The Single-child Family in Beijing: A First-hand Report

Beijing the capital city of China located in the north-east of the country, is a municipality which covers an area of 16 000 square kilometres and includes not only the ten urban districts of the city proper, but also nine adjacent counties made up of a number of small satellite towns and large suburban communes. In 1978 the municipality’s population was 8 490 000, or double its 1949 population of 4 140 000. 1 It is estimated that three-quarters of this rise can be accounted for by natural increase as distinct from migration 2 and that much of this natural increase occurred during the decades between 1953 and 1963 when the birth rate was rising fast and was higher than for China as a whole (see Table 8.1). After 1963 the birth rate showed a substantial decline which coincided with the more extensive and radical birth control campaigns. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.