In my World History class, we're currently discussing the industrial revolution and how it affected the lives of people. But since there's so much to cover, the class is relatively vague and the major cities where most of these changes occurred aren't discussed in great detail. I'm mainly curious about when and how rural areas became urban and eventually "modern".
Not sure about Beijing but London has been an urban centre since the early Roman empire. Obviously it's part of England which was the home of the industrial revolution and thus, one of the earliest cities to become modern industrial as well.