China's urbanisation is often described as a unique process, but how different is it from the urban development of other countries? How close is China to becoming a 'modern urban nation'? What factors play a major role in the way China's cities have formed? How has the hukou and Special Economic Zones contributed to China's urban-rural divide? And what problems are we starting to see in the formation of Chinese cities?

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00:00 Intro
01:47 Background to Urbanisation in China
03:45 Urbanisation under Mao
16:35 Post-Mao Urbanisation
19:30 The development of Special Economic Zones
25:00 Chinese city tiers
33:56 The Hukou
42:44 Ghost cities

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China urbanizes, Consequences, strategies and policies, Yusuf and Saich eds.

China's 'Ghost Cities', Yu Hong

Denationalization of urban physical development, Jieming Zhu

Evaluating cities' vitality and identifying ghost cities in China Jin et al 2017

Is Chinese Urbanisation unique? Hamnett, 2020

What attracts young talents? Understanding the migration intention of
university students to first-tier cities in China, Jin et al

Urban planning in socialist China, Yichun Xie and Frank J. Costa

Urbanisation in China, Zhang Xing Quan 1991

China’s City-Tier Classification: How Does it Work?, China Briefing https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-city-tier-classification-defined/

China’s tiered city system explained, SCMP https://multimedia.scmp.com/2016/cities/

Reforms to China’s hukou system will not help migrants much, The Economist https://www.economist.com/china/2022/09/22/reforms-to-chinas-hukou-system-will-not-help-migrants-much

China's 'ghost towns' come to life thanks to urbanization and policies, Global Times https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1211265.shtml

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