Reverse, Inaction or Promotion: The Effects of Long-term Top-down Driving Forces on the New Town’s Development in China: Taking Tongzhou New Town as an Example

Abstract

New towns’ development is a product of top-down planning and construction. Because of the unique political and economic regime and institutional transition, the role of top-down driving forces reflect even more explicitly in the new town’s development in China. Previous studies have primarily been conducted from a static point of view by examining the process of a new town’s construction in one time period under one master plan. Few studies have investigated the temporal dynamics of the effects of the top-down driving factors in new towns’ development and transformation. Choosing Tongzhou, a new town in Beijing, as a case study, this paper reviewed the 70-year development and transformation process from a general satellite town to a key new town as the sub-city center of Beijing to explore the effects of reverse, inaction or promotion on the new town’s development due to the long-term top-down executive forces. This research analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the top-down development mode and thus can help us improve the urban planning and management in the new towns under the current social and institutional context of China.