Abstract: China’s urbanization is rapidly advancing, and a key issue in the urbanization of the central and western regions is how to deal with the county economy and county urbanization. In the current situation of China’s densely populated coastal economic belt with huge production capacity, the county-level economy in the central and western regions lacks the scale conditions required for the development of manufacturing industries, and the lack of manufacturing industries in the county-level economy in the central and western regions makes it difficult to provide sufficient employment for migrant workers in cities. The result may be that the central and western regions develop the county economy by expanding their power and encouraging farmers to enter the county towns, however, the farmers who enter the city have to rely more on village agricultural income and income from migrant workers due to the lack of employment, which renders the development of the county economy in trouble. At present, the focus of the development of county-level economy in central and western China should be to provide equal basic public services for farmers in both urban and rural areas. The ultimate destination of farmers’ urbanization is inevitably a regional center city where employment and life are integrated. County towns are only a transitional zone for farmers to enter the city. In a long period of time in the future, farmers cannot leave the land when they go to the city. To retain the right of farmers to return home is not only important in terms of security, but also has important spiritual value in terms of future prospects.

Key words: county economy, urbanization, farmers entering the city, differences between the East and West China