From the Readers

Urbanization good but

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-06 07:55

Comment on "Focusing on future urbanization" (March 22, China Daily).

Urbanization as process is in line with modernity and civilization. But I'm not sure whether it is being accomplished in the best possible way in China. Sometimes it reminds me of "Old Yu Gong who wanted to move the mountain".

Chongqing, for instance, has incorporated towns and villages around it to grow into a megalopolis city and could soon become the first Chinese city with more than 30 million people. I wonder whether such a huge population poses an advantage or a challenge. We know migrant workers are not only underpaid, but also face problems of housing, medical care and schooling for their children. Urbanization is aimed at improving their lives and giving them the same facilities that permanent urban residents get. This is justice.

But if all farmers move to towns, who will feed the country's 1.3 billion people? What will happen to agricultural land? How will rural people adapt to city life?

Instead of building megalopolises and moving rural people to them, wouldn't it be easier, more logical and more profitable to industrialize the countryside? People could be offered favorable policies to invest in villages, towns and counties. Urban families who choose to move to the countryside could be offered concessions, too. And the service sector should be developed in the countryside, giving a fresh impetus to urbanization where it is really needed.

Lisa Carducci, Beijing,via e-mail

(China Daily 04/06/2010 page9)