ANNOUNCING A SYMPOSIUM ON
IMPORTANT ISSUES IN THE ERA OF RAPID
URBANIZATION IN CHINA
May 22, 2006
113 Brattle St.
Cambridge, MA, 02138
PROGRAM INTRODUCTION
The China Program, directed by Dr. Chengri Ding, was established in 2003 to extend the Lincoln Institute¡¯s international focus. The program seeks to establish the Lincoln Institute¡¯s reputation in China as a research and educational leader in land and taxation policy, offering sound and relevant advice in dealing with issues and challenges related to rapid urban development and to fundamental land policy and tax reform. The China Program does this by
• sharing the Institute¡¯s rich intellectual assets in land, planning, and taxation;
• supporting and conducting research; and
• providing training and education opportunities.
The China Program is approaching these goals and objectives by building strategic partnerships. In addition, the China Program devotes its efforts to engage young scholars in land and tax policy studies and helps them become prominent researchers, educators, and policy makers through fellowships and training courses. Currently, the China Program is engaged in three areas:
1) urbanization and planning;
2) land policy and sustainable growth;
3) property taxation and public finance.
EVENT OVERVIEW
The 21st century in China is a century of rapid urbanization. Unprecedented urbanization is taking place in China and will continue over the next one or two decades. It is expected that China will quadruple its total GDP and reach 55 percent of urbanization by 2020. The rapid urbanization and its associated effects in many aspects of urban life represent new opportunities and new challenges. Accompanied with rapid urbanization in China are issues of urban sprawl, resource shortage, urban redevelopment, environmental pollution, economic restructuring, and social inequity. In response to these issues, the symposium brings together experts for an integrated discourse on a variety of subjects in planning and development in China. The symposium will facilitate the search for urbanization strategies and instruments that promote urban growth in ways that are economically sound, environmentally desirable, politically feasible, and socially desired.
COORDINATING FACULTY
Dr. Chengri Ding,
National Center for
Smart Growth,
University of
Maryland, College
Park & Special
Assistant to the
President for the China Program,
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Dr.Yan Song,
Department of
Regional and City
Planning, University
of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
SYMPOSIUM COORDINATOR
John Whitehead,
China Program
Assistant, Lincoln
Institute of Land
Policy
PROGRAM AGENDA
Monday,May 22, 2006
8:00 AM Continental Breakfast and Registration
8:30 Welcome and Introductions
Chengri Ding, Special Assistant to the President for the China Program
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Yan Song, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
8:45 Oh My,Urban Sprawl Goes to China too? Any Solutions?
- Urban Development Patterns in China
Dr.Tingwei Zhang
- Chinese version of Transit-Oriented Development
Dr.Ming Zhang
- Introduction of Price Signals into Land Use Planning
Dr. Paul Cheshire
10:05 Break
10:20 Tensions and Issues in China¡¯s Land Reform
- Land Resources, Environment, and Agricultural Production
Dr. Robert Ash
- Land as an Instrument of Urban Economy:What Can We Learn
from China¡¯s Experiences?
Dr. Chengri Ding
11:10 Break
11:25 Egalitarianism Goes Awry? Who¡¯s Housing the Urban Poor?
- Chengzhongcun: China's Urbanizing Villages in Comparative Perspective
Dr.Michael Leaf
- Creative Finance Strategies for Low Income Housing Sector in China
Dr. Roberto Quercia and Dr.Yan Song
12:15 PM Lunch
1:15 How Can We Finance China¡¯s Rapid Urban Growth?
- Public Finance and Urban Development Strategies
Dr. Randy Crane
- Urban Infrastructure and Finance
Dr.Weiping Wu
2:05 Break
2:15 Finally, Let¡¯s Evaluate Recent Reforms in China¡¯s Transitional Economy
- Effectiveness of Special Economic Zones in China
Dr.David Dowall
- Urban Labor Market Efficiency in China
Dr. Jeffrey S. Zax
- Non-Performing Loan Resolution for urban revitalization in China
Dr. Richard Peiser and Dr. Bing Wang
3:35 Roundtable Discussions
4:00 Adjourn
FACULTY
Robert Ash is the Chair of Contemporary China Institute, School of Oriental and African
Studies at the University of London. His main areas of research include agricultural and
rural development; demographic change; and macro economic problems in China.
Paul Cheshire has been Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of
Economics since 1995. He has two primary areas of interest are European urban and
regional growth and the application of hedonic analysis to understand wider urban and
economic issues, especially the economic implications of land use planning.
Randy Crane is a Professor of the Urban Planning at the University of California at Los
Angeles. Dr Crane studies urban environmental and development problems.
Internationally, Crane has conducted research and consulted in China, Guyana, Indonesia,
Kenya, Thailand, and Yemen, and was a Fulbright professor at the Colegio de M¨¦xico in
Mexico City.
Chengri Ding is an Associate Professor at the National Center for Smart Growth at the
University of Maryland, College Park and Special Assistant to the President for the China
Program at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Ding's research interests include urban
economics, urban growth management and urban growth controls, housing and land
studies, and applications of quantitative methods and GIS applications in planning and
policy studies.
David Dowall is director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD) at
the University of California, Berkeley. A leading expert on urban economics and infrastructure
policy, Dr. Dowall frequently consults for the World Bank, Asian
Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and the U.S. Agency for
International Development.
Michael Leaf is an Associate Professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning
of the University of British Columbia (UBC), a Faculty Associate of the UBC Centre for
Human Settlements, and the Director of the Centre for Southeast Asia Research within the
UBC Institute for Asian Research. He has participated in numerous urban research and
training projects in Asia through CIDA, UNDP, and the Ford Foundation.
Richard Peiser has been the Michael D. Spear Professor of Real Estate Development at the
Graduate School of Design at the Harvard University since 1998. Dr. Peiser¡¯s current
research projects focus on non-performing loans, suburban redevelopment, and new
towns. He is also a trustee in the Urban Land Institute.
Roberto Quercia is an Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has done sponsored research for the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office and General
Accounting Office, municipalities, community organizations, the Federal National
Mortgage Association, and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.
Yan Song is an Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research projects have been supported by
the National Science Foundation (NSF), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Lincoln Institute of Land
Policy. Dr. Song has consulted with Beijing¡¯s Municipal Planning Commission and
Transportation Research Center at Beijing Institute of Planning in China.
Bing Wang teaches design and development courses at the Harvard University Graduate
School of Design (GSD). As the first GSD Pollman Fellow, she has conducted research on
comparative studies of Non-Performing Loans in Asia. Her forthcoming book The
Structuring of the Architectural Profession in Modern China based on her doctoral dissertation
is scheduled to be published in 2006.
Weiping Wu is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies, Geography and Planning at Virginia
Commonwealth University. She has been a consultant to the World Bank and Ford
Foundation and was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is a member of the
advisory board for the Urban China Research Network and of the editorial board for the
Journal of Planning Education and Research.
Jeffrey S.Zax is a professor specializing in labor economics, public economics, and urban
economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has published articles on the relationship
between IQ, schooling and adult income; the effects of residential segregation on
black economic welfare; the economic consequences of competition among local governments;
the estimation of voting behavior; and microeconomic activity in China
Ming Zhang Dr. Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Community and Regional Planning
Program in the School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin. His recent research
has focused on the influence of the built environment on travel mode choice for work and
non-work purposes, development of metrics of urban form, mobility performance measures,
and strategy for integrated land use/transportation development in Chinese cities.
Tingwei Zhang Dr. Zhang is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning in the Urban Planning
and Public Policy Program in University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. In China, he severs as a
member of the National Planning Expert Committee of the Ministry of Construction, and as
planning consultant to several cities including Shanghai, Wuhan, and Shenzhen.