Contemporary Social Sciences (Jan 2019)
New Strategy and Kinetic Energy Regeneration for the Development of China’s Urban Agglomeration
Abstract
The rapid development of modern urban agglomerations has reshaped the territory of China’s economic geography and reconstructed the spatial forms of Chinese cities and regions. Since the reform and opening-up, China’s urban agglomerations have experienced three stages, i.e. spontaneous cultivation, rapid growth, and the super leading role of planning. The giant development area composed of super urban agglomerations is becoming an emerging geographic unit that improves the urban development quality, promotes regional integration processes and participates in global industrial competition and innovative resource allocations in China. While encountering challenges such as insufficient innovation kinetic energy and implementation difficulties of cross-regional coordination mechanisms, it has also ushered in new opportunities brought about by the shift of the global urban network system focus, the accelerated formation of high-speed rail urban belts, the rise of innovative geographic unit communities, etc. As entering the new era, centering on the high-quality development requirements of urbanization and urban agglomerations, China should establish a new mechanism for more effective coordinated regional development, build an urban pattern of coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and towns with urban agglomerations as the main body, comprehensively enhance the competitiveness of urban agglomerations and regions, and take a steady and innovation-driven road to modernization.
