China's urbanization level has reached 56.1 percent, that's according to the first official urbanization report book compiled by the National Development and Reform Commission. The country also plans for more small and medium sized cities along with ahuman-centered urbanization path.
China has 653 cities now, compared to 193 in 1978. The top economic planning body says that number could be increased.
1978年中國只有193個城市,現在中國有653個城市。中國最高經濟規劃機構表示城市數量還將增加。
"Even Japan has over 1000 cities. We have over 200 counties and towns that can be converted to medium and small cities. We'll speed up setting the standards to support that this year," Xu Lin, director of Planning Dept., NDRC, said.
China's fast urbanization has left many problems. One of them...many new buildings in disuse, leading to what's called "ghost cities".
中國的快速城鎮化產生了許多問題。其中一個問題是,許多新建筑被閑置,導致“鬼城”現象。
Since 2014, the central government began to advance a new path that's human-centered and environmentally friendly.
從2014年開始,中央政府開始加快推進以人為核心,環境友好型的新型城鎮化道路。
China aims to make 60 percent of its population live in cities by 2020.
中國規劃到2020年使常住人口城鎮化率達到 60%。
The country counted 277 million migrant rural workers last year. Without a household registration permit, called a Hukou, in the city they work in, they are denied access to many social benefits.
And many have left their ageing parents and children in their rural home.
Speeding up a reform on that, is topping this year's priorities.
許多人把年長的父母和孩子留在農村的家里,加速改革這一問題是今年的一個重點工作。
"We're improving migrant rural workers'citizenship. We'll enable them to take their family to cities, and get access to the same medical care and education as locals," Xu said.
The National Development and Reform Commission says from this year on, a book will be published every year, to tell the pubic about all the progress and problems in the country's urbanization process.