Over the past three decades, China has achieved enormous economic growth,
accompanied by a growing number of large and quite livable cities. In the coming years,
urbanization will become increasingly an opportunity as well as a challenge to the
country’s effort to sustain rapid growth and maintain harmonious development.
This report first examines the role of urbanization in international development and
identifies unusual features of China’s urbanization compared to experiences in other
countries. It then discusses a number of challenges and policy issues for the coming
decade and suggests options for addressing them