Urbanization, in the proposal for China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), is treated as a strategy that will spur the development of industries.

If things go as economist Hu Angang expects, about 70 percent of the Chinese population will be in cities by 2030, energizing many service industries and overall national economic growth.

But the change is not going as quickly and orderly as expected, according to Shi Yulong, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission.