population growth and urbanization in china, 1953-1970

American Geographical Society

Population Growth and Urbanization in China, 1953-1970Author(s): Cheng-Siang ChenSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Jan., 1973), pp. 55-72Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/213237 .

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POPULATION GROWTH AND URBANIZATION IN CHINA, 1953-1970

CHENG-SIANG CHEN

A CENSUS is nothing new in a country like China which has such a long history; even in remote times the population was fre- quently surveyed and reported. So far as we can check in his-

torical records, the earliest and the most complete Chinese census was held at the end of the former Han dynasty-that is in A.D. 2-

when it was reported that China had 59,594,978 people in 12,233,062 households, averaging 4.87 persons a household. But in the last several centuries no definitive figures have existed, and scholars, busi- nessmen, and others were provided only with widely varying and almost useless estimates, some of which were reached on such bizarre bases as the per capita consumption of food or the amount of mail de- livered annually. Up to the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) more than fifty such estimates had appeared; of these the highest total was 540 million and the lowest 320 million, showing a difference of 220 million. This difference, it should be noted, was far greater than the population of North America at the time and was roughly equal to the combined population of the two Americas. The study of Chinese geography is currently a hide-and-seek game; one must be patient and constantly keep an eye on the various changes. Since official statistics are unavailable, any estimate of urban population must be based chiefly on broad observations and on fragmentary news reports.

THE FIRST MODERN CENSUS

Pressed by urgent administrative and development needs after the formation of the People's Republic, the new government conducted the first modern census in 1953, setting midnight of June 30, 1953, as the standard census time.' The official results, published by the

' That is, no matter when the count was taken, the figures were drawn up on the basis of the situation on June 30. If the count was made before June 30, it was subse- quently brought up to date. The census count actually lasted several months. In Kwang- tung Province the census work was completed only in April, 1954.

0 DR. CHEN is chairman of the Geography Department and Director of the Geographical Research Centre in the Graduate School of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.



56 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

State Statistical Bureau on November 1, 1954, showed that exclusive of the province of Taiwan China had a population of 582,603,417.2

This prosaic demographic fact immediately became a sensational newspaper headline all over the world. China's population, for so long a question mark, was found at last.

Admittedly, the 1953 census was not ideally carried out, partly

TABLE I-POPULATION GROWTH IN MAINLAND CHINA (rear-end figures in thousands)

YEAR POPULATION INCREASE OVER PRECEDING YEAR ANNUAL % OF INCREASE

1950 551,960 195I 563,000 II040 2.0

I952 574,820 1 I,820 2.1

I953 587,960 13,I40 2.3 1954 60I,720 13,760 2.3

I955 6 I 4,50 12,930 2.2

I956 627,800 13,150 2.2

I 957 649,500 21,700 3-4

1958 673,000 23,500 3.6 I954-I958 av. 633,330 17,o80 2.7

Source: Cheng-siang Chen: China, in World Atlas of Agriculture, Vol. 2: South and East Asia, Oceania (Novara, 1971).

because of the vastness of the Chinese territory, which hinders com- munication, and partly because of the lack of trained enumerators. As a matter of fact, the census takers asked only five simple ques- tions.3 No attempt was made to seek a de facto counting (that is, the

number of persons actually present at a particular place on the day

of the census); instead, the census takers recorded only those habitual- ly resident and legally supposed to be there (the de jure population). In some of the more remote and inaccessible border areas inhabited

by minority groups, it was often hard to make a direct count and the

census takers had to rely on estimates.4 A census like this may be dis- missed as too simple or as incomplete, but it is still the best published census in China, and the findings proved helpful in the comprehen- sive planning for the nation.

2 If the population of Taiwan and the Overseas Chinese-that is, Chinese settlers in

foreign lands and students studying abroad-had been included, the count would have

been 601,938,035. 3 (I) Full name and address; (2) relationship to the head of the family; (3) sex; (4)

age; and (5) nationality or race. 4 These include the rural areas of Sinkiang, Tibet, western Tsinghai, and north-

western Yiinnan, all thinly populated. They were surveyed indirectly on the basis of both

sampling and administrative reports; since the resulting number was only 8,397,477, the

total population was not greatly affected.



URBANIZATION IN CHINA 57

With this census as a basis, we can find the trends of population increase and the extent of urbanization in China. First, with respect to age composition, the Chinese population in 1953 was young, with 35.9 percent of the total in the under-15 group, 56.8 percent in the 15-59 group, and only 7.3 percent 6o and over. It was a population capable of rapid growth. In addition, a young population meant more people of working age and of greater productive capacity. In a country undergoing nationwide industrialization this is desirable.

The year-end population figures reported annually by the State Statistical Bureau from 1953 through 1958 are more accurate than figures for the precensal years (Table I). The annual population increase during the period 1954-1958 averaged 17 million, which is equal to the population of East Germany or Rumania at the same period. The increase became greater as time went on, and after 1957 it was generally more than 20 million, a figure that caused much worry when such problems as food supply and employment were considered.

Throughout most of Chinese history, especially when a dynasty was drawing to an end, population increases were counteracted by natural disasters, social disorders, pestilences, and wars. However, the picture has completely changed. China is no longer torn by war; numerous water-conservancy projects now control the rivers, including the Hwang Ho, once called "The Sorrow of China," and min- imize the threat of drought; with improvements in environmental sanitation, plagues have disappeared and the nation has won the repu- tation of being one of the cleanest in the world.5 The living conditions of the common people have generally improved. Although the birth rate remains high, the death rate, estimated at 27 to 30 per thousand in the early decades of the twentieth century and 18 per thousand in 1952, when the government instituted its Vital Registration Law, dropped to i i per thousand in 1957 and it is still decreasing. Between 1952 and 1957, the birth rate dropped from 37 per thousand to 34 and the rate of natural increase rose from 19 per thousand to 23.

The birth rate was higher and the death rate lower in urban areas than in rural areas. In Shanghai the birth rate in 1957 was 45.7 per

5John Saar (A Whole Country Being Worked Very Hard, Life, Apr. 30, 1971, pp. 32-34; reference on p. 33) reports that "The streets of Peking and the other two cities we visited-Shanghai and Canton-were scrupulously clean. You might make a diligent search of 200 yards without turning up anything more substantial than a candy wrap- per. . . . Chinese towns have a gleaned, frugal look with neither waste nor tinsel in evi- dence. The countryside is the same."




thousand and the death rate, 5.9 per thousand; in Peking the figures were 42.o and 7.1 per thousand, respectively.

The drop in infant mortality rates is even more striking. The national figure fell from more than 200 per thousand in 1949 to 8i per thousand in 1956. After 1956 the infant mortality rate in the rural areas dropped to below 1oo, while in the major urban areas it fell to below 40. The infant mortality rate in Peking was 117.6 in 1949, but dropped to 31.1 in 1956. In Shanghai and Canton the rate in 1952 stood at 81.2 and 47.7 per thousand, but by 1956 had fallen to 31.1

and 25.1, respectively. Each year, with the large population increase, there is also a cor-

responding increase in the working-age group. During the First Five- Year Plan (1953-1957) the annual increase in the working-age group was estimated to be four million and during the Second Five-Year Plan (1958-1962), five million. Only about a fourth of the annual increase was absorbed by industry. Clearly, the immediate problem was to provide food and jobs for a rapidly growing population.

Worried by this trend, the government officially advocated birth control in 1954.6 The fervor of the drive reached its peak in March, 1957, when a Birth Control Research Committee was established to coordinate experience and research in contraception. During the "Great Leap Forward" the drive was halted, partly because of the fear that it would dampen the high spirit of the working people and partly because of a temporary labor shortage. Since 1962, birth control has again been advocated, along with a recommendation for later marriages. The government stresses the need for family planning, contraception, the proper spacing of births, and the care of the mother's health. The recommended age at marriage is 23 to 27 for women and 25 to 29 for men. Earlier marriages are condemned as physically and mentally harmful to the health of parents and children and for dis- tracting youth from study and productive work. The advocacy of late marriage and smaller families has been vigorously preached throughout the country. The three-child family is the ideal, and abortion is available.7

6 The first official suggestions of the desirability of birth control came at the Na-

tional People's Congress in 1954 when its vice-chairman, Shao Li-tze, stated, "It is a good thing to have a large population but, in an environment beset with difficulties, it appears that a limit should be set." In mid-1955 Premier Chou En-lai openly pled for "appropriate control in respect of births."

7 Abortions are done free of charge. Birth control pills are also distributed gratis, and since 1968 the 22-day birth control pill, developed in China, has increasingly re-




Although there have been reports that food and cloth rations and maternity leaves are not granted after the fourth child, these poten- tially repressive measures are apparently not strictly applied. The campaign has certainly lowered the birth rate, especially in the urban areas, but it can hardly have had a significant effect on the more con- servative countryside. Since 1966, the growth rate has dropped to less than 2 percent. During the post-Cultural Revolution period, rural areas received intensified birth-control efforts.

It should be noted that birth control is directed principally toward the Han Chinese and is not binding on minority groups. In fact, these groups are free to rear as many children as they wish. For instance, the Uighurs in the Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region pay no heed to birth control, and in the past twenty years they have shown a 42 percent population increase. The Sibos, a much smaller tribe in Sinkiang, registered a 79 percent increase during the same period.

POPULATION INCREASE AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

After the census of 1953 the admninistrative divisions of China underwent many complicated changes.8 But since 1957, although administrative divisions are still being modified from time to time, no drastic changes have been made. It is thus possible to make a com- parative study of the administrative divisions in China after 1957. At the end of 1957 population figures were published for the first-order administrative divisions (provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions), but because specific data for the areas of the second order and downward were unavailable, the outside world has found it diffi- cult to compare those figures with the results of the 1953 census. Nonetheless, experienced research workers generally agree that the data published in 1957 still represent the most detailed and the most reliable information about China that outsiders can expect to get.

The years 1959-1961 were critical for the Chinese government: party factions collided over their political views; Sino-Soviet relations were at a low ebb; emphasis on heavy industry was lopsided and agriculture consequently neglected; unfavorable weather continuously plagued large areas of the country. For these and for security reasons,

placed intrauterine and other contraceptive devices. All medical organizations, mobile units, "barefoot doctors," and army medical teams distribute control propaganda and the pills, for which the demand exceeds current production.

8 Cheng-siang Chen: The Administrative Divisions and Their Changes in Post-War China, The Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Geogr. Research Centre Research Rept. No. 49, Hong Kong, 197 1.



6o THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

the government banned the publication of statistics and the shipping abroad of most Chinese books and journals. Nevertheless there are indications, partly based on talks with people who have come out of mainland China, that in 1964 China held its second census, a census that was more detailed than the first. Unfortunately, the results of this census have not been published and have been circulated only among the higher cadres of the Party. It is said that the total population of China based on this census was 713 million, an increase of 130 million, or 22.3 percent, over the 1953 figure.

After the tide of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1968) had rolled past, "Revolution Committees" were organized in all the provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. The chairman of each of these committees, upon his inauguration, reported the population figure for his area. Although the figures were given in round numbers, yet, considering the special occasion on which they were revealed, we can be fairly sure of their credibility and can infer that the 1964

census must be the basis. When we add up these figures, it appears that at the end of the Cultural Revolution the population of mainland China was approximately 720 million. By now it is perhaps more than 750 million.

The data in Table II give rise to several comments and interpreta- tions. (1) During the period 1957-1965 all the provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions registered population increases, and the average annual rate of increase was 1.41 percent. (2) Border regions showed higher than average rates of increase (for example, 5.7 percent in Inner Mongolia and 5.2 percent in Sinkiang Uighur Autono- mous Region). (3) The high rate of increase in Chekiang and Fukien, the two already crowded provinces facing Taiwan, was apparently re- lated to military installations. (4) Kiangsi, the old base of the Commu- nist Party in its early revolutionary days, had a greater than average population increase because it was trying to make up for the depletion of its manpower during the war years. (5) Peking and Shanghai registered sharp increases, mainly because of the enlargement of their municipal areas.

According to the 1953 census, 505,346,135 persons, or 86.7 percent of the total population, lived in rural areas-defined as places with a population of less than 2000 persons or a place where the population is more than 2000 but where 50 percent of the total are en- gaged in agriculture-and the urban (that is, nonrural) population was 77 million, or 13.3 percent. Although in the past two decades the




urban proportion has increased somewhat, it is still safe to say that more than 75 percent of the Chinese population is rural.

On November 7, 1955, the twentieth meeting of the State Council

TABLE II-POPULATION INCREASES BETWEEN 1957 AND 1965

1957 REGISTRATION I 965 ESTIMATE*

ADMINISTRATIVE AREA, I 965 Density Annual increase DIVISION (Iooo km2) Thousands per km2 Thousands rate (1957-I965, %)

Provincest Anhwei I 39.9 33,560 239.9 35,000 0-54 Chekiang ioi.8 25,280 248.3 3I,000 2.83 Fukien I23.I I4,650 I I9.0 I 7,000 2.0I

Heilungkiang 463.6 I 4,860 32. I 21,000 5.I6 Honan I67.0 48,670 29I.4 50,000 0-34 Hopei 197.2 44,720 226.8 47,000 o.64 Hunan 2IO.5 36,220 I72.I 38,ooo o.6i Hupei I87-5 30,799 I64-2 32,000 0.49 Kansu 366.5 I 2,800 34-9 I 3,900 I .07 Kiangsi I64.8 i8,6io I I2.9 22,000 2.28 Kiangsu 102.2 45,230 442-6 47,000 0.49 Kirin i87-0 I2,550 67.I I7,000 4-43 Kwangtung 23I.4 37,960 I 64.0 40,000 o.67 Kweichow 174.0 I 6,890 97.I I 7,400 0.38 Liaoning 151.0 24,090 I 59-5 28,000 2.03 Shansi 157-I 15,960 ioi.6 I 8,ooo i.6o Shantung I53-3 54,030 352-4 57,000 o.69 Shensi I95.8 I8,I30 92.6 2 I,000 I.98 Szechwan 569.o 72,i60 I26.8 74,000 0.32 Tsinghai 72I.0 2,050 2.8 2,400 2.I3 Yunnan 436.2 I 9, I 00 43.8 23,000 2.55 Municipalities Peking I7.I 4,010 234-5 8,ooo I2.44 Shanghai 5.8 6,900 I,I89.7 I I,000 7.43 Autonomous Regions Inner Mongolia I, I 83.0 9,200 7.8 I 3,400 5.7I Kwangsi Chuang 220.4 I9,390 88.o 24,000 2-97 Ninghsia 66.4 i,8io 27.3 2,000 I3.I2 Sinkiang Uighur I,646.8 5,640 3-4 8,ooo 5.23 Tibet I,22 I.6 I,270 I.0 I,400 I.28

TOTAL 9,56I.0 646,530 67.6 719,500 I.4I

Source: Cheng-siang Chen: Zhongguo Dizhi, or A Geography of China, Vol. II, Part 3, Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Geogr. Research Centre Research Rept. No. 5I, Hong Kong, I972.

* Estimate made by the author based on the figures announced by the chairmen of Revolution Committees of all the provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions during the closing period of the Cultural Revolution.

t Excluding the province of Taiwan.

established the criteria for defining the urban population.9 Briefly, an urban area was supposed to meet one or more of the following conditions: (i) serve as the seat of the municipal people's committee or

9 This definition of "urban" is very similar to the definition which I had worked out earlier for Taiwan (Cheng-siang Chen: The Cities and Rural Towns in Taiwan, Fu-Min Geogr. Inst. of Econ. Development, Research Rept. No. 48, Taipei, 1953).




people's committee above the hsien (county) level; (2) have a resident population of 2000 or more, of whom 50 percent or more are nonagricultural; (3) have a resident population between iooo and 2000,

of whom 75 percent are nonagricultural. However, there is no evi- dence that these criteria are presently being used by the government.

SHIH CITIES

In the past, the so-called shih, or city, in China was often designated solely on the basis of its size. Since China is the most populous country in the world, the population required for classification as a shih was generally high, 1oo,ooo or more. Cities with a population around 5o,ooo were summarily designated as chen, or townships. However, the situation has drastically changed with the rapid devel- opmnent of modern industry and transportation. Many smaller places, with less than 5o,ooo population, are now fully qualified as cities in functional terms, and some of them, because of their key positions, are admninistratively designated as shih. Places that had officially been designated as shih up to the end of 1965 are shown on Plate I. Al- though some places underwent changes in status either before or after 1965, these obviously occurred for administrative reasons and do not bespeak sudden changes in the places themselves; many cities designated as shih on earlier maps are shown as chen on more recent maps, while new shih may appear suddenly on the same recent maps.

A case in point is the several small towns that sprang up some years ago following the discovery of petroleum in the now fast developing Tsaidam (Ch'aitamu) Basin. Two of these towns, Lenghu and Tachai- tan, were clearly marked as shih on official maps published in 1964. However, maps published after 1965 show both as demoted to chen status. Actually these two places once ranking as shih are very small; Lenghu, for example, had only about 2000 persons up to 1970.

The classification of cities in accordance with the current administrative system is not only complicated but unusual. Since this classification is apt to confuse one not well acquainted with things Chinese, some explanatory notes seem necessary. The cities designated as shih in China today are given different ranks. The highest-ranking shih cities are those administratively placed under the direct control of the Central Government, and at present there are only three-Peking, Shanghai, and Tientsin. Each is given the status of a province or an autonomous region and includes in its administrative area several hsien, though the population of the urban area is much inore than that of the suburbs. For example, Shanghai, the largest city in China,



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administratively controls ten chit, or districts, and ten hsien. Shanghai proper is inhabited by seven million persons, while the outlying areas have about four million. Between the urban and rural areas of Shang- hai have popped into view in recent years many satellite towns serv- ing chiefly as residential quarters for industrial workers, and they can be regarded as the intermediate or transitional zone of Shanghai. From 1950 through 1970 no fewer than 75 such quarters had appeared in Shanghai, and they occupied 57,330 hectares. These new industrial- residential clusters, inany of which have a population of more than so,ooo, are sinall cities in their own right.

Chinese shih cities that rank next in importance are those directly answerable to the provincial government, and they have the same status enjoyed by a chutani chut, or special district,'0 by an autonomous chont, or by a men g." They inay or may not include hsien in their administrative areas. In 1965 there were 72 such cities in China, designated principally by political and economic considerations instead of by size. Of these cities, 46 did not have any hsien. So far as the 1965 situation is concerned, of the rest of the cities in the second category nine administered only one hsien, five controlled two hsien, four controlled three hsien, one controlled four hsien, three controlled five hsien, two controlled seven hsien, one (Harbin) controlled eight hsien, and one (Lhasa) controlled eleven hsien. Lhasa has only 1oo,ooo

persons, yet the hsienl under its adininistration occupy a land area that extends 6so kiloineters froim east to west and about 240 kilomneters from south to north-that is, an area mnuch larger than Taiwan.

The lowest-ranking shihl cities in China are those under the juris- diction of the special districts, the autonomous chou, or the meng. Their status is equal to that of a hsien, an autonoinous hsien, or a chi (Fig. 0).12 Traditionally, however, they are slightly more important than the hsien, and in ordinary listings always precede themn, though they have no adininistrative control over the hsien. Examples are Fushan shih and Koniginoon shih, under the Fushan Special District;

10 A chutan chu, or special district, is an administrative unit intermediate between a province and a hsien. All provinces and autonomous regions in China (excepting Inner Mongolia) have a number of these special districts within their administrative areas. Each chuan chu is further divided into a number of hsien. For example, Hopei has io chuan chu and one chuan chu in this group (TIangshan) administers two shih and twelve hsien.

11 A nmeng is an administrative unit in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; it is the equivalent of a chuan chu in other parts of China.

12 A chi is an administrative unit in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; it is the equivalent of a hsien in other parts of China.



64 THE GEOGRAPH ICAI. REVIEW

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Yenki sllih, under the Yenpien Korean Autonomous Chou; and Tsin- ing shih, under the Ulanclhapu meng. In 1965 there were 95 such shih cities.

The present shih institution in China is not only unique but dif- fers from region to region. Not infrequently the shih contain exten- sive rural areas, and several are combinations of small towns. For example, the population of Pingsiang shih in western Kiangsi was given as 940,000 in 1970, yet the major built-up area has only 40,000 people; the famous coal mines to the east of town account for 170,000 workers, and the rest of the population is exclusively rural. The urban population of Pingsiang, therefore, is 210,000. Tzepo in central Shantung, with a population of 8so,ooo in 1970, is made up of half a dozen new industrial towns, including Tzechwan, Poshan, and Changtien.

Occasionally a shih is established for some special purpose, and once that function is terminated the shih status is lost too. Malipo in Yiinnan Province, wlhich was designated as a shih during the Korean War and wlhich had a population of 196,300 in 1953, is one such example. In somne United Nations publications-for instance the Demo- graphic Yearbook-tlhis place is still listed as it was twenty years ago. I have received at least ten inquiries about where Malipo is, what kind of shih it is, and how it has fared in recent years. This place is now only a rural district, where not even a market town has a population of 20,000. On the other hand, a genuine shih, Yaicheng, seemns to owe its existence to the Vietnam War. This new city, not to be found on ordinary mnaps, is on the south coast of Hainan Island only about 310 kilometers from the port of Da Nang in South Vietnamn and has a probable population of no fewer than ioo,ooo. Ninety kilometers north of Yaicheng is the largest iron inine in South China, and fifty kilomneters east of it is the major naval base for China's South Seas Fleet. A likely explanation for the city's sudden growth is that it lhas been, and is still being, used as a military base to keep watch on the war situation in Vietnam.

To the best of our knowledge, Hainan Island has been bulging with a population of mnore than four mnillion, a high percentage of wlhom are young people and soldiers. These young people and soldiers are part of the Production and Construction Corps, who build state farms to develop the rich tropical resources and are being trained as combat troops for possible future wars. Yaicheng lhas becomne an activity center for this young population. However, except for its beautiful beaches, Yaicheng does not seem to promise well as a boomn city in the long run.




THE URBAN POPULATION

The 1953 census showed that China had 5568 urban places, nine of which had mnore than a million inhabitants (P1. II). The total population of all places of more than 20,000 was 51,313,000, or some 8.8 percent of the national total. This proportion, from the standpoint of the earlier urbanized Western countries, is certainly low. Neverthe- less the absolute num-ber of urban-dwellers is large. It was reported to be 140 mnillion in 1964 and 160 million in 1970.13

The urban population of 160 million made up approximnately a fifth of the nation's inhabitants. In 1970 twenty-one cities in China had a population of more than a million (Table III). Together, these cities totaled 44,460,ooo persons, 5.9 percent of the total population of Clhina and 27.8 percent of the urban population. However, if the number of larg,e cities is calculated on the basis of a population size of 500,000 or more, the 1970 total of big cities in China was 43, with a combined population of 59,830,000, or 8.o percent of the national total and 37.4 percent of the total urban population of the nation (P1. III).

The proportion of urban dwellers is highest in the industrialized Northeast, where it is more than 30 percent. The municipalities of Peking and Tientsin in Hopei and Shanghai in Kiangsu raise the proportion of urban dwellers for these two provinces to more than 20 percent; otherwise, no province or autonomous region shows a percentage of urban dwellers above the national average. Moderate degrees of urbanization are shown by the southeastern coastal provinces of Che- kiang, Fukien, and Kwangtung. Urbanization on any large scale is lacking in the thinly populated Northwest and Southwest.

There was a time during the early days of the People's Republic when fairly large numbers of people moved from rural villages into the cities, seeking jobs and higher living standards. And there was still another reason: old China was a country long torn by wars, and people from their painful experiences believed in the popular saying, "Live in the countryside in troubled times"; thus whenever a civil war was raging, large groups of people fled from the city to the countryside, and naturally many of them were of the wealthy class, including absentee landlords. When the Communists came to power and drastic land reform was enforced, these people found that the rural

13 By comparison, in 1970 the urban population of the Soviet Union was 136 million (Chauncy D. Harris: Urbanization and Population Growth in the Soviet Union, 1959-1970, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 6i, 197 1, pp. 102-124) and that of the United States was 150 million.



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TABLE III-CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER A HALF MILLION, 1970

CITY 1936 I 953 I 957 I 970

Shanghai 3,727,000 6,204,4I7 6,900,000 7,000,000 Peking I,551,000 2,768,I I9 4,0I0,000 5,000,000 Tientsin 1,292,000 2,693,83I 3,220,000 3,600,000 Mukden (Shenyang) 527,000 2,299,900 2,4I1,000 2,800,000 Wuhan I,379,000 I,427,300 2,I46,000 2,560,000 Canton I ,222,000 I,598,900 1,840,000 2,500,000 Chungking 446,ooo 1,772,500 2,121,000 2,400,000 Nanking 1,019,000 1,09 I,600 I,4I9,OOO I,750,000 Harbin (Haerhpin) 465,000 1, I 63,000 1,552,000 1,670,000 Luta (Dairen, Port

Arthur) 445,000 766,400 1,5o8,ooo* 1,650,000* Sian I55,ooo 787,300 1,310,000 I,6oo,ooo Lanchow I o6,ooo 397,400 699,ooo I1450,000 Taiyiian I 39,000 (1934) 720,700 1,020,000 1,350,000 Tsingtao 515,000 9 I 6,800 1,121,000 1,300,000 Chengtu 5I6,1 13 856,700 1,107,000 1,250,000 Changchun 228,744 855,200 975,000 1,200,000 Kunming I 45,000 698,900 88o,ooo I 100,000 Tsinan 44,000 68o, I oo 862,ooo I,IO0,OOO Fushun I I 8,ooo 678,600 985,000 ,o080,000 Anshan I 66,ooo 548,900 805,ooo 1,050,000 Chengchow 8o,ooo (1931) 594,700 766,ooo 1,050,000 Hangchow 589,ooo 696,600 784,000 960,ooo Tangshan 85,ooo 693,300 8oo,ooo 950,000 Paotow 67,206 (I935) 149,400 650,ooo (1958) 92o,ooo Tzepo - I84,200 806,ooo* 850,000* Changsha 507,000 65o,6oo 703,000 825,000 Shihkiachwang 6o,ooo 373,400 598,ooo 8oo,ooo Tsitsihar 76,IOI 344,700 668,ooo 760,ooo Soochow 389,797 474,000 633,000 730,000 Kirin I 43,250 435,400 568,ooo 720,000 Siichow I6o,oI3 (1935) 373,000 676,ooo 700,000 Foochow 359,205 (I935) 553,000 6I6,ooo 68o,ooo Nanchang 30I,000 398,200 508,ooo 675,000 Kweiyang I I7,000 270,900 504,000 66o,ooo Wusih 272,209 58i,500 613,000 65o,ooo Hofei 70,000 I 83,600 304,000 630,000 Hwainan - 286,900 370,000 6oo,ooo Penki 98,203 (1941) 449,000 6oo,ooo Loyang 77,159 (I935) I7I,200 58o,ooo Nanning 88,900 I 94,600 264,000 550,000 Huhehot 83,722 (I935) 148,400 314,000 530,000 Sining 55,564 (I946) 93,700 300,000 500,000 Urumchi 8o,ooo (I943) 140,700 275,000 500,000

Source: Chen, Zhongguo Dizhi, or A Geography of China, Vol. I, Part 3 [see reference in Table II above]. The figures for 1936 are based on various prewar sources. The figures for 1953 are census results, for 1957 official estimates. The 1970 estimate was made by the author based on numerous, if fragmentary, data.

* Increase largely a result of territorial expansion of the city limits.

areas no longer provided sanctuary, and that to avoid being purged and sent to jail the best policy was to flee to the city, especially to the larger ones where anonym-ity was possible.

The economy of China at that time, however, was in a stage of re- covery; industrialization had not yet begun, and the cities proved in- capable of coping witlh large influxes of people. To avoid difficulties




in the cities and to restore agricultural production, the government had to persuade those already in the cities to go back to the countryside. In point of fact, people who failed to find employment in the cities found it hard to live there, since m-ost of the daily necessities of life, especially food, were strictly rationed. As a result, many people did go back to the rural areas or moved to the remote border regions as land reclaimers. All this explains why for a short time there was no perceptible urban growth in China.14

In addition to a rural-to-urban m-igration, an urban-to-urban move- ment exists. In the early phase of industrialization, the new industrial towns in the interior often suffered fromn a severe lack of skilled manpower; consequently, the growth of such towns depended mainly on the skilled labor dispatched from the big coastal industrial centers such as Shanghai and Tientsin. In the 1950-1956 period the average annual growth rate of the urban population was 6.43 percent; between 1957 and 1960 it was 12.2 percent. Now that industrialization is being pushed with vigor following the Cultural Revolution, the cities are beginning to absorb still more people.

Urban growth in China is rather slow also because the government, after learning its lesson from the 1959-1961 agricultural crisis, now tries not to push industrialization at the cost of agricultural production and rural rehabilitation. The present policy is to consider urban and rural areas of equal importance. An overexpanded city is believed to be beset with problems, such as crowding, deafening noises, and industrial pollution. Therefore, China is not eager to see its urban population increase rapidly and does not believe that urbanization is synonymous with modernization; instead, the differences between the urban and rural areas are played down. Urban cadres and many urban workers serve for periods in the countryside, and efforts are made to keep the gap between living standards of city dweller and countryman as narrow as possible.

Throughout the rural areas in China, small factories and power

14 In January, 1950, according to newspaper sources, Shanghai's population was a little over 5 million; in 1953, when registration was required of all the voters, the city had a population of 6 million; in April, 1955, the figure had risen to more than 7 million, of whom only 2,570,000 were actively employed in production, while the remaining 4.5 million were nonproductive or jobless. "From April to October, 1955, a total of 555,ooo persons were mobilized for return to the rural area," according to one report (Kuang- ming Ribao, Dec. 29, 1955). Accordingly, for a period the rural-to-urban migration slowed down, if it did not completely stop. Roughly estimated, from 1951 through 1953 between 3.4 and 4.5 million persons had moved annually from rural to urban areas. Urban migration showed a sharp numerical decrease after 1954, and in 1955 the trend was reversed. However, since 1956 the migration has numerically increased again.




stations have been built; roads have been constructed; young intel- lectuals have been encouraged to settle in rural villages to raise the cultural level; large groups of "barefoot doctors" serve the health needs of the people; cultural work corps often go into the country to stage farmyard shows and to project inovies; and first-rate athletes stage exhibitions in the rural villages. The ultimate aim of all this is, of course, to instill in the m-inds of the common people the idea that there is little difference between a rural village and a city. The re- verse of the coin is that in recent years m-any cities have broadened their administrative areas to include large tracts of rural land.15

IMPACT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ON URBANIZATION

Industrial build-up and the construction of additional transportation facilities doubtless gave major impetus to the recent urbanization in China. The result is that not only have the existing cities grown larger, but m-any new cities have sprung up. Urban growth has been m-ost striking in the new industrial and comnmnunications centers of the border regions, where both absolute and relative increases have been large. The rapid growth of Paotow is the best example of how industrialization has worked in China. In 1938 the city had only 55,536 people and was principally a collecting center for livestock products (especially wool) from the provinces of northwest China. Part of the foodstuffs produced in the adjacent irrigation areas were also channeled through it. Today, Paotow is a huge urban center teeming with approximnately a million inhabitants and is the third largest steel producer in China, ranking next after Anshan and Wuhan. Another good exam-ple is Lanchow. Its rise fromn a city of 8o,ooo inhabitants in 1942 to one of m-ore than two million today is the result of the coordinated development of industry and transportation.16 Before 1952 Lanchow was not served by a railway; now it is the place where four major railways meet and is the converging point of many trunk highways.

The tapping of m-ineral resources, especially petroleum, has added many new places to the economic mnap of China. One famous example is Taching, an all-new petroleum center i6o kilometers northwest of

15 The expansion of the municipal area of some cities may be motivated in part by the desire to reduce urban-rural differences by creating a series of integrated, more or less self-sufficient, urban-rural units. Several large-scale changes of this type took place in 1958; the area of Peking, for example, almost doubled, to 17,100 square kilometers.

16 The population of the entire administrative area of Lanchow is more than 2 million; however, the area encompasses large tracts of rural villages, and only 1.45 million people live in the more narrowly defined metropolitan area.




Harbin (Haerhpin). Before its development in 1958, the area was prairie and swamp land totally devoid of hum-an traces. Suddenly Taching has emerged as the most important petroleum-producing center, witlh an output of about seven million tons of crude oil in 1970 and a population of somne 120,000. Another new petroleum cen-

TABLE IV-NUMBER OF CITIES IN EACH SIZE CLASS

SIZE CLASS 1936 1953 1970

5,000,000 & over - I 2 2,500,000-5,000,000 I 2 4 1,000,000-2,500,000 5 6 15 500,000-I,000,000 5 I6 22 250,000-500,000 I I I9 38 100,000-250,000 53 58 104 50,000-100,000 II6 71 185

TOTAL I9I 173 370

Source: Chen, Zhongguo Dizhi, or A Geography of China, Vol. II, Part 3 [see reference in Table II above].

ter is Karamai, on the sandy desert in Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region.'7 Currently Karamai has about 38,ooo inhabitants.

The Chinghai-Tibet Plateau was long inaccessible by modern highway, but by 1957 it was traversed by three long highways-the highest in the world-and a little later a number of feeder roads were constructed. Highway junctions are often the sites of newborn towns in China. For instance, Koerhmu, at the southern rim of the Tsaidam Basin, in 1956 had only a sprinkling of people in makeshift tents; now it is a town of about 40,000. Opposite Koerhmu, on the northwest side of the Tsaidam Basin, a number of miniature cities have appeared since the discovery of oil; the better known of these are Lenghu, Mangyai, and Yushashan, all sites of refineries. There are also cities that owe their existence to forestry, such as Ichun in Heilungkiang, and cities that owe their boom to reclamation by soldiers, such as Shihhotzu, 140 kilometers west of Wulumuchi (Urumchi), where the Sinkiang Production and Construction Corps turned the Gobi Desert into farmland. Sanmensia (Honan) and Sinan- kiang (Chekiang) are examples of new industrial centers deriving from the development of hydroelectric power.

The number of cities with populations of more than ioo,ooo is be-

17 Cheng-siang Chen: Petroleum Resources and Their Development in China, The Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Geogr. Research Centre, Research Rept. No. 5, Hong Kong,

i968; idem: The Petroleum Industry of China, Die Erde [in press].



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lieved to be generally correct (Table IV), but it is possible that not all the cities with populations of 50,000 to 100,000 (especially new industrial and mining centers so far unreported) have been ac- counted for. The trends in urban development are quite obvious, especially with respect to the rapid growth during the period 1953- 1970. Some explanation, however, seems necessary for the situation during the period 1936-1953. The year 1936, it should be pointed out, was the year preceding the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War and the last that can be considered "normal." Then caine an eight-year war against the Japanese, which was soon followed by four years of civil strife. These twelve long years of war, needless to say, were a heavy blow to China, and many cities were greatly reduced through the ravages of conflict or thirough voluntary or involuntary evacua- tion. This is why a number of smnall cities at the conclusion of the war years had lost their former status, and why in Table IV the number of the cities with populations of 5o,ooo to 1oo,ooo is smaller in 1953 than it was in 1936.

Other causes than war can lower the status of a city or make it de- cline. For instance, Shangshui, 155 kilometers southeast of Cheng- chow and at the confluence of the Ying Ho and the Chialu Ho, both major northern tributaries of the Hwai Ho, was originally an important river port for the transshipment of commodities from the area between the south side of the middle reaches of the Hwang Ho and the Hwai Ho. At one time it had inore than 200,000 people. But its prosperity did not last long. First, the construction of railways in the area and the gradual switch to land, rather than river, transportation caused the city's population to drop to a little mnore than 1oo,ooo. Then the Nationalist Governmnent in an attempt to cover its retreat- ing troops during a Japanese offensive in June, 1938, ordered its air force to blast the big dike restraining the flow of the Hwang Ho at Huayuankow. Once liberated, the waters flowed southward, mainly along the course of the Chialu Ho, and submerged 44 hsien in an area of 54,ooo square kilometers in the three provinces of Honan, Anhwei, and Kiangsu, rendering homeless some 14,500,000 people and drown- ing about goo,ooo. Shangshui (then known as Chouchiakou) bore the brunt of the flood, and its population dropped to 30,000. It was not until 1953 that its population rose again to 8s,ooo. Though once designated as a shih after its inoderate population rise, the city lost this designation in April, 1958, and was reduced to the status of chen.

Before the Cultural Revolution there had been grave debates over




China's policy toward industralization. One faction argued that China should follow the example of the Soviet Union and push its industrialization on the principle of strict division between labor and mon- olithlic inanagemnent, embodying such Soviet concepts as industrial centralization, emnphasis on massive industrial projects, and factory ma iageinent by experts, and that only the Soviet Union could supply China withl its needed techniques and machinery. The opposing faction contended that for its econoinic developinent China must de- pend on its own resources, including the intelligence of the masses; that for strategic, psychological, and economic reasons China's industries should be scattered over the country; and that each province, autonomous region, and, if possible, people's commnune should be self- sufficient. The second faction won. It was decided that China should adopt a policy of "letting flowers bloom all over the land"; that is, small industrial establishments should rise everywhere in China. "Self reliance" and "hard struggle" became the watchwords, and there was a widespread drive to coordinate government- and locally-supported industries and to give equal importance to large and small industrial enterprises. 18

In the foreseeable future, owing to the enforcement of firm govern- inent policy, the proportion of urban population will rise only mod- erately, despite an accelerated program of industrialization and the continued increase in the absolute number of urban dwellers. On the other lhand, many small towns will emerge as bridges between big cities and rural areas. Today one can see small factories, small steel blast-furnaces, small coal pits, and small hydroelectric power stations in many of the people's communes. Such industries function not only as the "cells" in which technological skill is taught, but also as a stimulus to the growth of small industrial centers. If any of these clusters are favorably located or are blessed with other advantages, they are likely to grow into new industrial centers. Since 1971 China has been moving with its Fourth Five-Year Plan, and it is widely ex- pected that mnore industrial cities will be born. To one who studies the geography of China, the many new developments emerging from day to day would keep him busy throughout his life.

18 During the First Five-Year Plan development was concentrated in a limited number of cities; the new construction projects were distributed in some 120 cities, and a majority of the large projects were clustered in eighteen cities. After 1957 a policy of wider dispersion was favored "and in 1958 and 1959 the construction work was spread over about 2,100 cities and towns" (Keith Buchanan: The Transformation of the Chinese Earth [London, 19701, pp. 226-227).



population growth and urbanization in china, 1953-1970

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