Urbanization in China

Tuesday, October 25, 2022 2:00 PM

Describe the past, current and future trends, patterns, causes and impacts.

250 million people expected to be resettled to cities in the next 12 to 15 years

Causes: Not enough urban consumers, higher wages, more opportunities, better education

Impacts: overcrowded cities, growing gap between the rich and the poor, lose of land by farmers,
poverty

You should organised your notes into:

1. Background information (location, population density, number and growth)
2. The growth in area, density of building and type of land use change
3. Transport infrastructure growth (roads, railways, airports, public transport)
4. Sanitation and water infrastructure growth
5. Waste disposal system change
6. Telecommuniaction system change

From <https://classroom.google.com/c/Mzg4NzY2OTIxMTUx/m/NTUwNjM2ODk1NTUw/details>

2.
In year 1991-2015, a decrease of open space from 51 to 32 percent could be observed, almost total
disappearance of the ruralt build, and a large growth of urban builtup, especially in years 2000-2015
could be observed(23 to 57%), suburban(23%>10%)
3.
The share of built-up area in Shanghai, Shanghai occupied by roads in the 1990-2014 expansion area was
22%, compared to 27% in the pre-1990 area. Now it follow the worldwide pattern

The density of arterial roads in Shanghai, Shanghai's 1990-2014 expansion was 0.65 km/km2, compared
to 1.72 km/km2 in its pre-1990 area.
The share of built-up area within walking distance of an arterial road in Shanghai, Shanghai's 1990-2014
expansion area was 63%, compared to 93% in the pre-1990 area.

There is a small amount of residential land use within the CBD. The main civic centre surrounds the Peoples’ Square, and its
function includes administration, government buildings, retailing, cultural recreation and tourism,

CHINA is racing against time to build high speed rails as annual investment targets are still far
from completion, shedding light on its needs to shore up growth.

With authorities seeing new infrastructure as crucial in driving growth, the central government
said at the start of 2015 that 800 billion yuan (US$125 billion) should be invested in creating
8,000 kilometers of new railway track this year.

From <https://archive.shine.cn/business/biz-special/Infrastructure-investment-to-support-growth/shdaily.shtml>

Land use changed, as commercial use became more concentrated in particular places, especially in
Zhabei or areas along the coast

Approximately 25 per cent of the city centre is covered by railway stations, serving 40 per cent of the
city centre’s population.

In addition, there are over 1,000 bus lines and 17,000 buses. Shanghai has over 12,000 km of roads, including nearly 800 km of
expressways.

4
The relatively low capacity of the sewage treatment system has led to some industrial and residential
waste being discharged directly into rivers. Due to organic pollution, the Huangpu River has lower water
quality than the Yangtze River. In addition, saltwater intrusion is a seasonal problem in the winter and
the early spring dry season
Over a two-week period, over 16,000 dead pigs have been recovered from the rivers that supply
Shanghai. Contaminated water is now one of the greatest causes of illness in China
industry has been allowed to pollute on a massive scale, farmers are left to take too much, and
consumers have been able to waste water.

5
As Shanghai increases in size, it is producing more rubbish and landôll sites are ôlling up. Increasingly,
Shanghai is turning to incineration and generating electricity at “waste to energy” plants, such as the
one at Hangzhou

Shanghai currently produces the most household rubbish in China – 22,000 tonnes/day.
The new incinerators at Laogang will burn 9,000 tonnes a day. The aim is to increase the proportion of
domestic waste incinerated from 35 per cent to 75 per cent.

6.

In 1871 an underwater telegraph cable was laid between Hong Kong and Shanghai, and in 1907 a local
telephone service was introduced, followed by a long-distance one in 1923. By 1949 Shanghai had
around 30 per cent of all the phone lines in China.

companies such as China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom were prevented from forming joint
partnerships with foreign companies.

However, government nurturing and protectionism has provided Shanghai with a strong
telecommunications base, and this was critical in attracting high-technology investment to Shanghai.