caused heavy metal pollution of the soil, but such pollution could respond negatively to the landscape pattern. The results of the study could provide a basis for agricultural, suburban, and urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a literature review on urbanization in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Research findings indicate that the PRC's urbanization is incomplete: its level of urbanization lags behind its industrialization and development status, and while there are too many small cities, the large cities are not large enough. This is mainly because of the institutional constraints exerted by the Hukou and land systems on labor mobility, which have led to segregation, efficiency loss, distortion in the urban system and adverse impacts on equity, as discussed in this study. Major policy recommendations are offered for removing the distortions and steering the PRC's urbanization onto an efficient and equitable path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization, industrialization and real estate reform have led to a vast growth of the real estate-construction sector in China. Using the 2002 and 2007 provincial input-output tables, this paper examines the importance of the real estate-construction sector in the Chinese economy by applying the hypothetical extraction method. The results show that for the 30 studied provinces, the weighted average impact of the real estate-construction sector accounts for 21 % of total output and for approximately 14 % of all jobs in 2002. For 2007, these figures are 23 and 22 %, respectively. The impact of the real estate-construction sector on total output and employment varies across regions. In 2007, the direct and indirect output and employment of real estate-construction sector accounted for around 15 % of total regional output and employment in Shandong and Henan, and for 40 % in Tianjin, Jilin, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Xinjiang. Our results also indicate that the real estate-construction sector is strongly own final demand oriented and regional economies which highly rely on it are particularly vulnerable to a fall in its demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province, is located in China's central region. A city with over 2200 years of history, Hefei was still a middle-sized city at the end of 1970s. Over the past decade, however, the city had experienced a dramatic spatial expansion and economic growth. This paper discusses Hefei's history of development, its achievement in socioeconomic and spatial development, and its challenges with regard to future development. Urban researchers have largely ignored cities in China's central region; as such, this paper will serve to enrich the international literature in this field and enable readers to better understand the urbanization and industrialization efforts of a typical emerging city in inland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is experiencing rapid progress in industrialization and urbanization. Characteristic towns (Tese Xiaozhen) are one of the important drivers for China's urbanization, industrialization and agricultural modernization in the 21st century. Each of the towns has its own characteristics. At present, however, it is unclear for them about (i) what characteristics should be promoted, (ii) how urban land should be planned and (iii) which industry should be focused on. The public infrastructure and services in towns are usually under-developed, compared to cities. This paper first explores the designation of a brand-new type of new towns in China, i.e. “characteristic towns”, to meet the need of the current urbanization in China. The paper focuses on the principles of “agglomeration” and “livability”, in socioeconomic and cultural contexts. This is exemplified by a case study of Zhejiang's version of characteristic towns. The findings suggest that the success of cultivation of towns is closely associated with agglomeration and livability. In the short term, identifying characteristics is the core element in the development. For the longer term, a comprehensive integration of industrial policy and land use policy is needed to ensure continuous capital investment and revenue generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late twentieth century, rural areas in China have experienced a rapid and far-reaching transformation of social and economic structures. Residential land in rural areas, as a type of land where rural residents live and engage in producing, is under significant pressure and face significant change as a consequence. How has rural residential land changed over time, and why it differs across peri-urban interface? This paper presents a methodology for confronting this issue. By applying an integrated framework, we explored the rural residential land transition patterns from the internal structure, i.e., rural residential land-use structural transition (RLST) and identified the driving forces from the perspective of urbanization and industrialization. Our findings show that there are three RLST patterns in China, i.e., non-agriculture, rurality and decay. During the period, the peri-urban area – Pinggu has shown the coexistence of non-agriculture and decay patterns. In particular, RLST patterns varied at different levels. Spatially, along with getting closer to urban areas came increasing complexity of RLST patterns, which formed the structure of circle layer. The various RLST patterns are closely linked to interaction and reorganization between external and internal factors, including basic condition, industrialization, urbanization and policies. Among of them, urbanization changed the internal structure of rural residential land through the population flow; while industrialization influenced the RLST through shaping the industrial structure and level of economic development. Other outstanding issues discussed in this paper relate to the implication for rural spatial restructuring and benign rural residential land transition, which can be achieved through industrial structure reshaping, population relocation and cultural regression. The findings of this study can help us better understand the process of rural residential land transition and thus have significance for the land use multifunctionality and restructuring policies in rural China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, Macau will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its return to China. The past few years have witnessed brilliant economic achievements as well as a structural shift toward a gaming-industry dominated economy. Following so many years of rapid growth, it is essential to take stock of both the benefits and costs of gaming industry development. Accordingly, this paper analyzes the evolution of Macau's gaming industry between 1999 and 2016, and evaluates the industry's effects on local economic growth and urban development. As the paper shows, Macau has exhibited many of the symptoms typically associated with booming sectors in small economies, and has witnessed the similar effects widely experienced by western casino cities. However, Macau is also faced with some unique challenges, regarding its geographic location, size constraints, and political factors. These findings illustrate the difficulties that have accompanied Macau's economic achievements, but also call attention to opportunities in the next phase of Macau's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pace and scale of China's contemporary urbanization are stunning. This paper reviews process and the underlying driving forces of China's urbanization between 1949-2015. Contemporary China's urbanization has experienced four stages, and each has had different driving forces: 1) economic re-construction and industrialization-led urbanization (1949-1977); 2) economic reform and market-led urbanization (1978-1995); 3) economic globalization and the global-local urbanization (1996-2010); and 4) the land-economy-led urbanization (2010-). These urbanization processes and driving forces will undoubtedly provide scientific reference and have significant implications for developing countries, especially African countries, to formulate their urbanization public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the impact of economic modernization on carbon balance is an essential endeavor to achieve carbon neutrality and combat climate change. However, the spatial impact of economic modernization on carbon balance remains ambiguous. Therefore, this study aims to explore the spatial spillover effects of agricultural modernization, industrialization, and urbanization on carbon balance during the economic modernization process in China, taking 30 provinces and cities in China as examples from 2010 to 2021. This study utilizes the spatial Durbin model to derive the following results: In the past decade, the carbon balance ratio has shown a fluctuating and decreasing dynamic evolution trend. There is an increase in regions with serious carbon deficits. Further investigation into the spatial spillover effect of carbon balance unveils that for every 1% increase in the carbon balance ratio of a province, neighboring provinces experience a decrease of 0.833%. Additionally, the spatial spillover effects of the three modernizations in China on the carbon balance ratio behave differently. Agricultural modernization and urbanization demonstrate negative spatial spillover effects on the carbon balance in neighboring regions, while industrialization exerts a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the carbon balance of neighboring regions. Regarding control variables, the level of innovation solely contributes to local carbon balance realization without generating a trickle-down effect, whereas infrastructure development operates inversely. At the same time, there are differences in the spatial effects of agricultural modernization and industrialization on the carbon balance between the eastern region and the central and western regions. The study underscores the importance of economic modernization and development processes focusing on fostering synergistic growth between economic and environmental benefits within both local and neighboring areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has impressed the rest of the world with the huge scale and speed of implementation of its high-speed rail (HSR) network, which is expected to reshape the country's economic geography and assist the rapid urbanization and industrialization process. However, the current practice, i.e. suburbanization of HSR stations with new town development, large-scale and airport-style HSR stations, has given rise to a series of critical issues. This paper reviews the background and highlights the features commonly shared by most newly developed HSR stations. A case study of Hangzhou East Rail station (HERS) is presented to reveal four key issues: inter- city accessibility, intra-urban accessibility, new town development, and social segregation. Four recommendations arise from the issues discussed in the paper, namely the need for a prospective vista of the future on the relationship between transport accessibility and urban development over the long-term; a practical design philosophy based on reasonable consumption of resources and well-integrated station space and circulation; a proposed loop line to improve the accessibility to and from HERS so as to serve the polycentric urban centres in Hangzhou better; and widening the participation, cooperation, and dialogue among the various stakeholders during the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines dual-track urbanisation in China, consisting of spontaneous urbanisation and state-sponsored urbanisation. The paper first develops a consistent interpretative framework of urbanisation in pre-reform and post-reform China. The key components in the framework include the mode of industrialisation, central and local states, urban and rural economies, urban and rural citizens, the hukou system and global linkages. Dynamic changes in these components and their interactions drive the urbanisation process in China. The paper then examines how each of the two tracks of urbanisation contributed to the urbanisation process that occurred in China between 1982 and 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid urbanization has generated substantial attention throughout the world. There are various studies that assess China's urbanization process but without consistent conclusions. This paper attempts to evaluate China's urbanization level based both on global urban development experience and on urbanization theories; in addition, it adopts the quadrant plots method to assess China's regional urbanization level. The results of this study show that China's urbanization rate is proceeding at a normal level that is consistent with Northam Curve Growth Theory, the Lewis's Migration Theory, Chenery's Theory of Normal Growth, and also with China's economic development stage. However, certain problems and challenges remain to be examined, such as the low-level coordination between China's urbanization and nonagricultural employment and the narrow difference between urbanization rate and industrialization level. In general, most of the eastern provinces show a high coordination between urbanization and economic development, whereas all the provinces with low coordination, both low urbanization rate and economic development levels, are located in central and western China. These results not only advance the previous literature but also deserve particular attention from Chinese policymakers. Local governments should pay close attention to the urbanization quality, the urban planning support systems, and the upgrading of industry structure while not focusing too much on the urbanization quantity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of network and information technology, how to grasp the main influence factors and promote the healthy development of modern service industry? Based on the time series data from year 2000 to 2013, this paper analyzes the status quo of modern service industry in China and discusses its influence factors. This paper proposes the influence factor model of the development of modern service industry by grey relational analysis, and analyzes the influence factors and their contributions using weighted relational degree. The results indicate: (1) despite the fast development speed of modern service industry, its value-added proportion is relatively low; (2) the most critical factors affecting the development of modern service industry are informatization, marketization, urbanization and industrialization; education development and economic development have a little impact. In order to promote its development, this paper puts forward some rational suggestions in the aspects of strengthening information construction, deepening market reform, promoting industrial upgrading and optimizing internal structure, and providing sufficient material conditions and specialized personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Housing inequality is a widespread phenomenon around the world, and it varies widely across countries and regions. The housing market is naturally spatial in its attributes, and with the transformation of China's urbanization, industrialization, and globalization, the spatial inequality in the housing market is increasingly severe. According to the geospatial differences in the housing market supply, demand, and price, and by integrating the influencing factors of economic, social, innovation, facility environment, and structural adjustment, this paper constructs a "spatial--supply-- demand--price" integrated housing market inequality research framework based on the methods of CV, GI, and Geodetector, and it empirically studies the spatial inequality of provincial housing markets in China. The findings show that the spatial inequality in China's housing market is significant and becomes increasingly serious. According to the study, we have confirmed the following. (1) Different factors vary greatly in influence, and they can be classified into three types, that is, "Key factors", "Important factors", and "Auxiliary factors". (2) The spatial inequalities in housing supply, demand, and price vary widely in their driving mechanisms, but factors such as the added value of the tertiary industry, number of patents granted, and revenue affect all these three at the same time and have a comprehensive influence on the development and evolution of spatial inequalities in the housing market. (3) All the factors are bifactor-enhanced or non-linearly enhanced in relationships between every pair, and they are classified into three categories of high, medium, and low according to the mean of interacting forces; in particular, the factors of GDP, expenditure, permanent resident population, number of medical beds, and full-time equivalent of R&D personnel are in a stronger interaction with other factors. (4) Based on housing supply, demand, price, and their coordination, 31 provinces are classified into four types of policy zones, and the driving mechanisms of spatial inequalities in the housing market are further applied to put forward suggestions on policy design, which provides useful references for China and other countries to deal with housing spatial inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of landscape fragmentation offers promising approaches for better understanding how the interaction between natural conditions and socioeconomic factors generates environmental changes. In this paper, the state of landscape fragmentation due to urban-transportation networks in Fujian Province, China, was calculated on different spatial scales, using effective mesh size as an index for fragmentation degree. The relationship between fragmentation degree and regional socioeconomic development was explored to detect how socioeconomic processes, such as urbanization or industrialization, affect landscape change. The results demonstrated that even more than population increase, economic growth has a more significant impact on landscape. Growth from all three sectors (agriculture, industry, and service) can significantly accelerate the process of landscape fragmentation, and those from industry and service are the recent actual drivers leading to a fragmented landscape in China. The results also suggest that the widespread influences of urbanization on landscape do not always need to be negative, as is the widely accepted notion, and this realization might be helpful in slowing down the speed of landscape fragmentation on a regional scale. Based on this knowledge, the significances of this work for urban planners and policymakers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the foundation of modern economic development, industry is the engine of industrialized and urbanized development. Industrial ecology is a high-level form of industry that is achieved after it has reached a certain stage, which guides the coordinated industrial development balancing mankind and nature. The implementation of industrial ecology is an important method and effective approach to realize the sustainable development of industrialization and urbanization. In this article, based on the inter-provincial panel data of western China during 2003-2018, the spatial development trends of industrialization, urbanization and industrial ecology are analyzed, and an empirical method is employed to conduct a robustness test based on the Panel Vector Auto-Regression (PVAR) model to determine the long-term interactions among these three aspects. The results show that it is difficult to manifest the short-term causal relationships among industrialization, urbanization and industrial ecology. After lagging for three periods, they present the Granger causality, the industrial ecology and industrialization have promoted urbanization, and the coefficient for the influence of industrial ecology on urbanization is 0.4612. However, industrialization and urbanization have negative impacts on industrial ecology, and with a 1% increase in industrialization or urbanization, the industrial ecology will decline by 0.2261% or 0.2850%, respectively. With the continuation of the lagging period, industrial ecology will have better interpretability than industrialization and urbanization, and industrialization and eco-friendly development have strong self-accumulation development mechanisms, while the self-accumulation mechanism of urbanization is not obvious, and it might even have a decline. By fulfilling the role of the regional leading industry, the state of unbalanced internal development can be improved, so as to realize mutual promotion between industrialization and urbanization. By improving the utilization rates of resources and energy, efforts should be made to implement green production, significantly promote industrial ecology, and boost high-quality development of both the regional economy and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrialization and urban development in China have driven a huge portion of the rural population to its urban areas. While discriminating institutions engendered by the hukou system exclude most rural migrants from urban rights and benefits, the option of converting hukou has become increasingly available. Nevertheless, few rural migrants have chosen to settle down in cities by obtaining an urban hukou, which contradicts a common perception that rural migrants desire an urban hukou. Based on a recent migrant survey in Jiangsu Province, this paper explores rural migrants' intention of hukou conversion with respect to the availability, type, and quantity of rural landholdings in their home countryside, as well as their socioeconomic attributes and migration patterns. The results of regression analyses indicate that both the possession of farmland and housing land in rural areas significantly influences the intention of rural migrants to obtain an urban hukou in their destination cities. Moreover, systematic variances in settlement intention are found between the “born-after-1980” generation and their older counterparts, as well as between migrants from the more and less affluent regions. These findings suggest that the decision of hukou conversion incorporates varied concerns and purposes among rural migrants in Chinese cities, which should be addressed with more responsive rural and urban policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a new trend in China that the Public Rental Housing (PRH) becomes a main part of indemnificatory housing, as a new kind rental oriented indemnificatory housing, PRH presents new challenges for housing sustainability. This paper aims to solve the sustainable construction problem for PRH by adopting the Industrialized Building (IB). The research processed with an extensive literature review, and then the common barriers for the IB adoption in housing industry were investigated. Combine with the characteristics of PRH, the barriers and advantages for adopting IB in China indemnificatory housing was analyzed. Furthermore, the sustainability principles for China's PRH construction were discussed in three aspects, which are economics sustainability, environmental sustainability and social sustainability. The results shown that PRH is able to overcome most of common barriers of IB adoption in commercial buildings, such as high initial cost and lack of market demand. However, increased industrial scale, optimized supply chain and improved the make recognition are still key challenges for IB adoption in PRH project. The research finding will help developers to understand the barriers and advantages for adopting IB in China's PRH project, and achieve sustainable development for PRH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is a close relationship between FDI and the level of urbanization. the objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between FDI and the level of urbanization in Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces in costal areas. Design/methodology/approach: The author uses the modern econometric methods by panel unit root test, cointegration test, random effects models and fixed effects models, and the data of FDI (2000-2012), urbanization rate, industrial structure and regional GDP of Nanjing, Xuzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi and other 13 cities in Jiangsu Province, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other 19 cities in Guangdong province, researches the relationship between FDI and urbanization rate. Findings: Models show, FDI was closely correlated with urbanization rate in Jiangsu province and Guangdong province, the highly correlated with industrial structure, while it negatively correlated with the growth of GDP, and the degree of correlation is not high in Jiangsu province, but the high negative correlation in Guangdong province. The results shows the industrial structure and the urbanization rate mainly cause FDI growth. Research limitations/implications: There are many provinces in costal areas of China, this paper just research the relationship between FDI and the level of urbanization in Jiangsu province and Guangdong province, there are some limitations in the study areas and results. Originality/value: The study was the first to successfully apply on random effects model and fixed effects model to study the relationship between FDI and the level of urbanization in coastal areas by competitive analysis. Guangdong and Jiangsu province are the most developed regions, they are the most representative provinces in costal areas of China. Taking these two province as an example, we can analyze the relationship between FDI and the level of urbanization in central and western regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature on labour migration has paid little attention to the influence of environmental attributes. This paper attempts to remedy this void by developing a simple, two-region general equilibrium model with amenities playing a key role in affecting migration flows. Specifically, we argue that in the presence of an environmental externality, interregional labour migration depends not only on wages but also on amenities. People may leave a region offering higher wages, if the resulting utility loss from worsened amenities exceeds the gain in wages. Policies should be adopted by regions or nations to regulate the environment to provide for the quality of living. To attain this goal, regional or international policy cooperation on tradable pollution permits can be superior to pollution permits supplied independently by each region or nation while non-tradable between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese urbanisation is occurring rapidly but faces great challenges due to its large population, the continuing level of rural–urban migration, the shortage of resources to support the present development and the urbanisation model. One result is that China is the world's largest carbon emitter. The application of low carbon eco-city development should be contribute to the solution in addressing these challenges. This paper attempts to explore the low carbon eco-city initiatives in China. By analysing critically the problems which impact upon such an environmentally friendly development model, including government policy, social value and delivery mechanisms, this paper suggests that despite problems in implementing such a model, the low carbon eco-city model must be the mainstream approach to Chinese urbanisation and industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing policy in China has undergone profound changes ever since the dismantlement of the in-kind welfare housing system in 1998. A modern housing system has emerged in China in line with a rapidly growing real estate sector. Meanwhile, China is also plagued with similar housing problems that western governments faced during their industrialization and urbanization and are facing now. In response, the Chinese government has attempted to tackle housing problems by imposing strict regulations on the real estate sector, introducing new affordable housing schemes, and channelling and even limiting housing consumption behaviours. However, the outcome has proved to be meagre. The unsound outcome has driven further policy changes. This paper presents an updated trajectory of housing policy development in the post-reform era. It concludes by discussing implications of housing policy changes on social development and argues that housing policy in China is at a crossroads and is ready for a major overhaul. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the rapid urbanization of Chinese cities with a focus on the plans for a new, ongoing urban sub-centre in the north-west of Shanghai: Zhenru Urban Sub-Centre. Information-rich urbanization is a defining feature of the 21st century, reshaping cities and communities in China and in developing countries around the world. The scale and pace of change requires a solid systems approach of urban development. In 2011, China announced that it has reached an urbanization rate of 50%. If we take rapid urbanization as a given and that it is already well underway, it is still widely unclear what research needs to be conducted and policy changes made to support municipalities of fast transforming cities and to avoid repeating the development mistakes that have occurred in industrialized nations, i.e. driving urban growth with high consumption patterns without fully considering the environmental and social needs and occupants'' behaviour and aspirations. This paper compares two cases of urban development patterns for new sub-centres for polycentric city structures: It relates to new urban sub-centres in Berlin (Germany) and Shanghai (China), and the relationship of these sub-centres to ‘Network City’ theory. Network theory is useful in this context as the ‘network’ metaphor and concepts of decentralization seem to have replaced the ‘machine’ metaphor which was based on efficiency based on the availability of cheap fossil fuels. As cities aim to move towards more resilient urban ecosystems and polycentric systems, the case of Potsdamer Platz Berlin, compared to Zhenru Sub-Centre in Shanghai, is discussed. Both are transport-oriented developments promoting mixed-use density and less car-dependency. According to documentation of the Shanghai municipality, Zhenru urban centre, which is currently in its planning phase, is supposed to become a ‘new sustainable sub-centre for a growing metropolis’. Based on the Potsdamer Platz experience, a series of careful recommendations are formulated for the design and development of such centres, knowing that it is rather difficult to translate from one case to the other. The conclusion includes five lessons (recommendations) from Potsdamer Platz for the urban design of new sub-centres to ensure a delivery of economical, social and environmental sustainable outcomes. A core finding is that drawing lessons from the German case study for Chinese urbanization seemed a useful tactic and gave a sense that there are underlying urban design strategies. However, the conversion of such strategies to another cultural and social context requires further research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This research studies the low carbon transition of the electric power sector in China using a multi-level perspective (MLP) of niches, socio-technical regime, and landscape, as well as literature on innovation systems. Three lines of thought on transition process are integrated in the paper to probe the possible transition pathways in China. A MLP analysis is presented to understand the current niches, regime, and landscape of China’s power sector. A brief analysis on the future macroscopic socio-economic transition in the process of industrialization, urbanization, and modernization of Chinese society and its implication on power landscape are depicted to prove the urgency and magnitude of transition in China and why systematic transition management is needed. Five transition pathways, namely reproduction, transformation, substitution, reconfiguration, de-alignment/re-alignment, and reconfiguration, with their possible technology options are presented. The paper goes further to propose an interactive framework for managing the transition to a low carbon energy system in China. Representative technology options are appraised by employing innovation theory to indicate the logic of policymaking within the framework. Institutional gaps in realizing the transition are also addressed. The work presented in the paper will be useful in informing policy-makers and other stakeholders and may provide references for power sector transition management in other countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Currently, due to the recent unprecedented urbanization and industrialization, energy consumption in China is increasing at an enormous speed. However, this process should go hand in hand with sustainable energy development that is based on three interconnected dimensions: (i) energy security, (ii) energy affordability, and (iii) environmental sustainability. It becomes very obvious that an increase in energy efficiency leads to the increase in both energy security and environmental sustainability. Therefore, inadequate energy efficiency causes energy security and environmental sustainability issues, and thus negatively influences economic development of China (or any other country for that matter). This paper explores the intrinsic relationship among urbanization, industrialization, and energy security, as well as the influencing mechanisms of urbanization and industrialization on energy efficiency using a fixed effect model. The paper employs panel data from 30 provinces in mainland China collected in the time range from 2006 to 2015. Our results demonstrate that urbanization and industrialization can significantly improve energy efficiency. Although energy security level decreases considerably with the rise of energy consumption and population growth, the increase in urbanization and industrialization levels can increase energy security through energy efficiency improvements. Moreover, it appears that changes in disposable income and population structure do not alter the effects of industrialization and urbanization on energy security. We conclude that Chinese provinces with high and low urbanization levels should focus on technological innovation and increase industrial development and technological input, respectively. Local governments in China can formulate policies and regulations and promote urbanization according to local economic development and industrial and population structure. The paper also presents theoretical references and decision support that might help in developing local laws and regulations promoting energy efficiency during urbanization and industrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT With rapid urbanization and industrialization, China is now facing a great challenge in meeting the soaring demand for new buildings and the corresponding energy consumption. Under such circumstances, the setting of a national standard on green buildings would be an effective way to respond. In fact, China has made significant progress in developing national green building standards. But such progress is not explicitly released to the international societies. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to introduce such progress. China's green building efforts are first discussed in detail with the various provisions of the national indicator system. By conducting a comparison with other countries' green building standards, a critical analysis of such a national standard is presented. The comparison indicates benefits to be gained and challenges to be met, such as lack of indicators on responding climate change, lack of region-specific indicators, lack of quantitative indicators, higher costs for receiving certification and lack of applying innovative green technologies. So, substantive revision is critically needed. The knowledge gained from Chinese efforts on green building indicators are valuable to both developed and developing nations seeking to implement sustainable development measures within their regulatory policies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Rapid industrialization and urbanization in China has produced a unique phenomenon of ‘village-hollowing’, shaped by the dual-track structure of socio-economic development. This paper analyzes the phenomenon of ‘village-hollowing’, identifying the processes and influences that have driven their evolution, and highlighting the challenge that the locking-up of unused rural housing land in ‘hollowed villages’ presents for China in the context of concerns over urban development and food security. The paper examines the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy has been adopted by the Chinese government in response to the problem, which seeks to balance increases in urban construction land with a reduction in rural construction land. The implementation of the scheme is discussed through a case study of Huantai county in Shandong province, drawing attention to its contested and contingent nature. It is argued that the policy is a top-down approach to rural restructuring that necessarily requires the acquiescence of local actors. However, it is noted that failures to adequate engage with local actors has led to resistance to the policy, including violent protests against the demolition of housing. The paper suggests that lessons might be learned from Europe by incorporating elements of ‘bottom-up’ planning into the process. As such, the paper demonstrates that rural restructuring in China is a dynamic, multi-scalar and hybrid process that shares common elements and experiences with rural restructuring in Europe and elsewhere, but which is also strongly shaped by the distinctive political, economic, social and cultural context of China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]