Since the early Song Dynasty, the industrial and commercial components of traditional political cities have continued to grow, gradually transforming into economic cities. With the changes in urban functions, their institutions and patterns have taken on unprecedented new features. Cities before the Song Dynasty all implemented a city-market system in which commercial areas and residential areas were strictly separated. Each city and city were surrounded by walls. The city gates and city gates had to be opened and closed on time in the morning and evening. All commercial activities could only be carried out within specified time periods. Conducted within the city. By the Song Dynasty, the boundaries between the city and the city were completely broken, and the walls surrounding the city and city were demolished. Merchants set up shop along the streets. There was a bustling market, many scattered commercial spots, and small merchants and hawkers walking through the streets. The "night ban" that had been implemented for a long time under the market system was finally cancelled. In big cities such as Kaifeng and Lin'an, there are not only day markets and night markets, but also "ghost markets" that open before dawn. "The scene.

"Along the River During the Qingming Festival" by Zhang Zeduan of the Northern Song Dynasty gave a detailed and realistic depiction of the prosperous scene of Kaifeng. On both sides of the Bianhe River, inside and outside the city gate, there are row upon row of shops and workshops, restaurants and teahouses, high-profile market signs, and a dazzling array of goods from the north and south. The Hongqiao section is particularly lively, with merchants and vendors, pulling carts and carrying loads, and a huge flow of people. The large-scale market in the city is also unprecedented in scale. Documents record that Daxiangguo Temple opens Wanxing trading five times a month, and all kinds of goods are available. From the third door to the back corridor, there are colorful curtains and stalls. The two verandas of the atrium can accommodate tens of thousands of people trading. The area around the altar outside the temple has also developed into a commercial street. It is a trading place for gold, silver and silk.

Cities such as Chengdu, Suzhou, Luoyang, Hanzhong, Jingzhou, and Tanzhou have gradually grown into regional economic centers. The Huai, Si, Zhen, Yang and other states along the Bian Canal, the main economic artery of the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as Ezhou in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, have become important cargo distribution centers and commodity transfer stations. What is particularly striking is the rise of some production-oriented industrial and commercial cities. For example, in Jinhua, Wuzhou (now part of Zhejiang), "in the county-governed city, people make a living by weaving, and are known as the world of clothes and quilts"; in Zizhou (now Santai, Sichuan), there are "thousands of weaving households", all of which are textile towns. Xinzhou Lead Mountain Field (in today's Shangrao, Jiangxi Province) and Shaozhou Censhui Field (in today's Shaoguan, Guangdong Province) often gathered 50,000, 60,000 or even hundreds of thousands of metallurgical workers, making them metallurgical towns. Lingzhou Jingyan (now part of Sichuan), after Renzong created the Zhuo Tube well to absorb brine, tens of thousands of well salt workers gathered there and became a salt industry town. Suining Prefecture (today's Suining, Sichuan) in the middle reaches of the Fujiang River is a frost production base. Although such towns are few in number, they are of great significance. Their productive characteristics mark the basic direction of the evolution of ancient cities into modern cities!