The speed and scale of China's urban revolution challenge nearly all our expectations about architecture, urbanism, and city planning. Now available in paperback, The Concrete Dragon provides a critical overview of contemporary Chinese urbanization in light of China's past as well as other earlier episodes of rapid urban development elsewhere in the world-especially that of the United States, a nation that itself once set global records for the speed and scale of its urban ambitions.* China is the most rapidly urbanizing nation in the world, with an urban population likely to reach one billion within a generation* China's construction industry employs a workforce equal to the population of California* China is now home to some of the world's tallest skyscrapers, biggest shopping malls, longest bridges, largest airport, most expansive theme parks, largest gated communities, and even the world's largest skateboard park* By 2020 China's national network of expressways will exceed, in length, the American interstate highway system* Includes 85 B&W photographs