This edited volume covers the multiple changes concerning urban governance in the course of the progressive transformation of the Pearl River Delta mega- urban region in China. Looking at the megacities Guangzhou and Shenzhen, it analyzes the maturing of socio-economic, political and spatial structures after the first waves of economic globalization, political transformation, and their rapid expansion and urbanization. The initial claim and starting point of the book is the existence of a profound multidimensional shift in the coastal mega-urban region with a major tendency towards urban upgrading, economic restructuring and a clearly observable consolidation of political institutions. For the first time since the beginning of