In Depth

Urbanisation galvanises lower tier cities

  • Published 10 Dec 2009

China's engine of growth derives increasingly from fourth tier cities.

Most analyses of China's growth locomotives are absorbed with the big cities along the east and south coast, or 'second tier' inland urban areas such as provincial capitals. Rarely, however, does the focus fall squarely on the cities at the grassroots of China's transformation – the so-called third and fouth tier, or prefecture-level and county-level cities. One reason for this may be that accurate and consistent statistics on this strata in China's bureaucracy are hard to come by.