China's Emerging Cities: The Making of New Urbanism

摘要

There is no shortage of books on contemporary China: the new bookshelves in the library are overflowing with them. But finding good things to read on urban China is a tougher assignment. One is therefore thankful for someone like Professor Wu for tirelessly publishing on the subject. The challenge is how to take hold of a subject that doesn't want to stand still but is metamorphosing under our very eyes. It is all happening so fast. As I write, the first high-speed train designed and built entirely in China, has started its regular run between Wuhan and Guangzhou, a distance of about 1,000 kilometers, in the record time of three hours. How does one digest a news item like this, knowing that shortening the travel time from ten hours to three between China's Chicago and the center of the Pearl River Delta will have profound consequences for China's urban system? Examples such as this could be multiplied.