The theories of "Rank-Clock", "Rank-Distance Clock", and "Half-Life of City" suggested by Prof. M Batty, a famous urban geographer in the world, has been introduced in this paper. Using data of population and cities' rank at and above prefecture for more than 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the "Rank-Clock", "Rank-Distance Clock" and "Half-Life of City" depicting the evolving characteristics of cities' hierarchy in China have been researched and drawn up. As well, using some historical population data, the "Rank-Clock" characteristics of a few historical cities in China for the last 2000 years have been researched and discussed briefly. The outcomes of the "Rank-Clock" study indicate that variations of the "Rank-Clock" of metropolises in China appear more slowly and the cities' rank order is stable. As for the regional spatial differences, variations of the "Rank-Clock" of cities located in eastern China are more evident, and their rank order advances more quickly. Correspondingly, although variations of the "Rank-Clock" of cities located in northeastern China are also greater, the direction of variations is opposite compared with that of eastern cities and their rank order drops markedly. Furthermore, variations of the "Rank-Clock" of a few cities located in western and inland China are relatively small, and their rank order is kept beyond the top 100 cities for the study periods. The outcomes of the "Rank-Distance Clock" study show that changes of "Rank-Distance" in some cities with higher rank order are relatively small, and changes of cities with lower rank order and/or newly established cities increase more quickly. As to the whole urban system of China, the Rank-Distance changes placidly, only in the periods of 1980-1985 and 2000-2005, the significant changes of the Rank-Distance took place, representing two rapid urbanization processes occurred in the early days of "reform and opening up" and the beginning of the 21st century. The results of the "Half-Life of City" study display that as a whole city system of China, because of the shorter temporal span of the system, the "Half-Life of City" is not evident. Even if that is how things stand, taking the 1980s as a demarcation line of time, there is a clear duration difference between the forwards and backwards half-life of the top 100 cities. Just starting from the demarcation line, the speed of replacing old cities by new developing ones is quickening. The outcomes of the "Rank-Clock" study for some historical cities show that rank changes of the cities with political functions are closely related to their political status as old administrative capitals. And rank changes of the cities located in eastern and coastal areas of China are closely related to their geographical conditions and economic policy.
From the 1950s to the present, the research perspective of urban resident's travel demand transits from trip-based to activity-based， while the study units divide Traffic Analytical Zone (TAZ) into the individuals and even household. This paper summarizes that there are many problems of trip-based travel demand model in theory and practice. For this, the researches of activity-based and intra-household interaction come into being. Activity-based approach is the theoretical foundation of household-based travel behavior analysis, while its own foundation dated from the seminal work of Chapin (1974) and Hägerstrand (1970). Many literatures have confirmed that activity-based analysis could solve the problems using trip-based models so commendably that its contents extend and deepen from the 1980s to now. Thought most activity-based models still focus on the theories, household-based travel models gradually become the mainstream in transport planning in Western countries. Researches of household-based travel behaviors require to synthetically consider the effect on individual's activity-travel behavior of family attribute, the constraint to individual's behavior from household demand, and the couple constraint between household members. These aspects are briefly reviewed in this article. We discover that trip-based approach is hardly competent for studies of intra-household interaction. By contrast, activity-based approach could employ utility-based model, rule-based model, micro-simulation model and complex multi-variable model, such as structural equation model, to better interpret resident's activity-travel behaviors. Finally, Tianjin's time-use dairy survey data are used to confirm the theories of intra-household activity-based approach and to deeply understand the Tianjin's activity-travel behaviors. We model the socio-demographics as exogenous, and activity duration time and relevant travel time as endogenetic in the context of structural equation model (SEM). The final LIRSEL model fits well. The estimate results confirm that travel is derived of activity participation, and activity-based approach can better solve the problems of trip-based model, such as linking the discrete travels through activities interaction. Moreover, significance of activity-travel interaction between household heads positively exists. In particularly, males dominate the outside work-related activities and females dominate the outside household-related activities, and they jointly participate in non-work activities in Tianjin's households. Furthermore, comparing the total effect and direct effect on household heads' travel time of socio-demographics, which takes both the indirect effect of activities and other household members into consideration, we found the significance is not the same and positively argue that the total effect contains more actual information about activity-travel behavior. In conclusion, theories and confirmed model have proved that activity-based approaches are much better than the trip-based one, especially in terms of the intra-household interaction. In the future research, we should spread this perspective and approach to a better understanding of the behavior and transportation in transiting China.
Abstract: Based on the statistics of 121 metro systems in the world, this paper analyses the worldwide metro construction from 1863 to 2003. Linear regression is introduced to show the relationship between the metro scale and urban population, as well as surface area. And by applying the hierarchical cluster analysis, three types of metro systems are identified in terms of their scales and network indexes: the first metro system with 10 samples, which is huge and with complex network, such as London and New York; the second metro system with four samples, which is relatively big but with limited network patulous potential, such as Athens and Vienna; and the third metro system with 107 samples, which is relatively small but has great patulous potential in network, such as Beijing and Montreal. Our findings suggest that metro scale, as well as network indexes, show great differences among five major continents. Metro systems in Europe and North America embrace a more mature network; however, metro systems in Asia and South America have greater network patulous potential. Also we find that in most cases urban population has more impacts on metro scale, especially to the samples in the third metro system. However, when it comes to the first metro system, surface area has significant impacts on metro scale. Finally three linear regression models are implemented to calculate the theoretical scales of 53 Chinese major cities, and it shows that theoretic metro scales in these cities range from 37.2 km to 129.9 km. These metro systems can be divided into four classes based on their model calculations. According to the result, Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing should develop the biggest metro systems in China. With the progress of urbanization in China, metro systems will grow rapidly in the coming years, especially in the developed regions.
This paper, using the method of substantial evidence research, studies transformations and effects of China's township and village enterprises in the late 20th century based on the field investigated data for seven towns. The transformations of township and village enterprises in China have influenced the town government revenue, employees' wages and welfare and village labor force migration. Results show that, in this connection, the transformation of collective enterprises has played an important role in the private sector's development since the 1990s. One indication is the dramatic decline of the employees in collective enterprises and the increases of employees in private enterprises. On the other hand, the privatization of industrial enterprises created problems for the town government such as the unemployment in collective enterprises and the private enterprises' reduction of profits to the local government. The process of privatizing collective enterprises together with tax reforms caused the main drop in income for townships; the wages of township and village enterprises' employees containing the growth of different degrees, but the increasing range is not very big. The welfare of township and village enterprises' employees obviously did not change, and most workers are engaged in agricultural activity with their families. Sticking to agricultural activities granted them the security to return to farming in case that they lost their nonagricultural jobs. Because the township and village enterprises have come to slow growth, and the private enterprises increased the production by increasing labor time and intensity, the rural enterprises are absorbing less surplus labor force than before. The township and village enterprises prefer applicants from their own township. Only when the local labor market is exhausted can the employees from outside the township be employed.
Distribution of foreign investment in Guangdong Province has been one of the main reasons for the regional disparity in the province. This article aims to find out the temporal and spatial pattern and determinants of foreign investment in Guangdong in the past over 20 years since China's adoption of reform and opening up policy. The distribution and diffusion of foreign investment in Guangdong, and differences in the temporal and spatial pattern and determinants of foreign investment from different origins are examined. The study shows that the tempora1 and spatia1 pattern of foreign investment in Guangdong has been continuously evolving. Foreign investment in Guangdong has undergone diffusion from the growth pole to the surrounding areas. As the investment environment in Guangdong has become more mature, the attraction of favorable policy to foreign investment has gradually decreased, while the factors of regional economic development level and regional market scale have become the most important dynamics of the location of foreign investment. The temporal and spatial pattern and dynamics of foreign investment from different origins differ greatly. Finally, suggestions are made regarding the improvement of investment environment and the utilization of foreign investment in Guangdong.
International experiences show that producer services are apt to assemble in the CBD of metropolitans as well as diffuse to suburbs because of labor division of industries and development of technology. This paper attempts to analyse the agglomeration and distributing of producer services including finance services, information consultancy services and computer services in Beijing especially in the center city and outskirts. The paper uses the methods of Spatial Gini Coefficient and Spatial Lorenz Curve to analyze the agglomeration of the three kinds of producer services in Beijing, and uses Clack and Newling model to analyze their spatial distributing density. The results tend to support the viewpoint that the producer services are apt to assemble in the center city districts obviously while the diffusion to suburbs is not obvious. The characteristics of agglomeration of finance services, information consultancy services and computer services are different. The agglomeration of finance services and information consultancy services are more obvious because these producer services need more face-to-face intercourse, while the computer services are more dispersed because for this kind of producer services face-to-face contact is not very important, so they can be located in suburbs where rent and wage are lower than center city or Central Business District. The author believes that the location choosing of producer services in Beijing is the cooperative effect of market laws, planning of the government and characteristic of Beijing. Through summarizing the development experiences of China and international, it can be found that the location of producer services in inter metropolitan is determined by he linkage characteristics of economic activities, features of and factors of production and location conditions.
Interactive development between producer services and manufacturing was not only a trend of global economic development, but a path of new industrialization in China. As a case study of Beijing city, this paper conducted an empirical study on industrial relevancy and spatial distribution of the interaction between producer services and manufacturing, applying correlative analysis, input-output model, spatial autocorrelation model and so on. The results could be concluded as follows. Firstly, there was a significant positive correlation between intermediate input of producer services and efficiency of manufacturing. But the share of manufacturing on total intermediate demand was low in Beijing. Secondly, there was an uptrend of the intermediate demand structure by manufacturing from 1997 to 2002. The structure of intermediate demand by different types of manufacturing was quite different. Thirdly, the intermediate input of producer services to resources-intensive manufacturing tended to reduce and the technology-intensive manufacturing tended to rise from 1997 to 2002. The structure of intermediate input by different types of producer services was quite dissimilar. Finally, the disparity of spatial distribution between electronic and telecommunication equipment (ETE) and professional, scientific and technical services (PSTS) was remarkable. An exploratory spatial data analysis of employment density of ETE and PSTS revealed strong evidence of spatial autocorrelation as well as significant patterns of local spatial association. Although spatial agglomeration existed significantly at the level of block, the convergence of ETE and PSTS was distinct in spatial pattern, which proved the spatial-disjoin between producer services and manufacturing.
Cultural diffusion is an important part of study in cultural geography and communication. The current models of cultural diffusion take time as a variable and some of them take location as a variable. Cultural geography pays attention to the spatial diffusion of cultural phenomena. Therefore, diffusion models describing spatial changes are required. Setting Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) as a research object, this paper builds models to analyze how foreign catering chain stores are spatially diffused within Beijing City. KFC's diffusion is a typical expending diffusion. This kind of diffusion has spatial preference. The social structure of Beijing made a good base for KFC's entering in the late 1980s. This modeling analysis is based on the data given by KFC's headquarter in Beijing and aims to set models with spatial variables. This study found KFC's diffusion does not follow the grade of commercial central places in Beijing City. Five diffusion rings in this paper are designed as spatial variables. The Ring Order Model and Radius Model can not pass their tests, while Alpha Model passes. Alpha Model depicts the relation between diffusion directions of KFC and their opening order. The three conclusions of this paper are: (1) In comparison to former models, this paper designs three new spatial variables for diffusion models of KFC. Alpha Model has passed its reliable test. It could be applied in forecasting the direction of a new KFC approximately. (2) These models, in addition to yielding new insights into the processes involved in spatial diffusion, are helpful for middle class catering chain stores in site selection. The Alpha Model is better for selecting than Ring-Order Model and Radius Model. (3) Economic factors have greater influence on KFC's diffusion. The Ring Order in this paper shows the consumption levels. One of the shortcomings in this paper is taking diffusion rings as static ones. Another one is ignoring the competition of other catering chain stores in the same commercial area. Lacking of census data, the models in this paper have less variables.
Based on the energy and economy data from 1978 to 2005, this paper measures the variation track of energy production and the consumption gravity center in China, and analyses the relations between the energy production and consumption and the economic development. The results are as follows: 1) The variation track of the energy production gravity center is moving to southwest by step, the gravity center moved to west by 3.29o and by 1.18o to south, this shows that the disparities of energy production between south and north is decreasing, the disparities of energy production between west and east is decreasing too, the decreasing rate of the latter is larger than the former one. 2) The variation track of energy consumption gravity center is moving to southwest by step, and the fluctuation of the track is more distinct, during 1998 to 2002, the movement of gravity center is not obvious, this shows that the increasing rate of energy consumption of each province is similar. 3) The variation track of GDP gravity center is moving to both longitude and latitude direction. 4) Although there are some similar characteristics between energy production and consumption gravity center, the difference between them is significant too. Based on comparative analysis of the energy and GDP gravity center, we can find that there are intimate relations between economic development and energy consumption.
With the degeneration of environment and acceleration of urbanization, human settlements have attracted great attention worldwide. For the necessity of natural environment evaluation of human settlements, by choosing terrain, land cover, climate and water condition as the evaluation factors, based on Geographic Information System technique, this paper sets up the human settlements environment index (HEI) model and evaluates the natural environment suitability of human settlements in China with it. The results show that: the HEI of China decreases from southeast to northwest in general, which reflects the regional difference of natural environment suitability of human settlements in China; and HEI is significantly correlated with population density at grid size and the R2 value for them amounts to 0.87, which indicates that natural environment suitability of human settlements has a significant influence on population distribution. From southeast to northwest and from hilly regions and plains to plateaus and mountainous areas, the natural environment suitability of human settlements in China decreases in general. Specifically, the high suitable region, with a land area of 95.92×104 km2 and a population of 380 million, is mainly located in Southeast Hilly Region and most parts of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River; most parts of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Sichuan Basin, Guanzhong Basin and southern part of North China Plain belong to the moderate suitable region, accounting for 1/6 of a land area and one half of population of China; with a land area of 167.78×104 km2 and a population of 226 million, the low suitable region mainly includes Northeast China Plain, northern part of North China Plain and Loess Plateau; eastern part of Tibetan Plateau, Junggar Basin and Inner Mongolia Plateau belong to the critical suitable region, covering a land area of 225.11×104 km2, and 41 million people live in this region; and the non-suitable region mainly includes most parts of Tibetan Plateau, Tarim Basin and Alex Plateau, where the land area is 304.42 km2, but there are only 2.49 million people. From the high suitable to the non-suitable region, the land area increases with the decrease of population density, indicating that the population in China is mainly concentrated in natural environment suitable region.
