From development zones to edge urban areas in China: A case study of Nansha, Guangzhou City

The new millennium signified a new phase in the development zone-oriented suburbanization of China. Spurred by a new round of urban development strategies, development zones in many large cities face a need for enormous transformations and re-development. These areas have often been compared with the Western concept of “edge cities”, although in this paper we argue that this “imported” concept, in practice, bears little resemblance to the actual development tendencies in China. Taking a comparative approach, this paper presents a critical examination of edge urban formations in the Chinese context, and identifies the major differences between the concept in China and the United States. Drawing upon a case study of Nansha in Guangzhou, the unique paths and underlying dynamics driving these transformations are revealed. It is concluded that Chinese edge urban areas are being transformed from mono-function development zones into new fully functional cities. A city in China like Nansha reveals the dynamics of both state interventions and local actions in boosting the polycentric economies of large city regions.