Programme de bourses "Echanges Universitaires"

Urbanization in China - Examples from the Pearl River Delta

The project in brief

Division
Development Cooperation

Country / Region
China / Pearl River Delta

Partners
Prof. Dr. Rita Schneider-Sliwa, Department of Environmental Sciences, Geography / Urban and Regional Studies, University of Basel and Prof. Dr. Xue Desheng, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou and
Mrs. Chen Wenjuan, Guangzhou Department of Urban Planning

Background
China is experiencing rapid economic growth with concomitant societal, regional and political changes. Such changes open up many opportunities for foreign industrial investment but also allow for widening development differentials within China’s urban industrial and rural areas. In 2007 University of Basel’s Department of Geography/Urban and Regional Studies and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of Guanghzhou’s Sun Yat-Sen University agreed on visits to the Pearl River Delta and Switzerland, respectively, and to start cooperating in field trips, field research, especially assistance to Chinese doctoral students coming to Germany and Switzerland and Master theses for Swiss students who want to study urbanization in China’s Pearl River Delta. At present, the KFPE program “Echanges Universitaires” funds these Swiss Master’s projects outlined below.

Aim of the project
The theses deal with urbanization, commercial and industrial development at three different scales

• Micro-Scale of an urban village (Xiadu Urban Village). Urban villages are poverty areas within modernized Chinese cities. Here, local communities subsist at poverty levels and with less standard infrastructure than the rest of the city, and social fabric and local self organizing is trying to make up for much of the deficits left by state or local government policies. The Master thesis of Patrizia Zanola is devoted to the life in an urban village and self help organizations. This thesis will be supervised by geographers and social scientists from Sun Yat-Sen University.
  
• Meso-Scale of an urban district. Using Guangzhou’s Haizhu District. Elizabeth Brencic portrays how China is massively investing into districts of potential and building up modern, manhattanized downtowns. This thesis will be guided by persons directly linked with the Urban Planning Bureau, as well as with Sun Yat-Sen University’s Urban and Regional Studies Centre.
  
• Macro-Scale of metropolitan area development. The study of Michael Probst will be devoted to analyzing the Master planning for building the first “twin global city” Shenzhen-Hongkong. This thesis will be supervised by persons from the Shenzhen Urban Planning Bureau, a geography professor from Hong Kong University and our contact partner from Guanghzhou University.

Project target
Promotion of cross-cultural learning and research in urban development planning. Fostering research skills of young Swiss professionals in international contexts of Swiss national interest.

Target group
Young professionals working in international urban development; international urban planning community.

Duration
April 2009 to April 2010

Pdf-document including the following summaries:

Social organization in urban villages in the Pearl River Delta, South China - The case of Xiadu Cun, Guangzhou
Patrizia Zanola (Master’s thesis)

Guangzhou - Making a Global City - The Contemporary Model of Urban Planning in Guangzhou. The Case of Guangzhou‘s Haizhu District
Master’s Thesis by Elizabeth N. Brencic

Metropolitan Planning for a Global Twin-City: Shenzhen-Hong Kong
Master’s thesis by Michael Probst

Contact
Department of Geography/Urban and Regional Studies, University of Basel Prof. Dr. Rita Schneider-Sliwa, Claudia Saalfrank, M.A.
Rita.Schneider-Sliwa@unibas.ch, Claudia.Saalfrank@unibas.ch

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
School of Geographical Science and Planning (SGSP)
Sun Yat-Sen University
Prof. XUE Desheng Guangzhou
Guangdong, China, 510275
eesxds@mail.sysu.edu.cn