Urban-rural equivalent integration signifies a dynamic process wherein urban and rural areas substantially realize interactive population mobility, equitable land valuation and tenure, synergistic industrial chains and agglomerations, harmonized infrastructure deployment, equitably accessible public services, collaborative ecological conservation and governance, and integrated information networks. This constitutes the ultimate objective of urban-rural integrated development under the paradigm of Chinese-style modernization. The core tenet of urban-rural equivalent integration is the equivalence of quality and well-being of life across urban and rural settings, represented by diverse lines of equivalence. Throughout distinct phases of urbanization and urban expansion, the fluctuation of urban-rural equivalent lines and the degree of urban-rural integration exhibit variability, theoretically charting an evolutionary trajectory characterized by an initial gentle gradient, followed by a steep ascent, and culminating in a return to a gentler slope. The driving mechanisms for urban-rural equivalent integration encompass identity equity for urban and rural residents, free flow for urban and rural construction land, intelligent mobile connectivity across urban-rural areas, market-based adjustment, and policy interventions. Quantitative indicators of urban-rural equivalent integration include 31 indicators across five dimensions: living standards, infrastructure, public services, ecological environment, and informatization. Empirical evidence from 1980 to 2023 indicates that China's overall urban-rural equivalent integration predominantly remained within a medium stage (30%-60%), while some indicators achieved a medium-high stage (60%-90%), demonstrating a progressive trajectory towards high equivalence. Notably, the urban-rural living standards and the urban-rural informatization exhibit a medium-high stage of equivalent integration, and the urban-rural infrastructure and public services are situated at a medium level, whereas the ecological environment persists in a state of non-equivalence (< 30%). Conclusively, while the trajectory towards high urban-rural equivalent integration remains a protracted and challenging endeavor, the outlook for achieving such integration is nonetheless optimistic. This research offers significant theoretical underpinnings and pragmatic guidance for advancing urban-rural profound integrated development in China.

Cross-regional urban-rural integrated development is a significant component of national urban-rural integration. It is influenced by multiple factors, including institutional arrangements, factor flows, facility connectivity, industrial coordination, ecological environment, and market demand. Such integration is driven by institutional coordination and guidance, market-based allocation of factors, spatial integration support, industrial collaboration, ecological value conversion, and market demand assurance. However, currently, it faces challenges including administrative barriers, institutional differences, uneven resource endowments, and fragmented public services. Taking the demonstration zone of green and integrated ecological development of the Yangtze River Delta as a case study, this paper systematically explores the driving mechanisms and practical pathways for cross-regional urban-rural integrated development. The practical pathways are summarized as a "four-in-one" approach, comprising coordinated urban-rural planning and governance systems, market-based allocation of urban-rural resources, shared provision of urban-rural public services, and unified formulation and implementation of urban-rural policies. Specifically, this includes: transitioning from localized separate management to standardized regional co-governance, enabling coordinated planning and standards; shifting from administrative barriers to market-driven mechanisms, strengthening market-based resources allocation; moving from localized provision to cross-regional sharing, ensuring equal access to public services; and evolving from fragmented policy-making to unified policy implementation, aligning policy action across regions. These pathways facilitate the progressions of regional urban-rural governance from "coordination" to "symbiosis", offering a "Chinese approach" to overcoming cross-regional institutional constraints and advancing high-quality urban-rural integration. The findings provide valuable insights for promoting cross-regional urban-rural integrated development.

The transportation system functions as an essential connection between urban and rural regions. It offers both physical connectivity and service functionality. It significantly contributes to facilitating the movement of resources, regional integration, and accessibility to public services. Addressing the limitations of existing research, which primarily focuses on the physical connectivity of transport infrastructure while overlooking its role in supporting public service accessibility and spatial equity, this study constructs a two-dimensional, three-level evaluation framework covering "infrastructure integration" and "functional coordination". This paper provides an empirical analysis with a case study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) metropolian area. Based on a 1-km grid, the study measures the level and spatial heterogeneity of urban-rural transport integration.The results indicate that: (1) urban-rural transportation integration in the BTH region remains generally low, displaying a concentric pattern characterized by a "core-periphery" gradient. (2) Counties (districts) surrounding central cities benefit from urban functional spillovers and network density, showing high integration levels; areas along transport corridors and in the urban-rural transition zone exhibits a "strong infrastructure, weak service" status; mountainous counties (districts) are weak in both functions and facilities, representing key areas for improving integration. (3) The significant spatial disparity between transportation infrastructure and public services provided in prefecture-level cities is recognized as the primary cause of spatial inequality in urban-rural transportation integration levels. By emphasizing a coordinated perspective of "infrastructure-function", this paper addresses the limitations of previous studies that focused mainly on physical infrastructure while ignoring transportation service function aspects. It emphasizes the role of urban-rural transport integration in promoting public service equalization and equal opportunities, providing a quantitative basis for the coordinated allocation of transport resources and public services. It also offers empirical support for understanding the spatial mechanisms and governance strategies of urban-rural transport integration.

As global warming continues to intensify, urban areas are increasingly exposed to severe thermal stress. Addressing this challenge requires not only city-level adaptation strategies but also integrated, landscape-scale coordination across urban and rural systems. However, in the current trajectory of urban-rural integration, urban and rural landscapes are often treated in isolation. Existing research has largely focused on intra-urban cooling solutions, with limited attention to the coupled dynamics between landscape patterns and thermal environments along urban-rural gradients. To bridge this gap, we investigate three major urban agglomerations in eastern China—the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area—by constructing a multi-level urban-rural gradient framework based on multi-temporal 30-m land cover data (2000-2020) and annual MODIS land surface temperature (LST) products. We integrate landscape metrics, trend tests, propensity score matching (PSM), and machine learning to quantify gradient-scale landscape reconstruction and thermal evolution and to reveal how rural landscapes regulate urban thermal effects. Our results reveal that: (1) thermal evolution exhibits pronounced differentiation along urban-rural gradients, with the strongest warming trends occurring in urban expansion and peri-urban edges. Rapid impervious surface expansion and cropland loss, coupled with intensified landscape fragmentation, make these zones more thermally sensitive. Urban cores tend to show saturation-like stability in LST. (2) PSM identifies gradient "net" thermal effects attributable to socioeconomic activities and anthropogenic heat, which generally decline from urban to rural areas across all agglomerations, with the strongest effects observed in the Yangtze River Delta and the weakest in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. (3) Optimizing rural landscape composition and configuration can significantly mitigate urban heat island intensity across urban gradients, with forest and cropland proportions as key regulators showing nonlinear and threshold responses, while higher landscape connectivity helps stably reduce urban heat accumulation. This study advances a coupled urban-rural perspective on urban heat island dynamics and provides theoretical insights for spatial governance and thermal risk mitigation under integrated urban-rural development.

The dual pressures of growing water demand from multiple sectors and rigid constraint on available water resources have intensified urban-rural water supply-demand conflicts, leading to transformations in China's water use patterns. While previous studies have laid a solid foundation for understanding water use patterns and water scarcity, urban-rural water competition dynamics remain understudied. Based on water use and water availability data in 341 prefecture-level administrative units of China during 1965-2023, this study quantifies water deficits and identifies the onset year when water competition starts and the frequency of water competition for different administrative units. The relative contributions of urban versus rural water uses to deficit are further assessed. Key findings reveal that China's urban-rural water deficits followed an inverted U-shaped trend, peaking in 2014, accounting for 35.3% of the total water use, with competing units expanding spatially. Administrative units facing water deficit are classified into three categories, i.e., urban-rural dual-deficit units, rural-deficit units, and urban-deficit units. Water deficit shows a clear hierarchy pattern with dual-deficit units dominating across China, followed by rural-deficit units, while urban-deficit units are least common. This reveals that water competition primarily stems from concurrent growth in urban and rural water demands. These analyses advance understanding of urban-rural water use and deficit dynamics in China and provide scientific support for developing regionally differentiated water governance policies and coordinated allocation mechanisms.

Understanding the evolutionary patterns and dynamic mechanisms of global urban-rural settlements is essential for advancing global sustainability and fostering integrated development. To address the "urban-biased" limitation of previous global studies, this research employs the 100-meter resolution GURS dataset and a trajectory-capturing algorithm to quantify settlement evolution from 2000 to 2020. By integrating the XGBoost and SHAP machine learning methods, we systematically analyze the differentiated dominant drivers, non-linear response mechanisms, and interaction effects of 12 influencing factors on settlement evolution. Results show that global settlements evolved at diverging rates during this period: urban expansion decelerated while rural expansion accelerated. This trend was most prominent in developing regions, accompanied by significant rural-to-urban spatial conversion. Regarding evolutionary trajectories, both urban (87.6%) and rural (71.5%) settlements were dominated by "Continuous Increase", yet rural settlements exhibited significantly higher volatility and shrinkage. Influence analysis identifies population size as the primary factor for both systems. However, urban evolution is closely coupled with socioeconomic factors such as industrial structure and GDP per capita, while rural evolution is uniquely influenced by land use intensity and population out-migration. Further analysis uncovers complex non-linear relationships between these factors and settlement evolution, categorized into "changing marginal effects" and "turning points". Moreover, population size functions as a core node in the influence network, interacting with industrial structure and urbanization rates to shape complex evolutionary pathways. This study deepens the understanding of global urban-rural dynamics and provides a scientific basis for tailored urban-rural governance strategies across different development stages.

Urban-rural public service integration is crucial for improving residents' well-being and achieving spatial equity, and represents a key foundation for promoting urban-rural integration and new-type urbanization. Building on a "people-facility-flow" interactive framework, this study develops a second-order accessibility model that incorporates spatial mobility linkages and dynamically defined geographic proximity. Using healthcare services in the Xi'an metropolitan area as a case study, the model is systematically applied to evaluate urban-rural public service integration in terms of accessibility and spatial equity. The results show that: (1) Population mobility is a key driver of urban-rural public service integration in metropolitan areas. The dynamic redistribution and high mobility of the population can not only reshape the spatial pattern of service accessibility but also influence supply-demand relationships and the efficiency of public service allocation. (2) Population mobility generally exerts a positive effect on urban-rural public service integration. The impact exhibits significant temporal threshold effects and marked spatial heterogeneity, with the strongest effects observed under shorter temporal thresholds and in inner suburban areas. (3) Population mobility does not uniformly enhance urban-rural public service integration; at small and medium spatial scales, it may still generate potential equity risks. By incorporating the high-mobility characteristics of metropolitan areas, this study extends the evaluation of urban-rural public service from a static supply-oriented paradigm to a dynamic analytical framework coupling "people-facility-flow". The findings highlight the critical role of population mobility in shaping urban-rural public service integration in metropolitan areas and provide insights for promoting people-centered urban-rural integrated development.

Southeast Asia's geographical proximity to China and its substantial ethnic Chinese population make it a pivotal region for studying transnational cultural dynamics in the new globalization era. This study integrates historical migration patterns with contemporary cultural exchanges to elucidate the evolution of cultural communication and human-place interactions. Utilizing qualitative analysis across three "going global" intangible cultural heritage (ICH)—Yingge, Liangcha, and Wangchuan—the research constructs an interdisciplinary framework combining cybernetic communication theory from communication studies with diffusion models from cultural geography. Findings reveal a tripartite transcultural communication pathway: cross-border cultural migration, localized interaction and adaptation, feedback-driven civilization exchange. Spatially, dissemination manifests as migration diffusion - expansion diffusion-return diffusion, reflecting complex spatial and temporal dynamics. Transcultural communication embodies an innovative evolutionary process through the interaction between culture and cultural carriers, while the cross-regional dissemination of ICH reflects mechanisms of "delayed spillover", "localized rooting", and "temporal-spatial circulation". The interdisciplinary integration of communication studies and cultural geography advances theoretical frameworks for analyzing cultural transmission's spatial and bidirectional linkages between migration, trans-region, and identity construction. It also offers actionable insights for China's global cultural strategy, enriching debates on shared human futures in an interconnected world.

Systematical examination of the values of the Global South from the perspective of the modernization and development of the southern countries is an important way to enhance the well-being of the world's people and build a community with a shared future for mankind. This study focuses on the typical development case of Yuanjia village in Shaanxi province, a representative of the Global South, and examines its internal integration and external adaptation of culture and tourism practices with the conceptual tool of development context, extracting the values of the Global South condensed by the culture and tourism practices of the village. The results suggest that the development context of Yuanjia village's culture and tourism practices encompasses four implications: value creating, system building, innovation inspiring, and kinship maintaining. This development model promotes the culture and tourism practices and modernization of the village through functions such as the organization of production networks, the confirmation of legitimacy, the injection of adaptability, and the integration of elements. The successful experience of Yuanjia village corresponds to the development requirements of autonomy, transformation, collectivity, and extensibility emphasized by the value of the Global South. It can provide value demonstrations at different levels for the rural modernization of southern countries through three aspects: the identification of the value of culture and tourism practices in demonstration areas, the optimization of the value translation cycle, and the establishment of a local value production system. By exploring the meaning of the value modernization of the Global South based on the context of Yuanjia village's tourism development, and constructing the transformation framework of this meaning in the modernization of rural areas in southern countries, this study contributes Chinese wisdom and solutions to the implementation of the UN World Poverty Alleviation Program and the promotion of democratization and modernization of international political, economic and cultural relations.

The specific practices and techniques of de-bordering are topics of interest, and are of great theoretical and practical significance in deepening the understanding of the construction of China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative. The top-down power mechanism of the de-bordering process through law or discipline power alone does not necessarily produce positive effects, and dispositif power is increasingly becoming a more widely used governance technique nowadays. The de-bordering process in the transboundary wetlands of Shenzhen Bay exemplifies this mechanism. The study finds that governance priorities on both sides of the border are key entry points to examine the bordering and debordering processes. The ecological connectivity with different governance priorities has resulted in a series of very different nature reserve practices and cross-border conflicts, which further constructs the boundary between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. This process is nevertheless a linear and binary structural relation with the intentions and practices of de-bordering continue to intertwine. Guided by the discourses of ecological civilization and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, new elements continue to join and interact, on the basis of which the original social relations are spontaneously restructured and adjusted. Governance priorities on both sides of the border began to show a hybrid trend thus gradually promoting the process of de-bordering. This study reveals that dispositif as an operational mechanism may have significance for the process of the construction of the Greater Bay Area, which helps us understand and explain the process and mechanism of the current de-bordering in that dispositif is a specific strategic measure under the guidance of the ecological civilization in China, which embodies a new governance technique. On the other hand, this study provides a new understanding of the relationship between dispositif and the production of borderscapes, expanding and deepening the social contexts in which dispositif operates. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a dynamic and creative region, which can complement the insufficient attention paid to the open, hybrid and creative dimensions of borders in current research, help further promote the connotation and extension of the borderscapes theory, reflect the complexity and vitality of borderscapes, and provide empirical studies with Chinese characteristics.

In the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), international students from the Global South have become increasingly prominent in the globalization of higher education. The complex geopolitical dynamics underpinning this phenomenon have drawn significant attention from geographers. However, much of the existing research adopts Western perspectives, particularly those informed by postcolonial theory. Some Western scholars interpret China's educational cooperation as a form of neo-colonialism or cultural hegemony, reflecting a spatial misplacement of problem consciousness. These interpretations often overlook the agency and subjectivity of students from the Global South, deviating from the de-centering critique at the core of postcolonial theory. This analytical misframing arises from uncritically applying postcolonial frameworks designed for North-South power asymmetries to South-South contexts, thereby neglecting the situated agency and affective dimensions through which students negotiate geopolitical power. In contrast, this study introduces a "mobile aspiration - place negotiation" theoretical framework, which highlights everyday practices and human-environment interactions as critical arenas for the (re)production of geopolitical discourses, knowledge, and cognition. Drawing on longitudinal fieldwork with BRI-affiliated international students, the research traces how their aspirations and life projects evolve across three key mobility phases—pre-departure, during-study, and post-graduation—through engagements with shifting geopolitical landscapes and localized conditions. The findings reveal that students actively reinterpret China's developmentalist discourse and pragmatic ethos in ways that align with their own national imaginaries and personal futures. Through transnational mobility and place-based negotiation, these students balance personal development aspirations with geopolitical structures, forging "strategic coupling" relationships with the host country. This interactive dynamic generates a decentered geopolitical perspective on South-South globalization, advancing a logic of knowledge production that is decolonizing rather than re-colonizing. By foregrounding mobile aspirations as key sites where geopolitical subjectivities are transformed, the study contributes to rethinking South-South educational mobilities beyond Western-centric critiques. Ultimately, this research offers an innovative analytical framework that deepens our understanding of educational cooperation under the BRI, shedding light on the specificity and complexity of the South-South educational mobility model. It provides a more situated and affectively attuned account of geopolitical subjectivity formation, challenging dominant narratives while illuminating alternative modes of geopolitical engagement in an increasingly multipolar world.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as a key mechanism through which China promotes mutually beneficial cooperation, has profoundly reshaped the dynamics of interaction in border regions. Taking GS Village on the China-Laos border as a case, this study examines how the implementation of the BRI impacts both livelihood transformation and cultural adaptation among borderland residents from the perspective of Pu'er tea, by using an interdisciplinary approach integrating in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and biochemical analysis of tea. The findings are as follows: (1) Within the policy framework, GS villagers maintain regular cross-border mobility, and their everyday practices contribute to the construction of a transboundary cultural community. (2) The BRI has facilitated the tea trade between China and Laos, with the entry of Laos ancient-tree tea into the Chinese market expanding consumer choices and prompting villagers to upgrade their industrial strategies. (3) In response to market structure changes, villagers have reinterpreted tea-related cultural resources to construct differentiated narratives, based on the localized pedoclimate and artisanal craftsmanship differentiation between China and Laos. (4) Although the biochemical compositions of Chinese tea and Laotian tea are similar, villagers strategically employ cultural symbols for innovative product differentiation, thereby enhancing consumer perception of distinctive product characteristics. This performative practice effectively demonstrates the agentive wisdom of borderland communities in the process of intercivilizational exchange. Overall, the BRI has not only strengthened cross-border economic connectivity but also stimulated cultural innovation as a means of endogenous development among border regions. This research offers a novel perspective for understanding the sociocultural reconstruction of frontier societies and contributes a cross-border agricultural case to the theory of the social construction of nature.

Deepening economic globalization and regional integration has intensified interregional development disparities, posing critical challenges to social harmony and sustainable economic growth. Objectively identifying dynamic evolution of regional balanced development is therefore essential for formulating and implementing effective strategies. This study examines the levels, patterns, and urban-rural disparities of balanced development across China's eight socio-geographic regions at a grid scale from 2000-2022 using a "nighttime lights-population" matching framework. Key findings reveal that: (1) China's nighttime light Gini coefficient exhibits a pattern of "low in the east, while high in the west" with a network-like structure, declining nationally from 0.923 in 2000 to 0.737 in 2022. Marked inter-regional disparities are observed: eastern coastal regions experienced a "slow then rapid" decline while consistently outperforming the national average; central and western regions started from higher baselines but declined synchronously; Northeast and Qinghai-Xizang regions improved at a notably slow pace. At the intra-regional level, the eight regions are categorized into five structural types: monocentric contraction (Northeast), polycentric formation (Northwest and Southwest China), polycentric-to-monocentric convergence (North and East China), multi-nodal layered diffusion (Central and South China), and low-driven momentum (Qinghai-Xizang region). (2) Balanced development progressed mainly through an "active mode" (72.3% of areas), predominantly south of the Hu Huanyong Line (a major demographic divide) with a notable transition around 2011. North, Central, South and East China demonstrated stronger potential for balanced development, whereas Southwest, Northeast, Northwest, and Qinghai-Xizang regions showed comparatively weak potential. (3) Urban-rural balance displayed significant spatial heterogeneity: core regions surpassed peripheral areas, and the "Strong Potential" group exhibited narrower urban-rural gaps than the "Weak Potential" group. This indicates an inverse correlation between the level of socioeconomic development and the scale of regional disparities. Demonstrating China's distinct inter-regional divergences and intra-regional structural variations, we integrate locational advantages, resource endowments, industrial structure, and socioeconomic factors to propose coordinated "Regional Potential-Spatial Structure" optimization strategies through nested macro-micro interventions.

As a key sector of the digital and online economy, the livestreaming e-commerce economy (LSECE) offers economic geography a new avenue to explore the dynamic spatial changes of economic activities and their influencing mechanisms in the digital era. Based on the perspective of the digital platform economy, this study utilizes multi-source big data from platforms like Douyin livestreaming e-commerce. Employing methods such as the panel entropy method, spatial exploratory analysis, and geographical detectors, we systematically investigate the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics, influencing mechanisms, and regional development models of China's LSECE. The results show that: (1) Spatial distribution and evolution characteristics: The spatial distribution of livestreaming sessions and small-scale streamers is widespread with weaker agglomeration trends, while other sub-indicators exhibit multi-level core area agglomeration. From the comprehensive evaluation indicators, China's LSECE demonstrates a spatiotemporal evolution characterized by the coexistence of "small agglomeration" and "large diffusion." Moreover, the development of the LSECE challenges the traditional constraints of geographical proximity on economic expansion, exhibiting clear features of leapfrogging and network-based diffusion. (2) Factor and interaction detection: The innovative environment of new e-commerce and the innovation level of the new digital economy are the main driving factors of spatial differentiation in the LSECE, whereas the roles of traditional economic foundations and transportation facilities are relatively weak. Significant differences exist in the interactive synergistic effects of factors among different regions; the synergistic effect of two factors is higher than that of a single factor, indicating that the spatial differentiation is the result of multiple factors working together. (3) In terms of regional development models, Hangzhou represents the eastern coastal areas, showcasing a digital platform innovation-driven model for traditional e-commerce transformation. Wuhan, as the representative model of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, demonstrates a manpower-goods network synergy-driven composite model. Kunming, representing the southwestern regions, exhibits a multi-factor synergy development model driven by factor linkage and resource integration. These regional models reflect diverse pathways and differentiated mechanisms in the development of the LSECE. The conclusions provide important insights for deeply understanding the spatial patterns and evolution laws of China's LSECE and its influencing mechanisms. They offer scientific bases and policy recommendations for the regionalized, specialized, and sustainable high-quality development of the LSECE.

Making flow elements of the regional marine economy (FEME) smoother is a key link in achieving the mutual promotion of dual circulation and high-quality development of regional marine economy. This study introduces the network embedding and network externalities theory, analyzes the network characteristics of the capital flow of marine firms embedded in the regional marine economic flow space, and identifies its organizational patterns and externality through group division and spatial Durbin model. The results show that: (1) The embeddedness of capital flow strengthens the Matthew effect of the regional marine economic flow space, and the proportion of the total amount of connections in the three major marine economic zones of the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Bohai Rim has increased from 69.93% to 71.18%. (2) In terms of embedded characteristics, the interactive relationship between capital flow, information flow and personnel flow is closer than that between other flow elements. Due to the significant path dependence of technology flow, the driving effect on the improvement of node network embedding level needs to be strengthened. (3) After the capital flow embedding, six groups are formed. Most of the group boundaries are consistent with the urban agglomeration. The Shanghai-Guangzhou-Tianjin group and the Shenzhen-Beibu Gulf group can break through the distance constraints and form a close cross-urban agglomeration connection. According to the number of core nodes in the group, two types of organizations are divided: single-core and multi-core patterns. (4) Relational embedding and structural embedding can bring positive externalities to the growth of node marine economy, and the positive externalities generated by structural embedding are stronger. From the perspective of organizational patterns, single-core organizations rely on relational embeddedness to obtain positive externalities, while multi-core organizations with larger factor scales rely on structural embeddedness to enhance externalities. The above findings can provide decision-making references for optimizing the configuration of FEME and improving the organizational layout of elements.

Accompanied by the rise of trade protectionism and "de-globalization", China's photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry is facing multiple challenges in the global market. The robust value chain architecture is the key to its long-term advantage, and the continuous optimization of the value chain structure is the inevitable path to break through the existing predicaments and ascend global value chain (GVC). Therefore, based on the annual reports of listed PV manufacturing companies, global PV patent and product import/export data and trade barrier information from 2002 to 2022, this paper investigates the spatiotemporal evolution and organizational mechanisms of China's PV industry, employing a Panel Vector Autoregression (PVAR) model to decipher value chain dynamics. The study finds that: (1) From 2002 to 2012, China's PV manufacturing industry was in the stage of scale-up and expansion of low value-added manufacturing; after 2012, the leading enterprises laid out high value-added segments such as R&D, commerce and power generation with vertical integration strategy. (2) China's photovoltaic manufacturing value chain exhibits a "core-leading, edge-embedding and bridge-coordinating" development model driven by dual externalities during the research period. This model facilitates a qualitative shift from cluster scale expansion to organizational network synergy through vertical integration in core cities, specialization upgrading in edge cities, and cross-regional coordination in bridge cities. (3) China's PV manufacturing industry has gone through the transformation from "passive dependent coupling" to "dynamic decoupling - re-coupling" with GPN, and has realized strategic breakthrough through technological co-innovation and leading standard-setting in mature markets and localized layout and production capacity backup in emerging markets. (4) An iterative "cluster-value integration" mechanism propelled hierarchical advancement: initial cluster formation facilitated value derivation and functional integration, followed by cross-regional collaboration and status elevation in GVC governance, ultimately reinforcing spatial organization through knowledge spillovers and institutional feedback loops. This research contributes theoretical frameworks for understanding value chain evolution in strategic industries under geopolitical-economic transitions, offering policy insights for domestic value chain consolidation and proactive GVC governance.

The educative value of geography, as the core of its pedagogical worth, derives from the perspective of individual development. Relying on the discipline's unique knowledge, methods, and philosophies, it aims to establish an essential connection between the academic field and personal growth. Against the backdrop of proposed reforms to rename secondary school geography curricula as earth science, the systematic articulation of geography's educative value holds not only significant academic merit but also urgent practical relevance. Based on the ontological attributes of geography as a discipline, this paper preliminarily constructs a comprehensive educative value system through five dimensions: cultivating ethics, enhancing intelligence, strengthening physique, nurturing aesthetics, and practicing labor education. It reveals geography's unique contribution within the comprehensive educational framework of moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education, aiming to support the effective exploration of geography's educative values and promote the holistic achievement of educational objectives in the new era, while providing a fresh perspective on the debate over whether secondary school geography curricula should be renamed to earth science.

Graduate training institutions in geography serve as crucial venues for the production and dissemination of geographical knowledge, and function as significant platforms for enhancing the discipline's capacity to support economic and social development. Drawing upon multi-source data, this paper investigates the growth trajectory and spatial distribution evolution of graduate training institutions in geography in China from 1978 to 2024, aiming to reveal their developmental achievements, influencing factors, and existing challenges. The research findings indicate that the development of these institutions has proceeded in distinct phases and has been asynchronous across different categories, including discipline-oriented and majors-oriented institutions, master-only versus integrated master-doctoral institutions, and those under various administrative affiliations. Over time, China's graduate training institutions in geography have developed a globally competitive system with a robust framework for independent talent cultivation, alongside a "majors driving discipline" approach that mitigates the risk of overly narrow tendency of geoscientisation. These achievements have been driven by geography's inherent interdisciplinarity and shaped by the demands of China's socio-economic development, advances in geographical education, the graduate training system, and relevant policies on enrollment and degree program construction. Nevertheless, the development of China's graduate training institutions in geography faces several key challenges, primarily including the vulnerability of interdisciplinary institutions during departmental restructuring; difficulties in integrating disciplines within academic programs; the ambiguous affiliation and diluted disciplinary identity of historical geography; and concerns regarding the long-term sustainability of doctoral programs in geography education.