Over the past four decades, China has witnessed a drastic rise in its economy and structural changes. Economically, China has overtaken many economies in the country, especially after the launching of the economic reforms in the 1970s (Li-zhu, 2010). Radical changes in China have been attributed to different factors, such as shifting of its development strategy. Many cities in the world have undertaken different reforms in a bid to restructure and create capacity concerning economic capability. Particularly, the Chinese cities have been on the front line in undertaking resurgence as well as reconstruction reforms. Resurgence is defined as an increase of growth that occurs after a period of slowed growth. Ideally, resurgence entails coming back to life, prominence or activity. On the other hand, restructuring entails a significant modification that is made to the operations or structure of an entity. Restructuring often occurs after an entity has witnessed periods of significant problems that affect the growth of countries and; hence, putting the overall entity in jeopardy. The resurgence of Guangzhou and the construction of fast speed railway networks in the city have been a major boost to the economy of the city (Sanneh, 2013).The economy of this Chinese city has also been boosted by the regional restructuring and upgrading.
In this connection, the paper discusses the resurgence and restructuring in Guangzhou. Guangzhou has reformulated its medium as well as its long-term plans. The velocity, as well as the complexity of the restructuring witnessed in Guangzhou, has occurred in different dimensions, such as the economic, social, environmental, and political environment.
Before Stagnation
Before the mid-20th century, Guangzhou city was more developed than major other cities in China, including Hong Kong. Ideally, the city was the major gateway to China; hence, linking the prosperous middle kingdom to the other parts of the world. Additionally, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangzhou was not only used as a port but also as a major trading city recognized in China and Asia (Mokros, 2012). In fact, the city was one of the triangles of the trade in East Asia as well as across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Any orders from the overseas were received in Guangzhou and then forwarded to other major trading centers. The furnished goods were then transported from Guangzhou city. The export-oriented processing was quite different to that done in the 20th century in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), especially in Dongguan and Shenzhen in the sense that it involved a complete value chain. Guangzhou was the main center and the processing of products reliant on a unique kind of technology as well as design skills of the Chinese occurred in this city. Product innovation was based majorly on value chain addition that was done and controlled in Guangzhou whose main merchants set the prices (Sang et al., 2015). By the virtue of the great production, innovation, and trading, all traders converged in China through different routes around the world. It can be equated to the convergence in the late 20th century of the worlds.
Stagnation for Almost Four Decades
The relative stagnation in Guangzhou City occurred between the 1950s and 1990s. It was as a result of its incorporation into the China’s national economic systems, which in turn subordinated the interests of the city as well as the local development to the policy adopted by the central government. It can be attributed to different factors. For instance, the centrally planned system diverted resources from the coastal region to other interior parts in China and from the consumer goods industry. Additionally, the central government largely restricted foreign trade and in turn monopolized it by placing it in the hands of individual forms in Beijing. Guangzhou had social, political, as well as economic stability during the 30 year period of socialist construction (Mokros, 2012). Guangzhou's trade entrepreneurialism as well as its dynamism were almost completely shut down. Additionally, the other major cities in China, such as Shenzhen and other economic zones that were set as special zones tended to receive a lot of policy privileges from the central government at the expense of Guangzhou City.
For a long time, the whole of the PRD region and even China was geared towards Hong Kong, carrying out overall orders for the legitimate as well as illegitimate imports from the city. It was also executing orders from the processing industries (Rennie-Short, 2013). The takeoff of Hong Kong took place in this particular period. It earned significant profits from industrial processing through trading with other major cities. The city of Guangzhou faced serious challenges from both Shenzhen and Hong Kong and even from the major towns in the PRD region. At this time, these cities gained economic independence through foreign investments and locally oriented industrialization. On the other hand, Guangzhou rapidly lost its functions and its role as the central city of the region.
Transformation of Guangzhou
The onset of the new century brought with itself a new form of determination of Guangzhou. Behind it, the provisional government of Guangdong tried to restore and revive the national as well as the regional importance of the city (Lin & Wei, 2002). The government realized that being passive could not in any way help the city. Hong Kong seemed to have exhausted all its contribution to local development and industrialization. The resurgence and reconstruction of Guangzhou city have been attributed to two major strategies.
The first strategy is the upgrading of the local economy. The city has successfully attracted a lot of investments from Japanese auto manufacturers such as Nissan and Toyota. Additionally, Honda added significant investments in the city (Jiang et al., 2012). It is worth noting that Guangzhou City had been reluctant in expanding its businesses before the arrival of its major competitors. With the growth of the auto industry, a great deal of productions of components and parts, as well as supporting industries, have emerged, including even the extensive special purpose logistics and facilities for the exportation of the automobiles. In just a few years, Guangzhou had grown to become one of the largest auto production bases in China and globally as well. As a result of this restructuring, Guangzhou even overtook Shanghai as the largest auto manufacturer in China. Other large-scale domestic a well as foreign investments have also been instrumental in enabling Guangzhou to compete favorably with other cities, such as Shenzhen (Xu & Yeh, 2009). The auto industry can be applauded for changing the overall image of the city to become an aggressive city in offering competition both in China and in the other parts of the world. The new industrial foundation also offered great support to other industries both physically concerning components and parts and through the transfer of important technology, which are instrumental in creating resilience in auto manufacturing and production.
The resurgence and reconstruction of Guangzhou city can also be attributed to the fact that the city established its central role in China through merging with other major cities in the country, such as Foshan and Panyu. It has also incorporated other cities, such as Nanhai and Shude. Through these mergers, the city is in a position to expand directly its metropolitan region. As a result, it built many networks in the metropolitan. It also created intercity fast railway networks as well as inter-provisional high-speed railway networks through the support provided by the provisional government. The high-speed railways have aided the accessibility of Guangzhou to other cities in the PRD and beyond (Sang et al., 2015). Such accessibility means that the urban functions that were performed by Guangdong can now be used better and in more cost effective ways. The functions include social, cultural, and human capital as well as the economies of agglomeration, diversity, and clustering. Al these are the basis for increasing economic innovations and returns (Abrami, Kirby & McFarlan, 2014). Compared with other neighboring cities in the provinces like Nanning, Fuzhou, and Xiamen, Guangzhou has become far more advanced in rendering its urban functions as well as its international connections. Through the linkage created through high-speed networks meant that Guangzhou can offer directly to their citizens its high- quality and advanced metropolitan services. In doing so, the city has greatly expanded the economic, cultural, demographic, and social support to improve its urban services and functions.
High-Speed Transport
Guangzhou has a larger foreign population than Hong Kong. With this, it is expected that it will grow to become international. The international network of Guangzhou has become more extensive as compared to that of Hong Kong (Hui-ping, 2009). It is largely attributed to the reconstruction of high-speed networks in the city. The airports in Guangzhou have more flights to emerging markets and other developing countries as compared to other major cities in China. Additionally, Guangzhou has also developed close international ties with strong economies like Japan and Europe. The reconstruction of the city is expected to benefit it largely as a result of the oncoming global systems
Manufacturing Reforms
Guangzhou has become an important manufacturing city in China. The manufacturing development has not only speeded up the development of industrialization in the country but has also become a center of other economic sectors in Guangzhou after the reforms intended at opening up China (Bu & Yip, 2014). With serious challenges facing China, such as environmental pressure and low level of industry, it is a matter for the economic future of Guangzhou to promote the adjustment of the manufacturing sector further.
Conclusion
The recent resurgence and reconstruction of Guangzhou city have been instrumental in promoting the growth of Chinese economy. The reconstructing in Guangzhou has led to the emergence of two major trends; fast growth of high tech and heavy industries as well as the emphasis on the development of manufacturing service industry. Reallocation of resources is also likely to be affected largely by the developments witnessed in the city. The international network of Guangzhou has become more extensive as compared to that of other major cities in China. Guangzhou is now in apposition to establish major structural advancements, such as the building of high-speed railway networks, which are instrumental in boosting the economy of the city as well as that of China at large.
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