Quicker urbanization progress has been made in Sichuan Province but it is still under the national average level. The progress in this province was speeded up in late 1970s. As of the end of 2014, there were a total of 32 cities, including 1 sub-provincial city, 17 prefecture-level cities and 14 county-level cities. Annual newly-born population was 830,000, with a birth rate of 10.2‰. Annual deaths were 570,000, with a death rate of 7.0‰ and a natural population growth rate of 3.2‰. Year-end permanent resident population was 81.402 million, up 332,000 compared with that in 2013 (the same below). Of it, there were 37.689 million urban population and 43.713 million rural population, with a urbanization rate of 46.3%, increasing by 1.4 percentage points.
Significant change was seen in grade scale of cities and organic towns. In addition to further growth of Chengdu, Panzhihua, Mianyang, Deyang and other central cities, other cities with urbanization rate above 40% were Luzhou, Nanchong, Meishan, Yibin, Suining, Leshan, Neijiang, Ya’an, etc., which are strong driving for provincial urbanization level. The city system with Chengdu as the super large city, Mianyang, Nanchong, etc., as the large cities, Luzhou, Meishan, Yibin, Suining, Leshan, Neijiang, etc., as the medium cities and Guanghan, Jiangyou, Langzhong, etc., as the small cities was formed.
Despite the rise in urbanization level, the urban scale system was not sound. Among the 32 cities, there was 1 city with population more than 2 million. Most of the rest were medium and small cities and there was a lack of cities with population between 1 million to 2 million, and between 500,000 to 1 million. Thus obvious fault effect was seen. The urban spatial distribution system was also not reasonable. It’s obvious that most of the cities are in the east, seldom in the west, with 93.75% in the east. Eastern Sichuan and Chongqing together form the most dense city agglomeration in West China, which is the fourth city agglomeration, following the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan region. It was approved to be the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone in 2011. In western Sichuan, cities are only Panzhihua and Xichang.
Status of the primary city is outstanding. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province and one of the 15 sub-provincial cities in China. It is the largest economic, cultural, technological and educational center and transportation &communication hub of this province. Population industry, capital, technology, information and talent in this province are highly centralized in Chengdu, resulting in a very significant polarization effect. National territorial area of Chengdu accounts only 2.6% of the province. In 2014, permanent resident population and GDP shared 17.72% and 35.24% of the provincial total. Chengdu plays a very important role in Sichuan and also is an important center city in West China.
October 14, the State Council approved to set up the Tianfu New Area in Sichuan. The new area is to the southeast of the downtown area of Chengdu, covering Chengdu, Meishan and 7 counties (cities and districts) of Ziyang City, with a planned area of 1,578 square kilometers.
Local cities are of their own characteristics. Except for Chengdu, the super large comprehensive city, cities are of their own characteristics. Mianyang is the West China science and technology city, Xichang, scientific satellite city, Panzhihua, steel city, Zigong, salty city, Nanchong, home of silk, Deyang, manufacturing city, and Yibin and Luzhou are not only the wine city but also the water and land transportation hub. Leshan, Emeishan, Dujiangyan and Langzhong are well-known tourism cities.
(The article is provided by Sichuan Yearbook Public House, the contents are from Sichuan Statistical Yearbook 2015) |
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