China Has Stepped into the New Urban Area Age

Abstract

On October 16, 2012, when NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) promulgated Nansha New Area Development Planning, Nansha in the capital of Guangzhou Province officially upgraded into a national new urban area and its development and construction rose to become part of national strategy. So far, Guangzhou Nansha New Area is the sixth national new area following Shanghai Pudong New Area, Tianjin Binhai New Area, Chongqing Liangjiang New Area, Zhoushan Islands New Area of Zhejiang, and Lanzhou New Area. Since the reform and opening up, there are over 100 national high and new technology zones approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and 90 national economic development zones approved by the Ministry of Business. In addition, there are also some new urban areas with different names such as the new-type industrial comprehensive reform pilot areas and the low carbon model cities. Many provincial and municipal governments have approved the establishment of development areas in their subordinate urban areas. For instance, every county in Shandong Province has a provincial development area. The media shows that, since 1984, 58 new urban areas have been established or are under construction in 13 prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province, 4.4 per city on average. It is reported that the Great Northern Wilderness in northeast China, during the largest city-building movement, planned to construct 113 cities, and so did many cities and counties. In August 2013, the Reform and Development Center of Cities and Towns in NDRC carried out a survey of 12 provincial areas, showing that, among 144 prefecture-level cities, there are 133 cities which put forward intentions to construct new urban areas, accounting for 92.4 %; 200 new urban areas have been designed and constructed, and every city averages out at 1.5 new urban areas.