urbanization

Meet Ms. Hu: She Built a Garden From Chongqing’s Discarded Past

Your questions, answered. In-depth interviews with the minds and makers shaping today’s China.

Q & A

Pan Zhiqi’s award-winning documentary “Ms. Hu’s Garden” follows one woman’s decadelong effort to preserve her neighborhood’s history amid Chongqing’s rapid redevelopment — creating a sanctuary from scrap and memory.

Mathew Scott

Shanghai’s Story, Told From the Skies

Visual stories that get up close and personal with contemporary China. A mix of short videos, documentaries, photography, and data visualization.

MULTIMEDIA

Since the 1980s, photographer Lu Jie has chronicled the city’s transformation through aerial photography. His images capture the changing cityscape and its impact on the daily lives of residents.

Yang Caini

A Tale of Two Giants: How India’s and China’s Demographics Differ

As India’s population inches past China, we take a closer look at the two countries’ key demographic differences and trends in population distribution and urbanization.

Luo Yahan

Hangzhou Plans Easing ‘Hukou’ Restrictions to Attract Talent  

Timely reports on issues and events from across China. Drawing on a vast range of sources, these succinct articles provide insights into the significance of each issue in a wider context.

NEWS

Several Chinese cities have entirely scrapped or relaxed policies for obtaining local household registration documents in the past years.

Ye Zhanhang

Micro-Dosing Nostalgia With China’s Miniature Modelers

After decades of development and tear-downs, a new breed of model workers are helping Chinese recapture the long-gone countryside of their youth.

Tomás Pinheiro

Balancing China’s Development With Need for Food Production

Translations, cross-publications, and collaborative projects from Sixth Tone’s external partners. 

SIXTH TONE ×

Government aims to harness market forces in managing the trading of land-use rights between urban and farming areas.

Caixin Global

In a New Coffee Shop, Traces of Pre-Gentrification Shanghai

Contributions from individuals with unique perspectives to share. Hear from everyone, from experts and commentators to those whose voices are often marginalized.

VOICES & OPINION

The grand opening of Shanghai’s first Blue Bottle café last month was celebrated with fanfare and long lines. Just 30 years ago, the spectacle would have been unthinkable.

Shen Fei

Li Binyuan’s Art is Violent, Futile Labor

“They think I am suffering. I think it’s like a kind of redemption.”

Shi Yangkun

China to Halt Construction of Skyscrapers Over 500 Meters

Authorities say the move will improve the safety of high-rise buildings.

Fan Yiying

Hidden Metropolis: My Year Riding the Shanghai Metro

Unable to travel due to COVID-19, photojournalist Zhou Pinglang spent months exploring Shanghai’s lesser-known districts by rail — an experience that transformed his view of the Chinese megacity.

Zhou Pinglang

Crowded Shanghai to Develop Suburban Districts Into Autonomous Towns

Each of the city’s five suburban districts will have its own pillar industry and ease residency requirements to attract new talents.

Sixth Tone

China’s 2021 Resolution: No More Ugly Buildings

Urban structures should be functional, green, and pleasant to look at, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

Wang Lianzhang

China, Unfinished: The Skeletal Cityscapes of Photographer Meng Wei

Photographer Meng Wei shares his obsession with the abandoned tower blocks littering the skylines of major Chinese cities.

Meng Wei

The Hit Indie Flick China’s Film Snobs Love to Hate

Since its belated China release, Qiu Sheng’s award-winning movie “Suburban Birds” has been relentlessly trolled online. But the director tells Sixth Tone the controversy says more about China’s film market than it does his work.

Wang Xintian

First Chinese Province Scraps Residency Restrictions

Jiangxi is allowing its 46 million inhabitants to obtain local household registration without first having lived or worked in the province for a designated period.

Zhang Wanqing

With Renewed Rural Focus, China Standardizes Village Mergers

China’s poverty alleviation push is being redirected into a new government agency focused on revitalizing the countryside.

Yuan Ye

Professor’s Suicide Puts Forced Demolition Back in Spotlight

Tuo Jiguang had accused Chengdu authorities of shirking resettlement negotiations since 2011 before ultimately demolishing his family’s two apartments last year without warning.

The Artist Giving China’s Ghost Villages a Second Life

In China, thousands of rural communities are relocated to cities each year. Guo Guozhu documents what they leave behind.

Wu Peiyue

‘Hardcore’ Quarantine Measures Risk Fracturing Social Cohesion

As China battles the novel coronavirus outbreak, regions across the country are sealing themselves off. But we should be wary of the consequences of local protectionism.

Cao Dongbo

A Billion Homes: Chinese Dinner Table Talk Tells Universal Story

In “Another Year,” 13 family meals show the personal side of China’s urbanization.