Shifts in China’s Rural and Urban Population: 2000-2020 The bar chart clearly reveals that from 2000 to 2020, while the total population in China increased moderately from 1.25 billion to 1.41 billion, population in urban and rural areas experienced dramatic shifts in different directions. Urban population rose from 450 million in 2000 to 670 million in 2010 and 900 million in 2020; contrastingly, rural population declined from 800 million in 2000 to 680 million in 2010 and 510 million in 2020. The population gap narrowed largely because of the joint effects of urbanization, unequal economic opportunities in rural and urban areas, and the expansion of higher education. In the first place, there was a large-scale urban sprawl during this period. Places which had been part of the vast countryside were incorporated into cities, causing hundreds of millions of rural dwellers to be passively transformed into urban residents. What’s more, while urban living standards improved greatly in these years, few economic opportunities fell on rural areas and most peasant families remained at the poverty line. Poverty prompted the call for change, leading a large quantity of healthy young peasants to leave their hometowns and flock to cities for a better living. Last but not least, China’s higher education grew at an unprecedented rate in these years. More high school graduates than ever before entered colleges and universities, most of whom preferred to stay in urban areas after graduation for personal development. The increase in urban population was a sure indication of economic and educational achievements in China. It benefited the country in many aspects, relieving the shortage of labor force in cities, lessening the burden of peasants to support their families, and affording young people from rural areas more opportunities to display their talents. However, the migration of rural residents into urban areas inevitably brought about disadvantages. Some of them, such as waste of arable land and left-behind children in the countryside, as well as traffic congestion and soaring housing prices in cities, have already called the attention of the government and corresponding measures have begun to take effect. But others, especially the inability of many peasants to integrate into urban life due to their lack of education and civilized habits, have long been neglected. In this sense, we cannot be satisfied with the superficially optimistic figures in the chart, but should endeavor to foster the integration of these newcomers by providing them with adequate assistance in educational and cultural aspects, so that they can find easier access to the prosperity and convenience of urban life and be more fully devoted to the development of cities.翻译成英文版两百单词左右的文章