With the onset ofindustrialization over the past several decades,
the traditional Chinese countryside has been gradually replaced
by multi-storey residential blocks and scattered factory buildings.
This process is defined as peri-urbanization. A United Nations study
(2000) shows that 477 million people will be added to East Asian
cities by 2025, of which approximately 350 million will be in Chinese
cities. Up to 40 percent or 200 million ofthis growth will occur
in transitional peri-urban zones. If this occurs in China, approximately
140 million people will be added to Chinese peri-urban
areas (Webster & Muller, 2002).