It is demonstrated that the determinants of China's urban floating population's settlement intention are different among geographic units, which seems to be ignored by previous researches. Based on the data from the 2015 national migrant population dynamic monitoring survey (CMDS) and related statistics, this article uses the Semiparametric Geographically Weighted Regression (SGWR) model and k-means cluster method to examine the spatial variation of the factors influencing floating population's settlement intention in 282 prefecture- and provincial- level cites of China. Results provide the following conclusions. (1) The settlement intention of urban floating population is mainly influenced by the floating population characteristics instead of the destination characteristics. (2) Social and economic factors are closely related to the floating population's settlement intention. Meanwhile, the demographic, family and mobility factors exert a significant impact on such an intention. To be specific, there exists an inhibitory effect on floating population's settlement intention in factors such as income, marriage, and cross provincial mobility. However, housing expenditure, participation rate, number of children and other factors can effectively contribute to such intention. (3) Zonal spatial differentiation patterns of the influencing factors' coefficients are illustrated by the SGWR model, which can be further divided into four categories ("E-W", "N-S", "NE-SW" and "SE-NW"): The positive influences of ethnic and family factors are decreasing from the northern to southern regions, while the influence of employment ratio in the secondary industry is declining from the northwest to the southeast regions, and the impacts of factors such as the number of children and per capita GDP are diminishing from the northeast to the southwest regions. In eastern developed areas, the settlement intention of floating population with higher income is comparatively lower, while migrants with higher housing expenditure in southern China have a stronger intention to settle down. (4) Four influencing zones are detected by the k-means method: Floating population's settlement intention in North China, Central China and East China is significantly affected by multiple factors; In the northwest region and part of the southwest region, migrants' settlement intention is mainly influenced by demographic and social factors; The northeast region and the eastern part of Inner Mongolia's floating population's willingness to stay is mainly related to economic and family factors; Apart from housing expenditure, coefficients of other factors are relatively small in southern China and part of the central, eastern and southwestern regions. Additionally, this paper puts forward some suggestions on the service and management of the floating population in China.

The Tibetan Plateau is regarded as a typically sparsely populated area both from Chinese and global perspectives. There exists a large difference in population distribution of the Tibetan Plateau. Based on the town-level census data in 2010, we compiled a spatial population database to calculate the population density of the Tibetan Plateau. We found that the population distribution on this plateau was characterized in four dimensions, namely longitude, latitude, polarization and altitude. In addition, similar to the "Hu Line" for Chinese population distribution, we introduce the "Qilian-Gyirong Line" (short for Qi-Ji Line), a spatial division line of population geography in the Tibetan Plateau. Our main results are summarized as follows. (1) There are significant regional differences in the spatial population distribution in the Tibetan Plateau. The population density in the southeast was higher than that in the northwest. Compared to longitude-oriented, latitude-oriented and altitude-oriented regional differences, the polarization-oriented regional difference of population distribution was more prominent. This finding indicates that fewer people live in areas close to the cold-arid core of the Tibetan Plateau. (2) The spatial population distribution is closely related to the natural and environmental factors, including altitude, soil, water resources, climate and vegetation. The interaction between the natural factors has an impact on enhancing the regional difference of population. (3) The "Qiji Line" reveals the spatial differences of population in the Tibetan Plateau. The areas on either side of the line are approximately similar, whereas the population shares in the southeast and northwest halves are 93% and 7%, respectively. (4) In general, the population differences on both sides of the "Qiji Line" were stable over time. During 1982-2010 the population share in the southeast half decreased counterbalanced by an increased share in the northeast half. In the future, the majority of the people are expected to live on the southeast side. This is likely to imply two major policy initiatives. More attention is required on the urbanization development and transportation network construction in the southeast half and the increasing eco-environmental pressures from the growing population in the northwest half.

Due to the lack of empirical studies of scale variables and distance exponents, the effective application of the gravity model in urban study is challenging. With the development of multi-centralized Chinese cities, the gravity model must be validated because several relevant external conditions have changed. The purpose of this study is to validate Huff's Gravity Model using an individual mobile trajectory of mobile communication user in 2015. We follow Huff's two-step validation method: variable validation and parameter correction. Our main conclusions are as follows. First, attractions of commercial and employment centres conform to the law of the gravity model in which the attraction is proportional to the scale of a centre and inversely proportional to the distance from a centre. Second, in the spatial scale of Shanghai central city with spatial units in a 200-m grid, the mean distance exponent for commercial centres is 2.5 and that for employment centres is 3.0. The distance decay for commuting is greater than that for shopping trips, which means commuting is more sensitive to distance. Third, the gravity model can be used to predict the influence areas of adjusted commercial and employment centres based on validated variables and corrected parameters. Our results indicate that the prediction accuracies can reach 78.5% and 71.9% for the commercial and employment centres, respectively. The prediction accuracy for employment centres is slightly lower. This is because the attraction of employment centres is influenced not only by distance but also by factors such as family and housing prices, which will affect the prediction results. Lastly, in this study, we verify the spatial stratified heterogeneity of distance decay and determine that the distance exponent is not a unique constant because it has different values in different areas. Factors such as accessibility, distance to each centre, distance to a subway station and population density will affect distance decay.

The spatial spillover effects of prefecture-level cities have impacts on the industrial structure of counties. An assessment of such impacts will have important theoretical and policy implications for deepening the "province governing county" (PGC) reform. This paper reviewed the process and characteristics of PGC reform in Henan Province. Based on an econometric model of county's industrial structure as well as in-depth interviews, the study examined how county empowerment and the spillover effects of prefectural cities affect the industrial structure of counties. Several findings deserve to be highlighted. First, during 2004-2016, the decentralization of economic authority accelerated the growth of the tertiary sector at the county level, whereas the decentralization of social power inhibited the output level for all industries. Secondly, the spillover effects of prefectural cities have opposite impacts on agriculture and non-agricultural industries, and the decentralization of economic authority amplifies the spillover effects. The trickle-down effects on agriculture are more noticeable in less developed counties, whereas the polarization effects on non-agricultural sectors (especially the tertiary sector) are more obvious in economically advanced counties. Thirdly, we argue that the delegation of economic authority could be implemented in a larger number of counties, though cautious steps need to be taken in delegating social management power. In more developed prefecture-level cities, the PGC reform should be conducted in agricultural counties; in less developed cities, by contrast, counties with higher level of industrialization should be chosen for the PGC reform.

This study analysed the geographical development characteristics of Chinese universities from hierarchical and regional perspectives by establishing a publishing index, defining development patterns, and dividing relevant grades on the basis of academic articles during 1986-2018. The articles were published in the top four Chinese geographic journals: Acta Geographica Sinica, Geographical Research, Scientia Geographica Sinica, and Progress in Geography. We discuss the factors influencing the geographical development of Chinese universities. The results showed that (1) temporally, publication trends indicated an increase in geographical research in China from 1986 to 2018, which featured spatial agglomeration and quantitative hierarchy. So, we divided the number of publications into three categories (high, medium, and low) using systematic clustering analysis. (2) We examined the development history of different types of university involved in projects to promote the development of Chinese higher education by national and local governments. Universities sponsored by Project 985 were the largest contributors to the number of published articles, which formed the nucleus of geographical research, and universities sponsored by Project 211 contributed a medium-high number. For other universities, the annual number of published articles prior to 2006 was generally low and increased slowly. Since 2006, the number in some universities increased rapidly, while others remained low-stationary, showing the evolution of the coexisting pattern of high-medium-low categories. (3) Spatially, in eastern China, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Nanjing are centres of geographical research, ranking at the top in terms of geographical knowledge production. In addition, universities in the central region developed rapidly after 2004. Universities in the western region showed an asymmetric pattern, specifically, the northwest was stronger that the southwest. (4) The historical pattern of geographical research could be summarized using J, S, and linear curves. The findings revealed that the number of universities with J and linear curves was higher than those with S curves, while the number of universities that published papers at the middle and low levels was larger than those at the high level. In the future, geographical development will experience increasing improvement, although there is the external gap between the core and periphery for Chinese universities, i.e., between western and eastern universities, as well as with other universities and those sponsored by Projects 985 and 211. (5) A framework has been constructed to illustrate the development disequilibrium and factors influencing the geographical development of universities. It is suggested that future practices should not only involve the introduction of excellent research teams and the provision of policy support, but also the utilization of regional characteristics to cultivate teams that can achieve sustainable geographical development in China.

Education is not only important for strengthening a country's population quality and comprehensive power but key in reshaping the "man-land" relations in a country. This article reviews studies on the distribution of educational resources in both Chinese and Anglophone literature and summarizes the research gaps in the Chinese literature, which include but are not limited to the downplay of the analysis of mechanism and comprehensive effects of the spatial structure of educational resources. Employing different map-making technologies and mechanism-analysis methods, this article dives into three findings. First, though spatial features are slightly different between primary school level and middle school level, eastern regions generally have higher quality educational resources than western regions. In addition, urban agglomeration, including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shanghai-Ningbo-Hangzhou, and the Pearl River Delta, have an advantage in attracting and cultivating high-quality educational resources. Second, the quantity of high-quality primary school resources is positively correlated with annual per capita disposable income of urban households and number of full-time primary school teachers. The quantity of high-quality middle school resources is positively correlated with the comprehensive economic and social performance of the city. Third, when affected by multiple mechanisms, the spatial structure of China's high-quality educational resources is dynamic and deeply intertwines with the interrelations between cities as well as between the societies within each city. This article contributes both to the understanding of the unequal spatial structure of high-quality educational resources in China and to the analysis of complex socio-political effects on this transforming structure. Its findings encourage further research on the connection between the spatial structure of a region's educational resources and its cooperation and geopolitics as well as on the resulting social mobility among different social strata. Study limitations include: place-related elements, such as local political resources, were not sufficiently considered when selecting factors; there is a lack of longitudinal analysis; and not enough attention is paid to the combination of number-based data and geo-information-based data in analyses.