NEW RURAL SPACES: THE IMPACT OF RURAL INDUSTRIALIZATION ON RURAL-URBAN TRANSITION IN CHINA

Since the 1980s, rural-urban transition has been becoming one of the most important aspects in China’s fast transformation from traditional to modern modes. From the perspective of change of rural space, this paper examines the impact of rural industrialization on the rural-urban transition. After an introduction to the issue of rural-urban transition in rural-urban continuum, a historical overview of the transformations of China’s rural space in economic, social and geographical structure is presented. This is followed by an analysis of regiotal uneven development among provinces in rural industrialization and rural-urban transition. It is concluded that the fast industrialization of rural area has brought on many radical transformations of rural space in China, especially on the formation of new rural economic, social and geographical spaces and the uneven development of rural-urban trgnsition among the eastern, central and westem areas.