China features a long and resplendent history of origination and development of cities. As early as in Xia，Shang and Zhou Dynasties，cities already occurred in full form. From the Tang Dynasty to Ming Dynasty（7^th century A.D.-16^th century A.D.），the proportion of urban population used to reach 10% and kept a leading place in the world for a long period. The first city with the population of 1 million in the western world was London in 1810，which was the case of Nanjing in China as early as in the Northern Dynasties，1，300 years earlier than the West. In the history of urban development in China，there had occurred several metropolises representing state-of-the-art urbanization in the world at that time，such as Chang’an，the capital of China during the Tang Dynasty，with great prosperity attracting many nations to pay tribute，Bianliang，the capital of China during the Northern Song Dynasty，featuring flourish and jollification as illustrated on the Scroll of Pure Brightness Festival on the River，and Dadu during the Yuan Dynasty，enjoying affluence and wealth described in The Travels of Marco Polo. All of them were international metropolises boasting great reputation during their eras.

Though the history of Chinese urbanization before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China is remarkable，we confine the coverage of our study to the period from the year 1949 to present. During this period，no major change happened to the external environments for urbanization，namely the country’s regime and basic institution. Studying Chinese urbanization，its dynamic mechanism，the role of government’s behavior，and the direction of future optimization is realistically important to China’s future urbanization.

Section Ⅰ Background and