What kind of urbanization is needed to make the country's economic growth sustainable and its social progress healthy? There may be different ways of interpreting the central authorities' urbanization strategy, but it is definitely wrong to interpret it as sheer expansion of the size of a city or the creation of new cities.

Yet it is obvious that is how a number of local departments have chosen to interpret the central government's urbanization drive. A survey of 12 provinces conducted by a department of the National Development and Reform Commission shows that the 12 provincial capitals will each create 4.6 new urban districts on average. The 144 prefecture level cities surveyed will each build 1.5 new urban districts on average.

A typical example is the city of Yan'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, which plans to open up an area of 78.5 square kilometers in the mountains to create a new city.