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Urban village (literally:"village in city") is an unique phenomenon occurring in the process of China’s urbanization in the last past decades. Such villages can be seen in the urban area and even the center area of China’s major cities (e.g., Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou), surrounded by skyscrapers, transportation infrastructures, and other modern urban constructions.

Urban villages are commonly badly inhabited associated with squalor, overcrowding and social problems such as crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, and prostitution. Some consider urban village to be a form of slum with Chinese characteristics.

Characteristcs
The way of aboriginal villagers’ living is far from traditional agriculture due to the absence of farmland. Instead, they find their new way of living by building multi-storey houses on their own residential land, allocated by the village collective, and renting them to the city’s floating population, who are not able to afford a apartment in better parts of the city.

All the urban villages are not regulated by any form of urban planning. Most of them are heavily populated, overbuilded, and lack of infrastructure. Some villages' building density is even greater than 70%. They are composed of over crowed multi-story building ranging from 3 to 5 floors and narrow alleys, which are difficult for vehicles to pass through. Inside villages, it's obscure and moist all year through and light has to be kept on even in the daytime.

On one hand, the villages serve to provide cheap shelter for impoverished population who come from the rural place to make a living in the city. On the other hand, they become the breeding grounds for social problems such as crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, and prostitution. Some consider urban village to be a form of slum with Chinese characteristics.

Cause and Solution
Although different perspectives vary, The household register system of P.R.C is considered to be one of the fundamental causes. These villages used to locate in the outskirts of the city. With the expansion of the city, farmlands cultivated by villages have been compulsorily purchased and turned into urban land by the government whereas villages themselves are reserved due to the high social and economic costs: To compensate the villagers for their lost dwelling houses, government has to arrange jobs and larger apartments in the city for these unskilled villagers. Such inefficient plan is usually suspended in the early period of china's reform.

Soon after, these villages are surrounded by rising skyscrapers. though situated in urban area, they are still in "rural area" and villagers also share a rural household identity in terms of municipal administration. Consequently, the villages become de facto independent kingdoms out of urban planing, infrastructure construction, and other form of administrative regulations and public policy.

Because of the prosperity of the neighbouring area, value of the villages' land also rockets. Aboriginal villagers become rich landlords and have built much more bigger buildings in the villages making any plan of urban renewal mission impossible due to the corresponding huge compensation. For the villages have been the shelter of the city's floating population, the authorities also see any haste act a adverse effect on social stability.

Reference

 * 1) 罗赤，透视城中村，出自《读书》，2001年，第9期.
 * 2) 马星，“城中村”问题的形成与更新改造，出自《特区经济》，2007年1月.
 * 3) 代堂平，关注“城中村”问题，出自《社会》，2002年，第5期.