The border region is of great significance for national security and external economic development. In the context of complex geopolitical environment, it is urgent to conduct a deep analysis of the geo-economic cooperation and its impact mechanism for accelerating development in China's border areas. On the basis of the comprehensive analysis of the frontier geo-economic theory, the framework of geo-economic analysis is built up in this paper, including three major categories of indicators: local economy, export-oriented economy, and local economic development. This paper systematically depicts the geo-economic development and its evolution in China's border areas. By using the GeogDetector, the mechanism of spatial disparity is also analyzed. It is found that the level of geo-economic development in border areas is generally stable, with obvious spatial differentiation. The absolute advantage position of geo-economy in Northeast China has gradually in a decline, while the advanced areas are highly dispersed geographically. The growth poles for geo-economic development include the Mudanjiang in Northeast China, Baotou in Inner Mongolia of North China, Bortala Mongolia Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang of Northwest China, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan of Southwest China, as well as Chongzuo in Guangxi of South China. The geo-economy of the border areas are mainly influenced by the national policies, the development level of its neighbors, as well as the willingness on bilateral trade. National policies, traffic accessibility, and cultural proximity have significantly affected the geo-economic performance. Among them, the geo-economic performances of Inner Mongolia and Tibet are mainly affected by the development of neighboring countries, the northeast region and Xinjiang are mainly affected by policy supports, while Guangxi and Yunnan are affected by comprehensive factors. Finally, this paper puts forward policy suggestions and implications for geo-economic development in China's border areas in the complex geographical environment.
Due to China's rapid urbanization and industrialization, the demand for resource factors is surging. Competition for such factors between cities and regions has given us a severe challenge to increase our ability to aggregate resource factors. This paper conducted an in-depth analysis of 20 years (1995-2014) of spatial-temporal evolution of the factor aggregating ability in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR). Analytical results highlighted that: (1) From 1995-2014, the comprehensive factor aggregating ability in this region had been on an increase despite fluctuation, ranking fourth nationwide. The differential factor aggregating ability between cities within this region had been basically balanced while fluctuating. At the same time, the distribution of such resource factors as science and technology innovation, finance, and the opening strategy, had tended to be concentrated along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. (2) During this period, the factor agglomeration pattern of UAMRYR formed a multi-center "core-periphery" structure, with core cities such as Wuhan, Changsha and Nanchang, and there is no significant change on the spatial pattern. In general, the factor agglomeration pattern was still in the primary stage of the urban polarization for central cities, the integrated factor agglomeration has not yet formed. (3) The factor aggregating patterns in UAMRYR tended to be decentralized. As the primate city, Wuhan had a low factor aggregating primacy. The factor agglomeration placed emphasis on moving the pathway of "northwest-southeast" in UAMRYR. There were significant disparities on agglomeration patterns for various factors, while most factors presented agglomeration to central cities.
China has stepped into a rapid aging society. The study on the spatial pattern and generating mechanism of the aging population is not only the theoretical foundation for the spatial research on aging population, but also the guiding principle of the upgrading of aging society. This study selected administrative units above the prefecture level as subjects and quantitatively analyzed the spatial pattern and association of the aging population distribution in cities in 2000 and 2010, based on data of the fifth and sixth censuses and the methods like aging population rate, aggregation degree and spatial autocorrelation. The results showed that, cities above prefecture level all over the county are generally in the middle stage of aging, aging spatial differentiation is greater among cities, cities in densely aging-populated areas are mainly located to the east of Hu Line, and cities in sparsely aging-populated areas are all found to the west of Hu Line, which coincide with the national population distribution. Most of the cities with high density are distributed in the eastern coastal areas, and cities with medium density are mostly in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Central Plains, Shandong Peninsula, Chengdu-Chongqing Region and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, which dominate the aging population areas. There is an obvious positive spatial association in aging population among cities, the spatial aggregation is further enhanced, and the spatial pattern of population aging shows a "Core-Periphery" structure with the hot-spots as the center and gradually spreading to the outskirts; natural environment, economic condition, urbanization construction, and population environment and the like are the key factors influencing the spatial pattern of the aging population.
How low-income residents suffer from spatial inequality has attracted significant attention in urban geography and urban planning. Although most research related to this question has addressed spatial segregation and spatial dilemmas in the context of residential neighborhoods, an increasing number of studies have focused on inequality in daily activity and travel behaviors. Particularly in a modern society with high mobility, behavior space is believed to be a good index for measuring spatial inequality among different social groups. In this paper, we use a behavior space approach to study spatial inequality among income groups. The study area is Shangdi-Qinghe, which is an inner suburban region with mixed social groups and neighborhoods. Using a GPS-facilitated activity diary completed in Beijing in 2012, we calculate individuals' daily potential path areas and activity spaces by using network analysis tools and minimum polygon tools in ArcGIS 10.2. We compare the sizes of daily potential path areas and activity spaces among income groups and find that compared with other social groups, low-income residents have smaller daily potential path areas and smaller activity spaces. This result indicates that such residents suffer from both an accessibility dilemma and disadvantages in mobility. By constructing a regression model, we find that socio-economy, urban form and activity factors have significant impact on behavior spaces. Middle- and low-income single residents have relatively small daily potential path areas and activity spaces. Women, older residents, and those who do not live in danwei neighborhoods and residents who work in local areas have relatively small activity spaces. Activity space and daily potential path area are both positively related to facility density around one's home, while activity space is negatively related to facility density around one's workplace. Residents who live far from railway stations and work near railway stations have relatively small activity spaces. Working hours have a significant negative impact on both daily potential path area and activity space. Space-time constraints significantly affect daily potential path area. Certain planning applications of these findings are discussed.
Current land appraisal techniques rarely consider the value of underground space and lack robust methods of evaluating underground space. This paper integrates the cost method, income reduction method and floor utility ratio method to establish a value assessment model of underground space use. Then, the major factors that influence the value of underground space use are analysed. We find that location, traffic and business type have significant influences on the utility of underground commercial space. Thus, to improve the accuracy of such valuations, the utility of underground commercial space should be graded and classified into different levels. The land price distribution of underground space use in Shanghai is analysed based on the assessment model and the Kriging interpolation method. Finally, the values of different features of the underground commercial space in Shanghai are discussed in three contexts: typical shopping centres, municipal commercial centres and commercial land transaction plots. The results show that (1) the price distribution of underground space use is consistent with that of the aboveground, and the price decreases from the city centre to the suburbs; (2) the price of the underground commercial space is highly dependent on underground rail traffic; and (3) the price distribution of underground commercial space use exhibits distinctly concentrated areas of high and low prices.
The Pearl River Delta (PRD), a typical area of rapid urbanization with Dongguan as its most representative case of the 'exo-urbanization' model, has thus long been attracting scholarly attention. However, after the financial crisis in 2008, a new spatial phenomenon has emerged in Dongguan, with overall growth and partial shrinkage taking place in the same city area. As the Chinese economy steps into a state of New Normal, partial shrinkage during a process of rapid urbanization has kindled heated debate. Starting from the vacancy phenomenon caused by the outflow of development factors, this paper has integrated three analytical dimensions, i.e., economy, population, and land, to put forward a framework for understanding urban growth and shrinkage. Four types of towns have been identified in Dongguan, featuring, respectively, continuous growth, resurgent growth, moderate shrinkage, and continuous shrinkage. Moreover, time trajectory and spatial pattern of growing and shrinking have been investigated to account for the distribution characteristic of urban growth and shrinkage. Then, through probing the shocks of economic crisis, Lewisian turning point, path dependence existence and institutional arrangement, we have analyzed the mechanisms of urban growth and shrinkage amid rapid urbanization in Dongguan. Conclusions and avenues for future research are discussed in the last section.
In this paper, we investigated the characteristics of the scale distribution of the Bohai port system and analyzed its mechanism using the rank-size law and the kernel density method. The port cargo throughput and the container throughput over the recent 30 years were used as an indicator. Some results were obtained as follows: (1) The port system in the Bohai Rim has some characteristics of rank-size distribution, but there are significant differences in the rank-size distribution of ports in different stages and on different scales, and the port regionalization is becoming more and more clear. (2) The number of non-scale areas of the rank-size distribution of the port cargo throughput increases first and then decreases, and the single fractal is transformed into a two-fractal structure. Regional port system has experienced four stages: (a) balanced development of ports with high rank order, (b) breakthrough of small and medium ports, (c) differential development of large, medium and small ports, and (d) port integration under the competition and cooperation of hub ports. The change track of the rank-size distribution of the port container throughput has also experienced four stages: (a) external segmentation development, (b) formation of the hub port and the integration of emerging ports, (c) large scale of feeder port, and (d) integration of the container network. They are consistent on the development node. The concentration and decentralization of ports are interwoven. The total goods throughput is decentralized earlier than the container transport, and the dispersion trend of the total throughput is relatively obvious. (3) There are three characteristics of the port rank-size evolution in the Bohai Rim: (a) The dominant role of large ports is obvious under physical and economic geography. (b) The regionalization and competitive pressures force port cooperation and promote port to achieve self-organizing coordination. (c) The output characteristics and the transformation of the energy promote the rapid growth of emerging ports.
It is a China's strategic demand to systematically and accurately measure the poverty characteristics of poverty-stricken areas from the perspective of village-level poverty. In this context, this paper constructs a multidimensional poverty evaluation model from the perspective of spatial poverty, and combines the decomposition of indicator contribution degree and linear regression method to explore poverty contributing factors. Then it adopts LSE (Least Square Error) model and geostatistics analysis model to classify the villages' poverty types and spatial distribution difference, so as to grasp the whole poverty characteristics, poverty contributing factors and poverty types of poor villages all over the country and to provide auxiliary decision-making support services for eradicate poverty in 2020. Taking 51461 villages in China as a case, we can draw some conclusions as follows: (1) The distribution of poverty-stricken villages has an obvious regional characteristic from the perspectives of poverty level and poverty size, and most poor villages are concentrated in contiguous destitute areas, showing a pattern of high in the west and low in the east. In view of poverty level, there exists an obvious olive-shaped structure of big in the middle and small on two sides, and nearly half of the poverty-stricken villages are moderately poor. (2) China's poor villages have four main poverty contributing factor dimensions, i.e. , harsh transportation conditions, frequent natural disasters, low income and poor labor force qualities, of which, the significant poverty contributing factors are road access ratio, terrain type, suffered frequency of natural disaster, per capita net income, labor force ratio, ratio of illiterate labor forces, etc. (3) China's poor villages are driven by multiple poverty types, among which, those villages with three-factor dominated, four-factor collaborative and five-factor combined types have a relatively high proportion. (4) "Entire-village Advancement" poverty reduction strategy has achieved an initial performance, improved the village's sustainable development environment and raised the income of poor population. However, each village has its own poverty characteristics, therefore, anti-poverty measures should be adjusted according to its respective local conditions.
In order to explore the spatial structure of rural residential land transition and its relevance to economic development, the spatial layout and agglomeration characteristics of rural residential land transition in Shandong Province were studied by applying theoretical hypothesis on rural housing land transition and spatial correlation analysis methods, such as global spatial autocorrelation analysis and hot spot analysis. Economic growth stages at county scale were divided based on per capita GDP, and the coupling relationship between rural residential land transition and economic development were revealed from the integrated angle of global scale at the provincial level and "point-line-face" feature unit. The results showed that, the rural residential land transition index from 2005 to 2014 displayed a significantly increasing trend in the east-west direction and a gradually descending trend from south to north. Based on the global spatial autocorrelation analysis, Moran's index, which reached 0.6317, indicated that the rural residential land transition showed a significant pattern of high-high and low-low spatial clustering. Furthermore, by applying hot spot analysis, it was found that the hot spots and hot sub-spots were intensively distributed in the western inadated plain of the Yellow River, southwest Huaihe plain and central Yimeng Mountains of Shandong Province; the cold sub-spots were distributed in the periphery of the hot sub-spots, such as cities of Zaozhuang, Jinan, Zibo, Binzhou and Weifang; and the cold spots were mostly distributed in Jiaodong hilly region and the northern Yellow River Delta. Moreover, obvious correlation of mathematical statistics and spatial coupling between rural residential transition indices and economic development level were indicated. The decreasing tendency from low to high economic gradient at both global scale and provincial level and feature units of "Five counties - Three belts - Four regions" were revealed by all rural residential land transition characteristics, with the significant relationship of power exponent trend. This paper explored the spatial characteristics of rural residential land transition, and made up for the deficiency of the single non-spatial analysis of land use transition; and the results verified the previous theoretical hypothesis successfully.
Based on classification data of remote sensing images, using kernel density, the minimal cumulative resistance model of road traffic accessibility, and a logistic regression model, the spatial pattern and the main factors influencing it were quantitatively examined in Guangdong Province from 1990 to 2013. The framework of the research concerning rural settlement evolution and its effect mechanisms were also discussed and generalized for the future. The results are as follows: (1) The spatial distribution of rural settlements showed some spatial orientation to low altitude and to low slope, and were significantly close to rivers and towns; thus formed a special pattern of "dense on the plains, and sparse in the mountainous region", including two high density core regions of rural settlements in the Chaoshan plain and the Zhanjiang tableland. The rural settlements were distributed along the rivers, valleys, and roads in the mountainous region surrounding the Pearl River Delta. (2) In addition to the spatial orientation of the open road, the accessibility of road traffic to the township has the greatest influence on the spatial distribution of the rural settlements. The connected transport network between towns and villages is significant for rural transformation as a comprehensive increase in township production and service capacity will be the key to optimizing the town-village system in rural areas. (3) Elevation and slope were two basic but influential factors that have affected the distribution, scale, and form of rural settlements. The attributes of the natural geography are the first elements in optimizing village layout and planning spatial reconstruction. (4) In the current Internet and social media era, the reconstruction of market network system orders is connected with the global market network system in the rural areas. The rural life service circle will be constructed with the township at its core to explore the theory and practice of spatial reconstruction, including its production, life and ecology, and social-cultural heritage and protection. It will also allow for exploration of the rural settlements' evolution, rural spatial production, rural social networks, group behavior, social autonomy, and social and cultural fields, which will be the core focus of China's rural spatial reconstruction research under the background of globalization.
"Social construction of nature" has emerged as a new approach within recent Western human geographical agenda in re-examining the relationship between society and nature. In this article, we consider the metaphor of "construction" not only as a social constructionist approach that emphasises the role of power, discourse and text in meaning formation, but also as a network that assemblages human and non-human actors. Based on this formulation, this paper seeks to explore the human-animal relationship and in particular the power relationship in wildlife tourism with an empirical focus on Crocodile Park, Guangzhou. Wildlife tourism which shows animals in their natural habitat is an important part of human's accessibility to experience of nature in the context of late-modernity. Drawing on Foucault's scope of biopower, we investigate the way in which biopower exercises and embeds into the actor network organized by animals, park, government and NGO. We found that: First, in Crocodile Park, management practices imposing on animals have become heavily reliant on the use of disciplinary techniques and biopolitics of animal, for example the population and health control and manipulation of gender, thus to reconcile the park with the changing demands of tourism market. Second, the park not only utilizes a series of disciplinary techniques to generate the “docile bodies” of animals subjected to the tourism activities, but tactfully manipulates tourists' embodied experience towards animals. This paper argues that tourists' embodied experience is embedded into double desires that intend to closely discover animals on the one hand and conquer animals on the other. Third, the exercise of biopower is in an ongoing process of negotiation between different human and non-human actors. We point out that the re-assemblage of actor network in essence provides a legal and moral framework in which biopower is legitimatized and thus can constantly operate in wildlife tourism. In conclusion, we argue that the operation of biopower should not be understood as a representation of social construction, but an outcome of the interaction of society and nature within the actor network. This article seeks to provide a new insight in analyzing the social construction of nature for Chinese human geography.
Tourism destination has both material and spiritual attributes. Compared to the material attributes of place, the spiritual attributes are more abstract, which leads to the difficulty in description and measurement for scholars. This may be the main reason for the scarcity of research in this direction. Ekinci and Hosany proposed the concept of 'tourism destination personality' and used Aaker's brand personality scale to measure destination personalities that can be viewed as a pioneering work for investigating spiritual aspects of tourism destination. However, as a new direction, most research on tourism destination personality has followed the way of brand personality research, and moreover, it has not touched some in-depth questions such as the representation and its mechanism referring to tourism destination personality. In view of this, taking urban tourism destination as an example, this paper aims to design a personality scale for urban tourism destination, and to find urban tourism destination personality traits and their landscape representation mechanism. Nanjing is selected as the case in this study. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 2015, and 789 valid questionnaires were finally collected. Machine learning, as an intelligent data analysis tool, is used in this study. By analyzing the collected data, it can be concluded that: (1) Urban tourism destination personalities can be divided into four dimensions, such as 'attitude', 'glamour', 'disposition' and 'capability'. (2) Urban cultural landscapes are important in representing urban destination personalities, and can be divided into five dimensions, i.e., 'modern space landscape', 'traditional space landscape', 'ecological landscape', 'social landscape' and 'landscape for living'. (3) The effects of urban cultural landscapes in representing urban tourism personalities are quite different. This study provides a conceptual framework and method for tourism destination personality research. The findings provide new insights for human-environment interaction from the spiritual perspectives.
Historical and empirical evidence shows that tourism was the pioneer industry to the development of international trade and economic globalization. As the important amenities and attraction spots, hotels have been the earliest tourism sector opened to international market. And the international investment in hotels (IIH) has empowered tourism industry and foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, especially, since the implementation of reform and opening up policy. In the evolution of global economy and domestic tourism, the spatial pattern of IIH also changed with consumption, transport accessibility, preferential policies and market scale, varying from south to north, and east to west in China. Spatial difference is a mainstream issue in the field of geography. IIH presented obvious discrepancy among provinces in China, due to the multiplex environment, economic conditions, industrial basis and demands. The study, firstly, introduced Coefficient of Variation (CV) to measure the spatial differences of IIH based on international investment data in tourist hotels in China. The results revealed that the fluctuation of CVIIH decreased since the 1990s but the center of Standard Deviation Ellipse about IIH skew toward North China, following the shift of barycenter in population, economy and tourism consumption. According to the theory of economic geography, it is assumed that the development of IIH was related to local economy and social environment. Secondly, the paper explored the spatial pattern of IIH and depicted its different characteristics, which were influenced by their sphere of spatial effect and institutional flexibility of decision-making. At the national level, the unbalanced patterns "the South was higher than the North and the East was better than the West", were keeping stable during 1991-2014. At the provincial level, there were three types of IIH evolution pattern, namely, U-shaped, inverted U-shaped and irregular linear growth. Thirdly, the paper quoted the Diamond Model as the theoretical basis to investigate the role of driving factors affecting spatial differences in IIH in China. At the same time, statistical methods were used to learn the relationship and quantify the role of factors. Furthermore, we concluded that the industrial environment and market demand were the most important factors that affect the dynamic differences of IIH in China. What's more, the results can also cast light on the "Belt and Road Initiative" that helps China advance the communication with Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East, East Africa, Central Asia, and European countries. Finally, the research inspired us that extra-congregated sources of IIH were not beneficial to the equilibrium of international capital in China and the enhancement of competition ability to domestic hotels. Thus, China's traditional foreign investment strategy, under which China has invested mostly in Western Europe and America, should be revised to adapt to the new global capital environment, and the government should take reasonable actions to promote the implementation of the revised investment strategy so that the need for cooperation with more countries will be met.
