Demystifying the Inequality in Urbanization in China Through the Lens of Land Use

China’s economic reforms and unprecedented growth have generated many fascinating issues for scholarly research. An understanding of urbanization through the lens of land use in China is required for appropriate strategies and policies to facilitate future sustainable development. Employing both ordinary least square (OLS) and geographical weighted regression (GWR), we analysis the spatial patterns and influencing factors of land urbanization in China at the county level in 2000 and 2015. The findings reveal: (1) From 2000 to 2015, land urbanization experienced an average increase by 2.77 percentages annually. About 40% of all counties witnessed an increase at the annually rate of 3% or faster. The spatial trajectory of land urbanization is recognized as diffusion, which is very different from the continued polarization of demographic urbanization. (2) Geographically, the disparity in land urbanization between the north and south is more obvious than that of east-west. And high-value regions tend to locate at the southeast of “Hu Line”. Counties surrounding those metropolitans are regarded as hot spots of land urbanization. These together lead to a converge trend of land urbanization among regions. (3) Population growth, economic development, industrial structure, city/county features, and geographical location significantly influenced the spatial disparities of land urbanization. And the spatio-temporal dependence of their influences can be detected.