State-sponsored and spontaneous urbanization in the Pearl River Delta of south China, 1980-1998

State-sponsored urbanization prevailed in the prereform China. A new track of spontaneous urbanization has emerged since 1978. However, state-sponsored urbanization has continued to be an important process of urbanization in the reform period. The Chinese pattern of urbanization since 1978 is distinguished by dual-track urbanization. This paper uses the dual-track urbanization approach to examine the urbanization process in Pearl River Delta in the reform period. Whether urbanization takes place in main cities or low-order settlements has been a lasting theme of the urbanization inquiry. This issue is assessed by an analysis of the relative concentration and deconcentration of urban population among four groups of settlements: the primate city, cities with special economic zones, prefecture-level cities and county-level cities/counties. Contrary to previous research, it is found that both state-sponsored and spontaneous urbanization are driving a dispersed pattern of urbanization in the region.