Abstract: The early movement in Chinese urban modernization began in the later Qing Dynasty. After more than a hundred years’ difficult construction and unsmooth development, China had made great achievement in urbanization and urban modernization by the end of the twentieth century. The main content of urbanization in China is a process of converting from countryside society to urban one. In the process, the modern economic activities play most important role. In the early twentieth century, the driving force of urbanization came from the development of commercial trade, and in the middle and later twentieth century, the force for the development was mainly from industrialization. With the progress of urbanization, the development of the Chinese cities becomes modern gradually. The contents of city modernization are rich, among which are systematical formation of the cities and compound function of the cities.

Key words: 20th century, China, urbanization, urban modernization