The major metropolises of the world face several problems due to their rapid growth. From among these, it is considered that Chinese cities in particular deserve special attention due to the diversity of challenges they face. Out of the 1,367,820,000 population of China in 2014, 54.77% constituted the urban population1 – this figure takes on more relevance when we consider that only sixty-five years ago, just 10.64% of the population was urban. From the total population of the country, about 17% live in the ten most major cities and their metropolitan areas2. Taking into account the relevance of the metropolis in the Chinese context, we propose a set of topics, challenges and trends in contemporary urbanization in China.

The major metropolises of the world face several problems due to their rapid growth. From among these, it is considered that Chinese cities in particular deserve special attention due to the diversity of challenges they face. Out of the 1,367,820,000 population of China in 2014, 54.77% constituted the urban population1 – this figure takes on more relevance when we consider that only sixty-five years ago, just 10.64% of the population was urban. From the total population of the country, about 17% live in the ten most major cities and their metropolitan areas2. Taking into account the relevance of the metropolis in the Chinese context, we propose a set of topics, challenges and trends in contemporary urbanization in China.