Abstract

Abstract In October 1990, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) approved a grant for the Centre of Human Settlements, University of British Columbia, to conduct a comparative study of Asian urbanization as the spearhead in an effort to develop a new approach to human settlements development planning. In 1991, CHS entered into agreements with Tsinghua University, Tongji University and Zhongshan University to collaboratively carry out a research project on the expanding mega-urban regions in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The collaborative project focused on three themes: (a) redevelopment of the inner city areas of these mega-urban regions; (b) the growth of small towns on the metropolitan periphery; and (c) the planning and governance of the rapidly growing mega-urban regions. This paper is primarily focused on China's three main mega-urban regions of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. It is an attempt to place the planning and governance of China's three main mega-urban regions in the context of the dramatic rural-urban transition that has been occurring in China since 1979 when the Central Government decided to open China to the outside world and pursue economic and social policies leading towards a ‘socialist market economy’.