摘要： Much advance has been made in the study of the new urbanization process in post reform China. But the resulting
urban system in Guangdong province has not been thoroughly analyzed creating a knowledge gap between the new
urbanization process and the new urban system. This paper attempts to reveal the emerging urban system hierarchy in the
1990s in Guangdong province under socialist market economy using rank-size distribution as a yardstick. As there was
substantial discrepancy among the rank-size distributions of cities in terms of population and economic indicators especially
due to the existence of "temporary population" and the policy of "designating a whole county as a city", the urban
system in Guangdong province was analyzed using demographic and economic indicators. The significant role of economic
development in urban growth was also identified through cross-sectional comparison and correlation analysis of
time-series data on economic and urban indicators.
