Urban Housing and Planning in China

Abstract

In May 1985, the writer visited five Chinese cities. He was able to examine current major housing projects and interview senior urban administrators and planners. The paper is based largely upon information obtained by observation in the field and by means of the interviews, not upon detailed fieldwork. It provides an overview both of China's current urban housing situation and of the policies adopted since 1979 to solve housing problems. The relationships of current housing programmes to the recent re-evaluation of the status of urban planning in China are also outlined. In addition, the housing policies and programmes are assessed against the author's experience of urban housing development in other Third World countries.