China's urban growth is unparalleled in the history of global urbanization, and will undoubtedly create huge challenges to China as it modernizes its society. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this book presents an overview of the radical transformation of China's urban space since the 1970s, arguing that to study the Chinese urbanization process one must recognize the distinctive political economy of China. After a long period as a planned socialist economy, China's rapid entry into the global economy has raised suggestions that modernization in China will inevitably result in urban patterns and features like those of cities in developed market economies. This book argues that this is unlikely in the short term, because processes of urban transition in China must be interpreted through the lens of a unique and unprecedented juxtaposition of socialism and the market economy, which is leading to distinctive patterns of Chinese urbanization. Richly illustrated with maps, diagrams and in-depth case studies, this book will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of urban economics and policy, geography, and the development of China.

China's urban growth is unparalleled in the history of global urbanization, and will undoubtedly create huge challenges to China as it modernizes its society. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this book presents an overview of the radical transformation of China's urban space since the 1970s, arguing that to study the Chinese urbanization process one must recognize the distinctive political economy of China.

After a long period as a planned socialist economy, China's rapid entry into the global economy has raised suggestions that modernization in China will inevitably result in urban patterns and features like those of cities in developed market economies. This book argues that this is unlikely in the short term, because processes of urban transition in China must be interpreted through the lens of a unique and unprecedented juxtaposition of socialism and the market economy, which is leading to distinctive patterns of Chinese urbanization.

Richly illustrated with maps, diagrams and in-depth case studies, this book will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of urban economics and policy, geography, and the development of China.

Four years ago, six-year-old Samantha Silva disappeared through a thick wall of bushes in search of a soccer ball. She never came out, eventually presumed to be dead. Grief-stricken and feeling fully to blame, Samantha's mother, Jessica, has spent every minute of every day trying not only to forgive herself for her daughter's death, but to also find a way to live again. When a stranger in a cafe approaches her and whispers something in her ear, Jessica reacts with violence and finds herself having to complete an anger-management program. Feeling forced to face her past, Jessica tries desperately to maintain the invisible wall she's hidden behind for years. But when the question about her daughter pops up again, Jessica feels her sanity threaten to unravel as the meager life she's built is put in mortal danger and all fingers point to that fateful day, four years ago, when Jessica discovered what it means to truly suffer.

Doing the best she can to raise her disabled daughter, Amanda Pearson truely hates her job--a topless dancer with more than seven years under her garter belt. Leaving her shift early one night however, she gets more than she bargained for when finding herself in the midst of witnessing a murder. In a matter of seconds, her life is put on the line. When Detective Ian Sampson is charged with Amanda's case, his first focus is piecing together the holes in her memory--but his instant attraction to her proves to be more than the either of them can handle. As each hour passes, the attraction builds just as quickly as the murderous threats against her life. When Amanda's young daughter is not only threatened, but ends up missing, the clues surrounding the case bring the pair to an innocent looking website, Silent Auction...where nothing is as it seems.