1994 年 17 巻 4 号 p. 43-62
Urbanization in China had been accelerated in the 1980's arising the need for a new urban policy, replacing the one which had prevented migration from rural to urban for a long time. The first large-scale regional development plan in China was formulated in Hainan Island fronting the southern edge of the country, when the urbanization taking place was getting even more conspicuous in the latter half of the 80's. The income of Hainan Island at that time was less than 60 percent of that of national level. The economic structure was characterized as a closed self-sufficient economy. The pattern of development was such that low density cities were scattered all over the island, while Haikou stood out alone, being extremely concentrated in its population, industry and so on.
The goal of the Hainan integrated regional development was to raise the income level of Hainan close to that of the national level in 20 years, or by 2005. Maximized use of advantages of “Special Economic Zone” was highly expected to promote rapid economic growth: that is, to convert the present industrial structure centered on agriculture to that of manufacturing and service industry, and to strengthen linkage with other regions to make smooth flow of resource and products. In terms of the urban development strategy, there is a need, in the long term, of new sub-regions which agglomerate several prefectures of small scale to respond to wider economic activities and improvement of public services. This idea can be supported by adapting the multi-leveled urban hierarchy which has a first big city followed by second and third cities in order by its size. In the process of formulating this urban hierarchy, in the short and middle term, the first and second cities, Haikou and Sanya must be developed as first priority.
The idea of multi-leveled urban hierarchy based on rapid urbanization, which was a new concept to the Chinese, was found difficult to accept by the Chinese officials and planners at the outset. Howevre, five years after the finalization of the plan manifest that the idea was not out of track.
