Abstract: The basic realization of modernization in the western region in 2035 is the core goal of promoting the development of the western region and forming a new pattern in the new era. To promote the modernization level of western cities is the strategic choice to motivate the east and west to advance together. From 2011 to 2018, the modernization level of western cities was generally fluctuating upward by 38%, and the Gini coefficient decreased from 0.253 to 0.2255. Besides, the gap between cities tended to narrow. In 2018, the contribution of intra-regional variation, inter-regional variation and hypervariable density to the overall variation in modernization of western cities was 50%, 15.71% and 34.29% respectively. The distribution curve of urban modernization in western China had obvious right tailing characteristics, presenting a strong upward trend. In the new era, western cities should realize high quality development through modernization construction, which focuses on cultivating innovative development momentum, pushing forward people's all-round development, perfecting modern industrial system and high standard market system, cultivating modern governance system, and developing modern ecological system as well as infrastructure system.

Key words: basic modernization, high quality development, Dagum Gini coefficient, spatial divergence, Kernel Density Estimation