Submitted by : Tran Hong Hai

Student ID : 9924134
Class code : S71406B
Teachers : Joel Oxley / Alan Brayne
Word count : 1,028

Report

Urban population growth in
China.











Contents
1. Abstract2
2. Introduction.2
3. Findings
1.1 Traffic congestion.3
1.2 Air pollution4
1.3 Lack of water.5
4. Conclusion.6
5. Recommendations6,7
6. Reference list8,9




1. Abstract
Urban population growth is happening in all over the world. Some of countries
famous for this kind of issue are Mexico, India and so on. The typical one is China, which has the
largest population in the world and the most overpopulated country worldwide. As a consequence,
China will suffer many negative effects which not only affect Chineses lives but also the whole
country. One of the major problems is traffic congestion results from the high demand of citizens
such as transportation and travelling. In addition, urbanization leads to the water shortage and air
pollution which are two serious problems for Chinese. This report will examine how serious from
urban population growth in China and give some recommendations to the government such as
limiting the number of vehicles moving on the road, focusing on the service industry and raising the
awareness of people about the importance of water.

2. Introduction
China has been suffering an increase in urbanization, represented by urban
population growth which can negatively affect both citizens and the economy of China. During the
1980s, China was likely a rural area with only 223 cities and the proportion of urbanization was 20%,
but now China has more than 655 cities with an urban population was approximately 599.2 million
and the annual rate of urbanization is 2.85% (The World FactBook, n.d). According to Seto (n.d), by
the year 2050, Chinas urban population will climb by 300-700 million and urbanization rate will
reach 70%. The purpose of this report is to find out problems that related to urban population
growth in China and make 3 recommendations as to how can China deal with these problems.










Figure 1. Adapted from China Statistical Yearbook, various years

3. Findings
3.1 Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is one of the major problems that China has to deal with.
Because of the acceleration of urbanization and motorization in China, the government seems
incapable to control the number of vehicles in their country. According to Peng et al (2012), there
has been a significant increase in the number of vehicles in China by 20 times since 1990 and this
figure rose from 5.54 million in 1990 to 105.78 million in 2011. Moreover, Suwei and Qiang (2013)
show that Chinese vehicle sales climbed from 2 million vehicles in 2000 to 18 million in 2010, which
made China become one of the biggest auto markets in the world. Suwei and Qiang (2013) also say
that the sales of vehicles rose by 25% annually and it worth 23.5% of worldwide output. Shanghai is
a typical city, which has more than 1.77 million registered private cars and this figure is going to rise
by 200,000 annually (Shanghai Daily 2013). According to China Daily (2012), on average, the speed
of vehicles commuting on the roads in Shanghai is nearly 14 kilometers per hours which is even
slower than buses.

Figure 2. Reproduced from Green Car Congress, 2014


3.2 Air pollution
Because of the huge number of factories and the high demand of Chinese,
air pollution is the second problem of China. According to Watts (2010), the main fossil fuel of China
are coal, oil and the usage of these sources of power in China increased significantly in the past
decade. This number reach more than 2.26bn tonnes of oil in 2009 which also get over the US
2.17bn tonnes in the total. In addition, Andrews (2014) shows that the air quality in Beijing seems
to be the worst on record, people have to live in a place has particulate concentration of 90.1
micrograms per cubic metre . Moreover, some monitoring stations in Beijing showed PM 2.5
(particulate matter 2.5) had jumped to 600 micrograms per square meter, and peaked at 900 in the
weekend evening (CNBC 2013) . As a consequence, people living in China have to suffer a huge
amount of emissions which can cause many diseases to Chinese. According to Duggan (2013),
emissions from coal can make more than 25,000 premature deaths in 2011 and negatively affect
the life of the majority of Chinese children. Furthermore, in some places like Jiangsu province,
poisonous smog limit visibility to under 50 meters, which also caused 320,000 children and 61,000
adults have to deal with asthma.

3.3 Lack of water
After the trend of massive urban population growth, many cities like
Shanghai and Beijing attract a huge number of people come in leads to the situation of water is
more dire. According to Bateman (2014), the total annual water consumption per capita in China is
1,071 m
3
. However, China has to serve the demand of agriculture is 62%, industry for 24% and
domestic use for 12%. According to Roberts (2009), China needs 40 billion cubic meter of water per
year which is higher 10 times to the volume of Lake Erie in US . As a consequence, Dor et al ( 2010)
mention that people in China no longer have enough water to drink, cook or wash. Nearly 660 cities
do not have enough water and approximately 110 cities do not have fresh water to use. To
illustrate, Dor et al (2010) also mentions that about 700 million people usually use water including
animal or human waste and this affects 190 million people annually and it also causes 60,000
premature deaths each year.
4. Conclusion
Urban population growth makes China suffer many negative impacts on the
economy and peoples lives especially their health, even though Chinas government pay a
lot of attention in urban areas. Therefore, many issues occur which are air pollution, traffic
congestion and lack of water. This report will give some recommendations for each of these
findings.
5. Recommendations
Traffic congestion
- The government should in increase and apply congestion taxes of all
vehicles moving in the central of China during rush hours. They can use that money to improve the
road quality, expand the highway and create more public transportations.
- The government should limit number of vehicles commute on the road,
they should use and expand Beijings even-odd rule which allow only cars with even or odd of
license cars can be on the road. The vehicles registered in Beijing with an odd number will be
allowed on the roads every other days. On those days, vehicles with license plates ending are not
allowed to move.



Air pollution
- The government should use long-term policies in order to expand the
service industry. They should put all factories to rural zone and keep the service industry in urban
areas such as tourism or language industry.
- Firstly, the government should increase tax on factories which release too
much emissions into the air. Then they use that money to reward cities or region using safe energy
for their business such as wind power or solar energy in order to encourage and expand these kind
of businesses.
Lack of water
- The government should modernize drainage systems because they play a
significant role in water resources allocation. Modern drainage systems not only can control
water pollution, but also have a function to collect sewage and sewage treatment.
- The government should invest money to improve waste water treatment
systems, the purpose is to help Chinese can reuse water from industries so that citizens can use it in
their daily activities.






6. Reference list
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27, from<https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/6856-China-s-air-pollution-
reporting-is-misleading>.
-Bateman, J 2014, China's looming water crisis, The Ecologist, accessed February 20,
from<http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2291208/chinas_looming_water_crisis.
html>.
-Central Intelligence Agency 2014, The World Fact Book, CIA, accessed June 22,
from<https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html>.
-China Daily 2012, p.4, Traffic jams serious in Shanghai, China Daily, accessed August 31,
from<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hkedition/2012-08/31/content_15722585.htm>
-CNBC 2013, pollution 'Worst on record' in Beijing, CNBC, accessed January 13,
from<http://www.cnbc.com/id/100375537#>.
-Dor, D, Peiyuan, G, Nette, A and An, J 2010, 'Water in China', Issue for responsible investors,
pp.16, accessed Febuary 2010, from
<http://www.sustainalytics.com/sites/default/files/water_in_china-
_issues_for_responsible_investors_feb2010.pdf>.
-Duggan, J 2013, China's coal emission responsible for 'quater of a million premture deaths', The
Guardian, accessed 12 December
from<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/12/china-coal-emissions-smog-
deaths>.
-Peng, Z, Sun, J and Lu, Q 2012, 'China's Public Transportation: Problems, Policies, and Prospective
of Sustainability', ITE, pp.36, accessed May 2012
from<http://www.ite.org/membersonly/itejournal/pdf/2012/JB12EA36.pdf.>
-Roberts, D 2009, China Faces a water crisis, Business week, accessed April 15,
from<http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2009-04-15/china-faces-a-water-
crisisbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice>.
-Seto, K n.d, 'Urban population growth in China', Urban Growth in China: Challenges and
Propects, pp.6, from <http://web.stanford.edu/class/cee320/CEE320B/Seto.pdf>.
-Shanghai Daily 2013, Shanghai considers congestion charge, Shanghai Daily, accessed August
24, from<http://www.china.org.cn/china/2013-08/24/content_29814542.htm>.
-Suwai, F and Quiang, L 2013, 'Car ownership control in Chinese mega cities: Shanghai, Beijing and
Guangzhou', ITA, pp.41, accessed September 2013,
from<http://app.lta.gov.sg/ltaacademy/doc/13Sep040-Feng_CarOwnershipControl.pdf>.
-Watts, J 2010, China overtakes US as world's biggest energy consumer, The Guardian, accessed
August 3, from<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/aug/03/china-overtakes-us-
energy-consumer>.