Urbanization in China

Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), there have been three major phases of urbanization: the Pre-Reform Phase (1949–1978), the Revival Phase (1978–1996), and the Transitional Phase (1996–present). This chapter introduces the context of Chinese urbanization and provides a detailed historical overview of urbanization in the PRC, starting with definitions of key features and concepts before discussing the ethnic minority experience in Contemporary China. The research objective and questions, as well as the conceptual frameworks, are presented at the end of this chapter.