Current research on small and medium-sized cities, especially in China, will help improve understanding of the trends at work and the cities’ broader role – both in terms of reducing poverty and their place in an increasingly urbanised world. The scope and role of small and medium-sized cities in the urban Chinese landscape, the subject of the second part of this paper, can be better understood by analysing two archetypical medium-sized cities: Dengfeng and Dujiangyan, respectively situated in the Henan and Sichuan provinces. Research into these two cities, which is analysed in the third part of this paper, looks at the challenges they face – such as competition between cities of similar size – as well as how they are dealing with densification and sustainable development issues. To better manage the risks inherent in this large and complex research subject, these cities are analysed based on their territorial reality, which underlines the spatial difficulties in defining the boundaries between city and country. The results show that these two medium-sized cities are like the keystone that connects two disparate systems: the megacities and the dense rural networks. Based on eight previously-defined parameters, the concept of intermediate cities is one of the ways to establish a diagnosis of such medium-sized urban communities so as to better identify their current issues and challenges and to focus public policy.