China : Urbanization
...ng, the rapid influx of migrants is seriously straining the transportation, electrical, and water supply systems. (Figure 2) Most of China’s population density is located in the southeastern part of the country. Ninety –four percent of the population of the southeastern part of China live in only forty-three percent of the land. One quarter of the population of China is in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river, including the province of Jaingxi, and the population density reaches six hundred and sixty-three people per square kilometer. In China’s largest city, Shanghai has a population density of two thousand one hundred and eighteen people per square kilometer. The negative effects that are associated with the resent growth of the urban centers in China are that it will promote the growth of commercial agriculture, and the modern food industry. It will also change the urban infrastructure by expanding into cropland, it will also change the diet of the Chinese people. Pollution is also a negative effect of the growth of urban centers where the use of clean water will be fought over by the urban centers and the agricultural sector.(Heilig,G.K.1999) Currently a larger number of farmers in China produce mainly for their own families. The national level of production and consumption of grain in China states that about 50-60% of the grain production is directly consumed by the farmers, and their families, 30-40% goes to the state procurement system, and only a small portion goes to sale on market.(Heilig G.K. 1999) China’s food industry will also be affected by urbanization. Unlike farmers in rural areas , urban residents cannot live off of the food that they have grown in their gardens, they have to buy food at a market or get it from a state-subsidized shop.(Goldstein S. 1985) With the slow decline of state-run food distribution system, private companies will flourish in the food sector because more people will be dependent on them as a source of food. China’s urbanization will esspesially push the expansion of the market oriented food industry. Statistics indicated that the food industry is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in China’s economy. The gross output value of the food processing industry grew by almost one hundred and twenty percent between nineteen ninety-three and nineteen ninety-seven. In comparison, the gross output value increased by only some 69% in all other industrial sectors. The increase in the food manufacturing industry was 107%. (Goldstein S. 1985) The country is in need of an industry that can effectively handle the post-harvest processing, storage, packaging, preservation, and distribution of food to the citizens is vital for the country’s food security. If they are unable to implement a program that is able to do that, many Chinese people will face starvation in the future.( Goldstein S. 1991) The change in the Chinese diet is another consequence of urbanization in China .Residents in urban areas typically eat a more different diet and which includes more processed foods. They also typically eat more meat and dairy products, which will boost the livestock production. If you were to compare China’s diet with the diet of other developed Asian countries you will see that further changes are certainly possible. The loss of cropland to the growth of the urban center is another problem that faces the urbanization of China. The growth of cities and towns also lead to the transformation of farmland into residential or industrial land. (Hsu, Mei-Ling (1994) Although contractor’s in China are beginning to use taller buildings which will lessen the situation to a certain degree. Unlike the agricultural land use changes , which can be reversed if there is a need to, the transformation into urban structures like apartments and roads is irreversible. Since nineteen-eight-five there has been a significant increase in twelve large centers where the use of land for urban developments has grown at an alarming rate.( Hsu, Mei-Ling (1994) Urbanization not only causes there to be a large increase in the “built up” structures like apartments, it also changes the surrounding area in the need for shopping malls and water reservoirs or sanitation plants. The new migrants to the urban centers cannot build their homes from the same materials that a rural resident can. They have to use steel and wood, therefore factories must be...