The Problems Of Urbanization Of China

Rapid urbanisation has caused a variety of problems, including transport congestion, lack of sufficient homes and living conditions, sanitary and health care issues, and crime. For all these problems, city planners have attempted potential solutions, each with varying degrees of success. Cities including London, Manila and Mumbai have several of the aforementioned problems, and have each tried their own potential solutions. This essay will discuss how successful these schemes have been in resolving these issues.

-the richest 10% of the population earn 9.6 times the income of the poorest 10%.

Urbanization is a concept that is deeply rooted in the increase in a population within a region in response to the availability of unique opportunities. The opportunities may include the availability of employment chances in factories, investments opportunities in the urban areas, and the presence of sufficient housing and social infrastructure. It is apparent that urbanization began centuries ago in different regions of the world. However, the development of suburban areas has also been an interesting phenomenon over the centuries. Initially, people strived to live in the luxurious houses in major towns and cities. Nevertheless, there was a gradual shift in the desire to live in the cities when various negative impacts of overpopulation

Urban development is the social, cultural, economic and physical development of cities. The development of cities is the main topic of human geography. Urban development can be used in different ways by the researchers. It can cause the price of things to increase fast. Urban development occurs in major cities like New York City, Tokyo, Japan. Urban development started back in the earlier cities like Mesopotamia, Egypt. This spreads the culture that affect people which makes them want to go to the major cities. Over fifty percent of the earth’s population lives in urban areas. Studies show by 2045 that the number of people living in a urban area will increase.

Land use and transportation systems are considered as the two most vital subsystems determining the long term urban form and structure. Meanwhile, urban growth is one of the most important topics in urban studies, and its main driving forces are population growth and transportation development. Rapid urban growth stresses the capacity of governments to provide adequate basic services such as road network.

Urbanization has been constant over the last few hundred years. It continues even today and will continue with the constant increase in world population. Urbanization affects all levels of society and an accommodating urban environment is a necessity. But as humans we haven’t really been good at it. The process of urbanization can vary by country. Within the urban communities the political economy determines the existence of social classes.

Since the Industrialization, cities attracted large amounts of labor force from rural to urban to engage in industries, which changed the structure of cities by increasing huge population. In addition, changing the structure of cities produces lots of problems, such as traffic congestion causes more serious air pollution, and insufficient housing problem; therefore, central cities began to extend the boundaries to desire better living environment to react the problems. However, urban sprawl is not the only one answer to solve the problems, and sprawling cities worse the problems. Thus, some ideas and critiques came out to analysis and solve sprawl, such as emerging smart growth and sustainable development to achieve a better living environment. Urban sprawl is not only affect the living style, such as commuting longer distance and time between workplace and home, but also influence our economic and government decision, for example, the costs of infrastructure in suburban is higher than the maintenance fee of existing infrastructure in city core. As a result, I want to know the history about sprawling, how sprawl affect cities, and how planners and people react to sprawl.

In 2002, several years before the peak of the housing boom, George Bush proudly proclaimed that owning a home was the American Dream. Construction workers at the time were all geared up and prepared for the wave of residential living that was about to hit. Simultaneously banks were hesitant when handing out mortgages to new and eager homeowners. Bush’s dream was a vision that involved opportunity and an up and rising trend of homeownership where he truly believed that this would be the case, and so did everybody else. About a decade later, that dream had changed drastically. Americans began abandoning their white-picket fences and two car garages for a downtown city view and a shorter walk to work. The population shift that is taking place

throughout China. “An expansive new infrastructure grid-- which includes a 13,000 kilometer high-speed rail network, over 60,000 kilometers of new highways, and nearly a hundred new airports-- was spread over the country.” (Shepard) Unlike Kibera, China has rapid urban development. They are taking farmland, and turning it into cities. While more than 50% of the world’s population will be living in Chinese cities, the government has been working to make sure that the country’s cities are going to be long-term. “By 2030, Chinese cities will be home to more than 1 billion people- or up to 70% of the population. This rapid pace of urbanization has required some innovative plans in China. Local, regional and national policy- makers and planners are working to ensure the long- term sustainability of the country’s cities.” (Myers)

Furthermore, the argument that china experienced opportunity costs as a result of the urban state-centric growth model remains convincing, as the Chinese economy and society deteriorated as a result of these reforms. Some of the greatest costs endured were stagnant household income, increased illiteracy and collapse of health care systems which Huang clearly rests the blame on the1990s reforms. On the other hand, I feel that Huang does not explore the nature of why the Chinese government employed economic reforms that shifted more focus on urban areas. The decentralized policies pursued in the 1980s led to a decrease in government revenue and periods of increased inflation, which caused major urban demonstrations. The reforms of the 1990s were a reaction to consequences of the 1980s, the Chinese government-almost- had to employ these new reforms in order to mitigate demonstrators, solve the economic problems brought on by the 1980s and legitimize its power. Huang place too much focus on the leadership change post-Tiananmen as reason for increased urban shift. In addition, I am not fully convinced after reading Huang’s Capitalism with Chinese characteristics that China could have continued the course of the 1980s, as a country’s economy grows it is expected that there will be a shift

Yet several specters haunt China. To continue economic growth, China’s economy will have to fundamentally shift away from its current orientation toward exports and grow based on its own consumption. Other structural challenges, from taxes and regulation to intellectual property and the rule of law, all must be reformed if China’s economic growth is to continue. China’s leaders will also have to manage an unprecedented level of urbanization, with an expected 400 million new urban residents by 2050. Just as daunting, China’s population is rapidly ageing, which will become a tremendous economic challenge given the effects of China’s One Child Policy and its Bachmann-beloved lack of a Social Security program. Beyond economic and demographic challenges,

From 1980 to 2010, China relied on a uniquely successful investment- and export-led development model for its 30-year miracle of double digit GDP growth. However, to make rapid industrialization possible, China directed most of its investments to the cities, financed massive urban infrastructure and development projects. In result of

This evidence shows that urbanisation contributes a lot to the public transport system in Guangdong. There have built several different kinds of public transports that can connect to many other cities. People can use these public transports equally. By using these convenient transports, people can live a high-efficiency life because less time is spent on the way. That is to say, even those people far away from Guangdong can go to Guangdong quickly and access the resources in Guangdong more easily. So people can enjoy different kinds of resources equally because of convenient transport. Secondly, urbanisation brings more goods to citizens and people can improve their life quality by using these goods. According to Li & Yao (2009, p. 1995), electrical appliances are becoming popular because of urbanisation. For example, air conditional owner-ship is rapidly growing up in China. Some families even have more than two units. From this evidence, it can be showed that urbanisation brings more modernised goods such as air conditioners to citizens. Citizens can access these useful goods more easily and they are able to live a higher standard life by using these goods. They have the same opportunities to buy these goods to improve their life quality. This means the opportunities to improve the quality of life can become equal in the society. All in all, urbanisation builds an equitable

Much of China’s economic disparities lie in the overall gentrification of the country. Much of China is rapidly transforming into more advanced, urbanized cities, while the majority of wealth is held in affluent metropolises such as Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai. A study by Peking University found the poorest quarter accounted for less than two percent of total wealth in China. The same study also found that the wealthiest percent of China owned nearly two-thirds of all wealth. Inequality to this degree not only presents an ethical dilemma regarding the advancement of a select few, while the majority of china remains in a far more regressed state, but also reduces the resilience of the population to shifting economic trends. While

The concept of urbanization is essentially when a nation becomes more urban, meaning that more cities are built and people live closer together. Generally urbanization tends to have a positive effect on the nations that undergo it, by allowing them to grow economically and industrially. However, one commonly overlooked effect of urbanization is its effects on the mental health of those that live in the cities it builds. Urban settings generally tend to add many stressors to one’s daily lifestyle and these new stressors could lead to a multitude of mental health problems. Examples of this have been seen since the beginning of rapid urbanization, Lyndon B Johnson mentioned some of its effects in his “Great Society” speech when he said