| The 20th century was an important historical time for China and its cities' modernization. As two cities that were typical representatives of Chinese political cities that grown up in agricultural era and economic cities that grown up in industrial era, the development and change of Beijing and Shanghai in 20th century incarnated the modernization of Chinese cities to some extent. Now, the study on Beijing and Shanghai has attracted the extensive interest of Chinese and foreign scholars. However, there are still no writings about comparative study on the two cities. This dissertation supplied this academic gap.As the first doctoral dissertation that compare study Beijing and Shanghai, to open out the characters and rules of 20th century's Beijing and Shanghai, this dissertation makes the following compare:The first, the dissertation compared the developmental background of Beijing and Shanghai.20th century was the important time that China transformed from agriculture time to industry time and new-style industry time. Close natural economy, semi-colony and semi-feudalism, relatively close socialistic plan economy and reform and open to the world were Beijing and Shanghai's common developmental background in different times of 20th century. However, different geographical location, the unbalance of regional development, the special characters of plan economy and the gradualness of reform and open to the world were the two cities' different developmental background. The common developmental background decided their modernization direction; the different developmental background decided their different modernization mode.The second, compare of the two cities' dynamical mechanism. Dynamical mechanism was the essential force that decided Beijing and Shanghai's development. Since 1840, foreign invasion made both political mechanism and economical mechanism the essential force that decided the Chinese cities' development. In the modern time, the economical mechanism made Shanghai developed quickly. After 1949, the political mechanism made Beijing developed quickly tor. The abnormal development of modern Beijing and Shanghai, the problems that Beijing and Shanghai faced showed that there would no cities' sustainable development without the profitable interaction of political mechanism and economical mechanism.The third, the compare study on the two cities' city functions.Diversification of city function is an important part of urban modernization. Effect by different dynamical mechanism, there were obvious differences between the two cities' function. Before 1949, when Shanghai had already become a multi-functional economical center, Beijing was still a traditional political city After 1949, under the guide the national policy, Beijing became a multi-functional political center, but the simplification of city function made Shanghai a simple procreative base. However, the reform and open to the world since 1978 gave chance for Shanghai to become a multi-functional economical center again. At the same time, Beijing's political and cultural functions were aggrandized too, and the integration of knowledge and economy made it became a new-economy center.The fourth, the compare study on cities' status.As the result of different dynamical mechanism and different functions, the historical status of Beijing and Shanghai's changed too. Before 1840, Beijing was the center of Chinese cities, and Shanghai was a small county seat. However, special semi-colony and semi-feudalism background of modem China made the status of Shanghai upgrade dramatically, and Shanghai became "the eastern heart of capitalism world". On the other hand, the status of Beijing downgrade consumedly, the city became a regional political center after 1927. When Beijing became capital again in 1949, its political, economical and cultural status was upgraded again, but the simplification of city function made Shanghai downgraded. With the reform and open to the world since 1978, the profitable interaction of political mechanism and econ...
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