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  • 2013 Volume 68 Issue 4
    Published: 20 April 2013
      

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  • MAO Qiliang, DONG Suocheng, WANG Fei, LI Jun
    2013, 68(4): 435-448. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304001
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    In the context of uneven development, industrial structure differentials exist in core and peripheral regions. This paper, concerning uneven development since reform and opening-up in China, firstly presents descriptive evidence of the core-periphery pattern of economic spatial structure. Then it empirically analyzes the impact of core-periphery gradient across provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) on industrial location and assesses the extent to which these provinces have changed in recent years by taking manufacturing industries as cases and employing statistical data of the 2nd and 3rd China Industrial Censuses and the 1st and 2nd China Economic Censuses. Since China's reform and opening-up, economic spatial structure of China has been presenting a significant core-periphery pattern, and the economic center evidently skews to east coastal areas. With the deepening of market reform and expansion of globalization, industrial location is gradually in line with development advantages across provinces, and shows preferences between core and peripheral provinces with respect to different industries. The core provinces specialize in those industries characterized by strong forward and backward linkages as well as high consumption ratio, high degree of increasing returns to scale, labor intensive or human-capital intensive, however, it is the other way around to peripheral provinces, in addition, energy intensive industries gradually concentrate in peripheral ones. Comparative advantage theory and new economic geography to a certain degree identify the underlying forces that determine spatial distribution of manufacturing industries in China. This paper indicates that it will be a long-term trend that industrialization of regions in different gradients is not synchronized. In a certain period, provinces are bound to develop industrial sectors in line with regional characteristics and development stage. Core-periphery gradients by industry across provinces demonstrated in this paper indicates that industrial development differentials between eastern and western provinces are not only the uneven distribution of industries but also the inconsistent evolving trends of industrial structure for each province.
  • PAN Fenghua, XIA Yabo, LIU Zuoli
    2013, 68(4): 449-463. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304002
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    The location and relocation of headquarters have significant impacts on urban and regional development in the long term, which has been largely neglected in China for various reasons. Drawing on the latest data of public listed firms from 2001 to 2012 in China, this study investigates the relocation of headquarters as well as registered addresses of those listed firms from 2001 to 2012. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) Firms mainly relocate the headquarters and registered addresses to eastern China, especially to Yangtze River Delta and Beijing, and the western and northeastern parts of China have the largest net loss of firms. (2) Most cases are upward relocations, which mean that they tend to be relocated in cities with higher political level. Beijing and Shanghai are the most attractive destination cities for inter-province relocations. For those relocations within provinces, firms are more likely to move to the capital cities. (3) According to the relocation pattern of both headquarters and registered addresses of firms, and the separation of headquarters and registered address for some firms, Beijing and Shanghai have become more dominant in the overall corporate geography in China. Beijing is extraordinarily influential and attracts the most relocated firms. (4) Most relocations are caused by merger and acquisition, which explains half of the relocation cases of headquarters and over 70% of the registered addresses. (5) There exist significant variations of relocation frequencies and rates among different industries. In general, firms of service industry are more likely to be relocated than those of manufacturing industry. Firms of mining and real estate industry have the highest relocation rates. (6) The operating performance is not necessarily improved after the relocation of headquarters. The performance improvement is quite weak and lasts only a very short time. Moreover, the upward relocation does not benefit firms more compared to downward or parallel relocation.
  • FANG Zhongquan
    2013, 68(4): 464-476. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304003
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    Exhibition industry is one of the important parts of modern service industry. In recent years, it is developing rapidly and the agglomeration trend in some particular areas of the main center cities is very obvious in China. Based on the data of Guangzhou exhibition enterprises and GIS technology, and using spatial point pattern analysis and questionnaires, this paper discusses the agglomeration characteristics and influencing factors of Guangzhou exhibition enterprises during 1991-2001. Research shows that: (1) Guangzhou exhibition enterprises are significantly agglomerated, and the spatial pattern has been changed from single-center to multi-center agglomeration; (2) Concentration and diffusion coexist. Agglomeration degree of Guangzhou exhibition enterprises does not decrease due to expansion of spatial scale. On the contrary, it diffuses to a new area while constantly strengthening the agglomeration in old areas; (3) Agglomeration areas of exhibition enterprises are divided into two agglomerate types, namely venues-relying type and CBD-relying type, both of which vary in scale and strength of agglomeration; (4) The influencing factors of exhibition enterprises agglomeration include five aspects: exhibition service facilities, overall business environment, external economies, government action and human resources. On the aspect of concrete factors, large exhibition hall and traffic conditions significantly influence the location of exhibition enterprises. But qualified labor force, policy and financial support of the local government, land price and rent have relatively less influence.
  • WANG Hui, HUANG Jiuju, LI Yongling, YAN Xin, XU Wangtu
    2013, 68(4): 477-490. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304004
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    For developing a sustainable and low-carbon-oriented "green transportation system", a major principle is to encourage walking, promote public transport, and reduce car dependence. However, as stated in existing literature, travel behavior and transportation choices are closely related to urban form and built environment. Therefore cities need to consider more than just road networks and vehicles while they attempt to solve transportation problems. It is necessary to examine the urban form and built environment that may force people to drive. For doing so, a city-wide evaluation of the walking accessibility, the availability of public transport, and the potential car dependence will be helpful. By taking the city of Xiamen, China, as a case study, based on a variety of data from different authorities, and with the aid of ArcGIS software, this presented study has attempted to conduct such a city-wide evaluation and has generated some useful information for both public transport and urban facility providers by illustrating the spatial patterns and indentifying the problematic areas. The empirical results show that: (1) there are distinct spatial disparities of walking accessibility, bus availability, and potential car dependence across the space of the city; (2) in general, the worst areas of walking accessibility are also the worst areas of bus availability, hence make the worst situation of car dependence as well; (3) the old central area of the city is comparatively in the best situation, while the vast newly developed areas outside the Xiamen Island are left behind as disadvantaged areas in terms of urban services and public transportation. The problems found in an individual city, such as the case study city, can also reveal some important features associated with wider dynamics in China's cities. Besides, the methodology developed in this research might also provide a kind of reference for other studies.
  • ZHOU Binxue, DAI Teqi, LIANG Jinshe, ZHANG Hua
    2013, 68(4): 491-505. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304005
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    We use the Lowry model as the theoretical basis and the development situation of Beijing as the guidance to explore the application of Lowry model in the research of urban spatial structure in the aspects, which are the model building, parameter setting and scenario simulation. Firstly, in the process of building this model, we used Thunen location theory as the theoretical basis, the maximization of the regional total rent as the objective function, the development situation and the land resources supply situation of Beijing as the constraint conditions. Secondly, in the model parameter setting, we used the Beijing input-output table (2010), the Beijing Statistical Yearbook (2011), the Beijing enterprises survey data (2010), and other data sources to set the model parameters. Thirdly, we completed the computing in scenario simulation by taking Beijing as a research object, the township as the basic research units. Based on the analysis of the basic industry distribution pattern, we constructed the scene constraints of the model. Finally, based on the spatial pattern of basic industries, we simulated the distribution of urban industries and living space, and summarized the enlightenment of model structure and model calculation. This paper not only enriched the connotation of the model framework, but also tested the technical process and analysis ability of the model in the actual application. This work laid the foundation for the formation of the urban space structure analysis framework based on Lowry model, and expanded the research perspective of domestic urban structure study.
  • SHEN Yue, CHAI Yanwei
    2013, 68(4): 506-516. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304006
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    In the process of rapid suburbanization, large-scale affordable housing and new towns have been built in Beijing's suburban areas, which formed a unique suburban living and daily activity space. However, it leads to some urban problems because of the lack of supporting facilities and job opportunities around this kind of suburban mega-communities. For example, the long distance of commuting, transportation congestion and jobs-housing spatial mismatch, which also lower the residents' life quality. With the behavioral turn in human geography, space-time behavior has become one of the important perspectives on studies on urban space. Activity space, which is an important measurement in the study of urban social space, has attracted much attention from scholars at home and abroad. In China, research on activity space has focused its attention on aggregated aspects, using density interpolation based on questionnaire data to measure activity space, which ignores individual differences of residents. Data used in this study are from activity and travel survey based on GPS, which was done in 2010, with two suburban mega-communities of Tiantongyuan and Yizhuang as cases. Methods of case studies, spatial analysis based on GIS and multiple linear regression are used. The study uses standard confidence ellipse to measure individual activity space from a disaggregated perspective. Spatial overlay analysis is used to study residents' activity space of weekdays and weekends, and their use of urban space and community space. The study also analyzes the influencing factors of residents' use of urban space to examine problems emerging in suburbanization of China's large cities.
  • QI Yuanjing, YANG Yu, JIN Fengjun
    2013, 68(4): 517-531. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304007
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    As important carriers of regional strategy and policy, prefecture-level regions have played an increasingly significant role in the development of China's economy. However, few studies have grasped the essence of economic development stage and spatio-temporal evolution process at a prefectural level. Thus they may lead to a biased policy and ineffective implementation. Based on Chenery's economic development theory, this paper identifies China's economic development stages at both national and prefectural levels. Both Global Moran's I index and Getis-Ord Gi* index are employed to investigate the spatial-temporal evolution of China's economic development from 1990 to 2010. Major conclusions can be drawn as follows: (1) China's economic development is generally in the state of agglomeration. It stepped into primary production stage in 1990, and middle industrialized stage in 2010, with a "balanced-unbalanced-gradually rebalanced" pattern in the process. (2) China's rapid economic growth experienced a spatial shift from coastal regions to inland regions. Most advanced cities in central and western China can be roughly categorized into regional hub cities and resource-dependent cities. (3) Hot-spots in China's economic development moved northward and westward. The interactions between cities and prefectures became weaker in eastern China, while cities and prefectures in central and western China were still on the stage of monomer development, with limited effects on the surrounding cities. (4) While the overall growth rate of China's economy gradually slowed down during the past two decades, the numbers of cities and prefectures in central and western China grew much faster than those in coastal areas. (5) Regions rich in resources, such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, became the new hot-spots of economic growth in recent years. For these regions, however, more attention should be paid to its unbalanced industrial structure and the lagging social development in the backdrop of the rapid economic growth driven predominantly by the exploitation of resources.
  • LU Lin
    2013, 68(4): 532-546. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304008
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    Metropolitan areas, as the basic unit of international competition, are the main platform for the national economic and social development, as well as a national strategic platform for tourism development, including both traditional and emerging elements of tourism development. Metropolitan areas have complete tourism industry system on a large scale. Therefore, tourism development in metropolitan areas plays a significant role for the country and the world. Existing studies on tourism development in metropolitan areas are mainly focused on the development of metropolitan tourism background, development model and strategy, space research, cooperation and competition research, tourism development planning and policy research. However there are four deficiencies for the existing metropolitan area tourism research. Firstly, there have been relatively more studies based on the traditional resources concept than on a new paradigm. Secondly, there is more research on the traditional tourism development elements than on new elements. Thirdly, the tourism research of the single city is more than that on metropolitan areas organism tourism. Finally, previous studies have not formed a unified research paradigm and system. These deficiencies have negative effects on further exploration of the metropolitan tourism development principle. The result suggests that studies on metropolitan tourism should focus on scientific problems about the international typical model, construction of process-structure-mechanism and development of tourism with Chinese characteristics. Further studies should strengthen the project research on competition and cooperation, including the development of tourism industry, cultural innovation, important engineering and festival. More attention should be given to the identification of a spatial system, as well as scientificity and feasibility of data acquisition and processing. We should be committed to building a comprehensive and integrative method system for the research on development of metropolitan tourism.
  • CHEN Chao, LIU Jiaming, MAO Haitao, WANG Run, ZHOU Bin, CHEN Nan
    2013, 68(4): 547-558. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304009
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    According to the related data from the sample survey of Chinese domestic tourists in 2008, the authors construct the intrinsic relationship and the spatial network structure of inter-provincial tourist flows of Chinese farmers. Based on social network analysis, GIS spatial analysis and mathematical analysis, the authors examine the node indicators of centrality and structural holes of inter-provincial spatial network of the domestic farmer tourist flows. First, the network density of inter-provincial farmer tourist flows is low, but it tends to increase at a slow rate with the time going on. Nodes of the network present an uneven density distribution pattern of "high in eastern China, sparse in central China and scattered in western China". The overall network structure is loose. Second, the central network force of the inward is stronger than that of the outward. The degree of concentration in tourist destination is higher than that of the visitor-generating region. The tourism nodes in eastern China have two functions of the tourist destination and the visitor-generating region. However, the tourism nodes in either central China or western China have only one function of the tourist destination. Third, the radiating capacity from the core region to the peripheral region is weak and limited in the provinces of western China. Besides, the nodes with high centre index occupy the core places, and have the core competitive advantages. The tourist indegree of eastern China is higher than either central China or western China. The tourist outdegree is positive corresponding to the travel rate. Fourth, there are five concentration subgroups in the spatial network of inter-provincial farmer tourist flows in China. Each concentration subgroup is a tourist destination with its special core-periphery structure. At last, this study on domestic tourist flows of Chinese farmers, based on a province-scale research unit, provides both the theoretical and the practical supports to balance the development and the tourist accessibility of the travel space in China.
  • GUO Yuanyuan, MO Duowen, MAO Longjiang, WANG Shougong, LI Shuicheng
    2013, 68(4): 559-570. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304010
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    Using ArcGIS spatial analyst tools, this study analyzes the spatial and temporal distribution of ancient archaeological sites of six periods from the Neolithic Age to the Shang and Zhou dynasties in northern Shandong province. In addition, combined with the experimental analysis of Shuangwangcheng (SWC) profiles and previous studies, the relationship between site distribution and environmental factors is discussed. The results show that during the period of 8000-5000 aBP, the climate was warm and humid and the sea level was relatively high; therefore, archaeological settlements were mainly distributed on diluvial tablelands and alluvial plain with the altitude ranging from 20 m to 300 m and the slope lower than 2°. However, there were few archaeological sites distributed in the western low-lying plain as the result of frequent flooding events at this stage. After 5000 aBP, the cooling and drying climate and the lowering sea-level prompted the coastward expansion of settlements. Meanwhile, as a result of climatic drying and marine recession, environmental conditions in the western low-lying plain were also ameliorated, which attracted extensive human exploitation. The study area of this period was characterized by the rapid development of prehistoric culture, the intensified social stratification and the emergence of early city-states. However, around 4000 aBP, the abrupt change of climate and the increase in the frequency and intensity of flooding events severely disrupted human activities, which might be the main reason for the decline of the Yueshi culture. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the climatic conditions tended to be stable and assumed a mild-dry condition, which promoted the development of the culture to be prosperous again. The previous situation of sparse human settlements due to the lack of freshwater and being unfitted for sedentary agriculture improved during the Shang and Zhou dynasties in northern coastal wetlands. Local residents effectively adapted themselves to the harsh environmental conditions by producing sea-salt, which led to the rapid growth of ancient settlements.
  • ZHANG Lei
    2013, 68(4): 571-576. https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201304011
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    This paper reveals that during China's Republican Period, students studying geography overseas supported their study aboard program mainly through self-funding, governmental fellowships or the Sino-British Indemnity Fund respectively. As a result, Chinese students usually studied in three institutes: School of Geography at Clark University, Institute of Geography at Franco-China University at Lyon and Department of Geography at Liverpool University. I argue that the returning students contributed to Chinese geographical research and students training. Beyond this official narrative, Zhu Jiahua (Chu Chia-hua) was the main figure who patronized the geography students studying abroad during this period.