The Chinese government announced new economic reform policies in December
of 1978. The announcement included an urban distribution policy that emphasized small
cities and towns for rural urbanization as a means to achieve modernization in China. This
distribution policy called for limited development in large metropolitan areas, selective
development of only a few medium-sized cities, and more development in small cities and
towns. Until now, the urbanization and development of small cities and towns have been
the most dramatic changes; however, the issue is how a small city can grow in a proper
way, fitting to its geographical, social and economical development requirements.
Studying the urbanization and development of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ)
in Shenzhen, one of the largest SEZ in China, provides a valuable model. The transformation
of Shenzhen from a small town to a large commercial city involves much rural and
urban development and construction. Good urban structure and urban growth pattern is
essential in providing the necessary, orderly and functional physical environment.
This thesis focuses on the evolution of a new kind of urban growth pattern for
small cities and towns in China. It seeks to demonstrate that transition of urban growth
pattern in Shenzhen is ideologically based in favor of socialistic setting in China. The specific
goals of this study are to identify and describe the pattern of systematic urban growth
in recent decades in Shenzhen SEZ, to explain the main factors and features in urban
growth pattern for small cities and towns, and to evaluate recent policies of urban growth.