"Revolution of new technology and China's urbanizing process are expected to be the two big events that will affect humankind in the 21st century," predicted Joseph E. Stiglitz, former World Bank Vice President and also Nobel winner in economy, in 1999 when he came to China to participate in a symposium on urbanization.

In accordance with the State Department of Housing and Rural Construction (SDHRC), China's urban population in 2007 accounted for 44.9 percent of the country's total, with an annual average increase of 0.95 percentage point over the past 25 years. The figure is expected to remain on the fast track at an average increase rate of 0.8 percentage point to 1 percentage point in the 10-15 years ahead, the state department said on August 19 at a news conference.

China currently boasts 655 cities above county level, and about 20,000  towns under the county level, according to the government department.

By the end of 2007, 93.83 percent of the nation has access to tap water, 87.45 percent of burning gas, 62.8 percent of sewage disposal and 61.89 percent of the population are able to dispose of their household waste. Each 10,000 people shared 10.23 public vehicles, and per-capita of road space amounted to 11.43 square meters.

Urbanization with the Chinese characteristics

The Chinese urbanization pattern was designed from the beginning as "rural area to develop into small towns, to cities and then to big cities," by sociologist Fei Xiaotong with the Chinese Government's approval.

This practice is different from the urbanization process carried out internationally that adopts a pattern of "rural areas to become cities and big cities and to small towns," according to Liu Weixin, research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Science.

The international practice means that the pressure resulting from the increase in population is to be resolved by cities, and the expansion of big cities will lead to the establishment of satellite (secondary) cities around the big cities.

In fact, the Chinese Government, following the founding of New China in 1949, has long stuck to a principle of developing industrialization but not urbanization. The principle encouraged the launch of small and medium-sized townships targeted mainly at workers. The aim is to shift the functions of cities from consumption into production, creating primitive accumulation for industrialization.

The trend to restrain urbanization was turned into contra-urbanization in 1963, when the national economy suffered a slowdown, and there was a lack of grain and commodity supplies. That crisis was deemed as a key factor for the development of the urbanization.

As a result, the policies of the time focused on reducing the urban population. Therefore, urban residents between 1949-79 only grew 8.3 percentage points, or just a 0.28 percentage point increase annually, 20 percentage points lower than the peer countries worldwide. Only 100 million people were urban citizens for the 30-year period. Under the household registration system of the time, people were divided into urban or rural residents, and they were restricted to live where their households were registered.

With the reform and opening up that began in 1978, the urbanization process improved. Trial reforms began in small townships as the government readjusted its industrial structure and overhauled the household registration system.

In 1984, grain production turned surplus all over the country. Then the government made a policy to lift restrictions on population flow into small cities and towns in rural areas. Farmers were allowed to open businesses in these towns, but they needed to bring their grain portion with them, in order not to bring extra food pressure for the towns.

The policy by accident coined a host of township enterprises in 1980. In increasing numbers, these enterprises employed 140 million farmers between 1993-94. The number of towns set up by counties all over China hit 18,900 in 2005 from 2,880 in 1978. The urban population between 1979-2000 speeded up to an annual average of 0.82 percentage point.

The fast development of cities and towns has come under the scrutiny of the Central Government.

In 2000, the government rolled out Certain Suggestions On Promotion of the Healthy Development of Small City and Town. The 17th CPC National