Chinese Megacities: Economic Growth and Development

The last trend of urban development is urbanization, according to the United Nations Organization in 2018, in the world there were 33 cities with populations more than 10 million and the number of megacities is projected to rise to 43 in 2030. The urbanization process has the key consequences, including urban growth driven by the developing world; the interrelationship between the built environment and the natural environment; large-scale infrastructure needs; urban poverty pressures including growing populations living in informal settlements. The level of urbanization in China is higher than the global average and reached 59.6 % in 2018. Large-scale urbanization was facilitated by China's state policy, which began with the launch of the Reform and Openness Policy in 1978. Each five-year plan included points for developing urban infrastructure and enhancing urbanization. One of the key elements of China's current economic and social policy is its urbanization strategy, which was adopted in 2014 and outlined in the National Urbanization Plan for 2014–2020. The main points of research are to identify the key theories of urbanization and their classification; to determine the methodologies for assessing the global competitiveness of cities; to implement a retrospective analysis of the stages of China's urbanization policy; to calculate a cluster analysis for the determination of the Chinese top cities. This research was funded by The German Academic Exchange Service and conducted at Cologne University, Institute of Geography (September – December 2015). This paper is with the last update in 2019.