The Form of Urban-Rural Integration and the Construction of the Urban-Rural Continuum

China has currently entered the stage of urban-rural integration,with urbanization shifting from a period of rapid growth to stable development,marking a critical transformation in urban-rural relations.International experience indicates that,in the mature stage of urbanization,urban and rural spaces tend to evolve into an urban-rural continuum characterized by continuous spatial gradients and functional complementarity.Suburban areas become important arenas for the development of this continuum;within the continuum,industrial specialization and linkages among different areas become increasingly close,and two-way flows of factors between urban and rural areas become more frequent.At present,China has shown several signs of urban-rural integration,including accelerated county-level urbanization,the growing capacity of peripheral areas around megacities to accommodate population and industries,the diversification of county economies,and more intensive labor mobility.However,the urban-rural continuum remains underdeveloped.Persistent problems include urban-rural dual segmentation,disparities in rights systems,spatial discontinuities within urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas,the divergence of county-town-village systems between population-inflow and population-outflow areas,and the systemic decline of villages.To construct the form of urban-rural integration,it is necessary to build an urban-rural continuum with functional complementarity and clearly defined spatial hierarchies,transform the development model of megacities,address the overexpansion of prefecture-level cities,strengthen county seats as pivotal hubs of the urban-rural continuum,and gradually promote the reconstruction of rural systems.It is also imperative to establish an integrated urban-rural rights system,including planning systems,land institutions,public services,and social security arrangements that are compatible with the form of urban-rural integration,thereby ensuring equitable access for farmers and rural migrants to urban citizenship rights.