The impact of historic zoning of the Chinese and Western European cities upon social differentiation in the conditions of urbanization

The object of this article is the cities of China. The rapid growth and impact of Chinese cities upon the economy, politics and social life of the country and South Eastern part of the world sparks persistent interest of the researchers. Urbanization processes in China has a range of specific features that distinguish them from urbanization in the countries of Western Europe. Their identification is the goal of this article. The subject of this research became the differentiation of the modern Chinese cities and intraurban social stratification. Based on the accepted in Chinese sociology methodology of classification of cities, the author determines the differences between the urban structures of Western European and Chinese cities. The acquired results detect that the urban social and spatial structures in Western Europe have established under the influence of general economic processes that destroyed the traditional urban structure; while the Chinese cities, despite their rapid development, retain historical and cultural continuity of the principles of creation of spatial structure as a result of planned economy and political control. Examination of the peculiarities of urban structure and agglomerations allows forecasting the development of China’s social structure in the context of global transformations.