Urbanization in China: Through the City Construction in Qingming Scroll and the Proposition of New-Type Urbanization

Abstract

In the 2019 Government Work Report of The State Council^[1], Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Li Keqiang, stressed the need to “promote coordinated regional development and improve the quality of new-type urbanization.” The Government Work Report of The State Council in May 2020 puts forward the basic principles of strengthening the new-type urbanization and improving the capacity of public service facilities^[2]. (Xinhua News Agency [XNA], 2020). It is necessary to promote sustainable and livable urbanization. What should urbanization be like in the case of the new type as a crucial task of construction? How should it deepen the reform of the household registration system and promote economic development beyond the population balance of cities? Based on city clusters, how should urbanization further be promoted and comprehensively driven the Chinese economy after the epidemic? Will the "street stall economy" and "small shop economy" jointly proposed by the Central Civilization Office and Prime Minister in 2020 be a new opportunity? By reviewing Urbanization in China (2019) written by Houkai Wei, this paper believes that Qingming Scroll, as an observable example of the economic prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty, can be a breakthrough in the analysis of the new-type urbanization. Taking the urbanization of the Northern Song Dynasty shown in Qingming Scroll as a base, this paper will further give a new answer on how to further develop and improve the new urbanization. Based on the analysis of the national urbanization of Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty shown and the process given by Urbanization in China, this paper further speculates and constructs the possibility of development. Therefore, according to the characteristics of cities and the nature of urban development in the Northern Song Dynasty, this paper tries to analyze the structure of urbanization in New China and discusses feasible new ways of the urban economy.

^[1] Li, Keqiang. (2019). Report on the Work of the Government of the State Council.

^[2] Xinhua News Agency. (2020). Report on the Work of the Government for 2020.