Rural Urbanization in Guangdong's Pearl River Delta.

The article focuses on rural urbanization in Guangdong's Pearl river delta in China. The Pearl River Delta is situated in the south central part of Guangdong province and faces the South China Sea. It is an open economic zone encompassing twenty-eight municipalities and counties, one open city-Guangzhou; and two Special Economic Zones Shenzhen and Zhuhai. The delta has caught much attention because it was one of the first areas to engage in reform and the open policy and is, today, an area with one of the highest degrees of urbanization. Based on geographic location, administrative level and other factors, the authors have divided the Pearl River Delta's rural urbanization into different types. "City Periphery Village Communities" are a type of community widely found in the Chinese urbanization process, a product of China's special policies on land requisition and household registration. Such communities are situated in places where cities and rural areas have become integrated and possess elements of the way of life of both. They are different from city outskirts or villages in the ordinary sense.