Integration of Rural and Urban Society in China and Implications for Urbanization, Infrastructure, Land and Labor in the New Era

Abstract

In many parts of China, rapid economic growth, socio-economic inequality, and environmental degradation (air, water, soil) are undermining social stability and sustainable urbanization. Rural-urban migration is the main factor contributing to urban population growth. Economic opportunity in urban areas is the main ‘pull factor’ but government policies provide a ‘push factor’. A model of the relationship over time of the rural sector and the urban sectors, mainly relating to the focus on manufacturing and the services sector, is discussed. Each sector provides a market for the other. We use three cameos of different types of urban-rural development taking examples from a Prefecture-level city of about 500,000 population located in Guangxi Autonomous Region in south east China. We analyze the infrastructure plan and land use planning in respect to the impact on labor, investment and urban growth.