Analysis on the Urbanization in China and the United States

This article discusses urbanization in China and the United States, and show the differences in the developing paths and similarities in the challenges. The paper studies how China, as a developing country, expands its urbanization significantly in the past decades and how it responds to the challenges of urbanization. On the contrary, the United States, as a developed country, has already gone through what China is experiencing now. This paper finds that environment and infrastructure are the main issues both countries would face in urbanization. Policies in developed countries tend to focus on enhancing quality of life, green infrastructure, and sustainable urban design. However, governments in developing countries tend to be more concerned with resolving informal settlements, enhancing infrastructure, and controlling the fast growth of metropolitan areas; therefore, in pursuit of faster urbanization, they have not noticed the serious impact on the environment. As urbanization is a complex and multifaceted process affecting cities development and surrounding areas, countries could learn from each other and design policies that suit their own development goals.