On the suburbanization of Beijing

Abstract

Suburbanization is a stage of urbanization provess. The author discesses the situation of Beijing from the data of three population censuses(1964, 1982, 1990) and considers that the suburbanization in Beijing has been in process since 1982. During 1982–1990, population of all districts of the inner city lost 82 000 persons and in fact the permanent residents holding the household registration lost 144 000, which is about 6.12% of permanent residents in the inner city.

Like the West, suburbanization in China also happened against the macro backgrounds of improvements of transportation and loving conditions, growth of urban population moving from rural areas. But in the case of the forces that make decentralization possible, China is different from the western countries. In China, the levels of economy and urbanization are rather low, the real middle class is not rich; only very few Chinese families own provate cars, and the inner cities still have great attraction to Chinese people. The author considers three causes of decentralization: (1) reform of urban land use system brings about migration from the core area; (2) construction of a large number of city roads reinforces this process; (3) reforms of housing system and renovation of dilapidated houses encourage outward movement. However, the process wasn’t of spontaneity of any individual but of the leadership of government and “Dan Wei” (Work Unit).