Reporter: The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, or CASS, released a report earlier this week, saying that the population in China's urban areas reached 691 million in 2011.
As more than 51 percent of this country's population now lives in an urban setting, it marks the beginning of a city-based country.
The report lists five criteria for a city-based country, of which population and rural-urban spatial arrangement are basic components.
Pan Jiahua is director of the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies at CASS. He says the urban population increase is due to development, but that it is not the ultimate goal.
"Urbanization does not mean that we force everybody to skyscrapers in cities. Only when the in
