As China urbanizes, most cities are expanding but some have started to shrink due to population loss caused by exhaustion of resources and failure to transform their industries.
Although there are many criteria for identifying shrinking cities, including economic recession, population loss is considered the primary yardstick.
Shrinking cities represent the other side of the coin of urbanization. In the scramble for talent, big cities are drawing out talent from small and mediumsized cities. This redistribution of talent is a common phenomenon worldwide.
Li Ran, a PhD candidate, finds the number of people in his home city in Heilongjiang Province in northeast China increasingly dwindling. Of his 50 high school classmates, only 15 remain in the city.
The area used to have rich forest and mineral resources but since the 1990s, the resources have gradually decreased and the city failed to transform and upgrade its industries. As a result, many local people have left.
According to Wu Kang, an associate professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, most shrinking cities are located in the northeast, coastal areas in the southeast and border areas.
In April, the National Development and Reform Commission announced the key tasks for a new type of urbanization in 2019.
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