By Lan Fang BEIJING (Caixin Online) — Urbanization has been a
hot-button topic since the Communist Party’s 18th National
Congress in November, as it has been identified as the most
important public policy direction for the new government. What
policy-makers noticed is that urbanization might hold the key
for the next phase of development. In 2011, the country’s
urbanization rate hit 51.27%. This means that for the first time
in history, more of China’s population lives in cities than in
rural areas. The core of urbanization lies not only in large-
scale city building and expansion of industrial parks, but also
in the great migration of people from farm villages into cities.
In 2011, the total number of migrant workers moving into cities
hit 253 million. The reasons are simple: There are more
opportunities, a more comfortable life, better education, better
hospitals, more convenient communications and more cultural
diversity in cities. And there is more money, too. The Chinese
rural per capita income in 2011 wa