关键词: 都会经济区, 都市圈, 大城市群, 城市化, 区域发展

Abstract:

In contemporary China, cities on major river deltas along its Pacific coast have emerged as the fastest growing urban centers After the opening up and reform of 1978,the development of those cities became even more striking comparing with other Chinese cities Around such key centers as Beijing Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, new mega urban regions,i.e., the Extended Metropolitan Regions (EMRs) have emerged They are export oriented with open economies of different degrees, and have led the nation in international trade, FDI inflow, and rate of economic growth and urbanization in the past two decades The global experiences, particularly experiences in South East Asia in the past three decades had shown that as economic globalization proceeds, almost all EMRs in those countries have experienced a quicker growth and become a more and more dominating actor in its national economy It is also believed that the future competition between countries will very likely lie in the competition between those EMRs Therefore knowledge on the functions and formation of EMRs in China is an important basis for its regional planning It is also an important element for understanding the emergence of large urban clusters within the present dualism of urbanization of the country It is argued that the importance of the three EMRs in urban China will become more outstanding after China's entry WTO and its participation in the global economy getting more deepening and widening It is highly believed by authors that those three EMRs will also become the most dynamic urban regions in the world within the coming two decades given proper development strategies are implemented

Key words: Extended Metropolitan Regions, megalopolis, urbanization, regional development