Globalization of the urban real estate market, which was originally local, has generated new capital flows worldwide that have reinforced the secondary circuit. Barcelona has not been immune to this process, at least since Spain's integration into the European Union in 1986. Many legal changes in foreign investment regulations have been introduced in Spain, especially in the housing market. The latest major investments in real estate have been made by former socialist countries, notably the People's Republic of China and Russia, which both belong to the BRICS group. Chinese localization strategies have been more concentrated. With this theoretical background, the aim of the paper is to analyze the strategies of these recent appropriations of Barcelona's residential space, in the framework of other economic Chinese investments and in competition with other Mediterranean ports. The main conclusion of this study is related to the definition of Barcelona's Chinatown, its changing location, and processes of social differentiation.

The article tries a general overview of the contemporary changes in the global economy. First proposes a characterization of the present period of history, advancing some of his main explanatory elements. Next, summarizes the great economic, social, political and cultural changes, discussed on the long way of more than twenty years of research at an international level. Third, it remarks some concrete changes at an urban scale. Finally, suggests the possibilities of some differential urbanization processes, on the way of the planetary urbanization.

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