The pace of change in China in the past three decades has been breathtaking. Opening up to the world-at least in economic terms-has unleashed an historically unprecedented wave of urbanisation. Whole new cities with more than 1 million inhabitants have sprung up, while established cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have expanded rapidly since 1980. There are many ways to study this complex and far-reaching phenomenon and, quite rightly, this is indeed what happens as many academic researchers, from China and elsewhere, focus on different aspects of this sea change of global significance.
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