The quality of development is crucial for China to comprehensively build a socialist modern country. Drawing on related concepts of development in quality, the paper conceptualizes a city in high-quality development and proposes a stylish framework with five dimensions to evaluate it, in line with the New Development Philosophy, which is composed of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing. Using the methods of spatial analysis, club convergence test and spatial Durbin model, the paper identified the spatial evolution of the quality of city development in China and associated determinants during 2005-2020. On average, the level of city development quality increased by 48.4% during the study period. The number of cities at low-level of quality in development decreased dramatically, accompanied by a profound transformation in the spatial pattern of city development quality, which presents significant spatial aggregation. The spatial imbalance remains for cities with different development qualities, and the challenge is still huge to narrow the gap. With significant role differentiation among cities, a "pioneering-catching up" pattern emerges, and the 11 pioneering cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have become the pioneers of high-quality development in China. Key determinants for cities achieving high quality in development includes urbanization level, public investment, digital economy, environmental regulation and economic growth, while there is inverted U-shaped relationship between city size and development quality. To achieve the goal of high-quality city development in the new era, it is necessary to focus on the development of cities in the central and western regions, making full use of the demonstration role of pioneers, promoting quantitative growth, strengthening environmental regulations, cultivating the new forms of digital economy, and optimizing the city size hierarchy.
Human society is currently in the stage of significant digital transformation. The basic characteristics and internal mechanisms of human activity systems are undergoing major transitions. In particular, activities in virtual space are becoming diversified and self-systematical, and they more actively and frequently interact with the activities in the physical space in a complex way. At present, research on the digital transformation of human activity system increasingly emphasizes the variation and complexity of the behavior in virtual space. The research also highlights the necessity to go beyond the duality of physical and virtual space and to integrate technological use with activity system. This paper innovatively proposes the concepts of urban virtual space activity system and urban physical-virtual activity system. On the one hand, the new concepts emphasize the characteristics of urban virtual space activity that it increasingly becomes an independent activity system (of urban physical space activity). On the other hand, the concepts focus on the interaction relationships between urban physical and virtual activity systems. The theoretical construction of urban physical-virtual activity system can deepen the understanding of the digital transformation of urban activity system and further provide policy implications. This paper systematically states and discusses the conceptual and research frameworks of urban physical-virtual activity system in the dimensions of theoretical and methodological innovation, empirical topics innovation, and practical innovation. The concept and elements of urban physical-virtual activity system can provide new theories and methods to analyze urban space in digital transformation, and scientific support for urban life circle planning in smart cities and governance of digital life.
As an important part of Chinese modernization, rural modernization is the ultimate goal of rural development and comprehensive revitalization in China. The rural modernization in China has entered a new stage. Based on the connotation and logical relationship of rural development and rural modernization, this paper systematically sorts out the stages, paths, strategies and theoretical evolution of global rural development after World War II, summarizes the problems and challenges faced by rural modernization in China, and constructs the research framework of Chinese rural modernization. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Rural development aims to promote rural revitalization and urban-rural integration by continuously optimizing the development elements of rural areas and reshaping rural functions and forms, while rural modernization is the process of realizing the modernization transformation of agriculture, rural areas and farmers by gradually changing rural traditional production and lifestyle through concepts, elements and mechanisms of modernization. (2) After World War II, the development focus of global countryside gradually shifted from agricultural revival, rural ecological environment protection and sustainable development to green, eco-friendly and intelligent development of rural areas in the new period, and the theoretical cognition has experienced the transformation from productivism, post-productivism, multi-functionalism to the paradigm of neo-productivism and sustainable development of the global countryside. (3) The rural modernization in China still faces problems and challenges such as backward conditions for agricultural production, insufficient integration of three rural industries, lagging construction of rural infrastructure, hidden dangers in rural social governance, dilemma of rural resources and environment, and shortfalls in rural human capital. (4) Facing the national strategic needs of Chinese modernization, rural revitalization and urban-rural integrated development, the focus is constructing the theoretical framework of Chinese rural modernization from the aspects of institutional system innovation, regulation and planning technical system of rural space, integration and activation path of resources and elements, and future scene construction of smart and green countryside and its scientific governance. Based on the systematic thinking of human-environment coupling, the future research of Chinese rural modernization should deepen the basic theories and scientific paths, development models and guarantee mechanisms, social collaborative governance and spatial regulation and planning to construct the discourse system of academic disciplines in rural geography associated with Chinese rural modernization transformation.
Using Tencent population migration data in 2019 and Chinese language distribution data, the paper reveals the language ties effect of dialect similarity on Chinese population flow, and further explores its spatiotemporal heterogeneity, traffic mode heterogeneity, and the moderated role of spatial distance on its impact. The results show that: (1) Dialect similarity increases the path formation probability and the relationship strength of the inter-city population flow network in China, and forms the language ties effect in the population flow network. Geographic distance and language distance can be regarded as the explicit and implicit spatial costs of population flow, respectively. (2) There are spatiotemporal heterogeneity and traffic mode heterogeneity in the language ties effect. With each unit increase in dialect similarity, the path formation probability of China's population flow network will increase by 47.7% and 49.5%, respectively, and the flow intensity will increase by 17.1% and 9.9%, respectively, in the Spring Festival travel rush and the daily periods. At the same time, there are positive, negative, and degree differences in the influence of the language ties effect on population flow in different language regions and different modes of transportation, revealing the spatial differences and geographical implications of the language ties effect in the process of affecting China's population flow. (3) The effect of language ties is restricted by the law of spatial decay, and shows differences and complexity in different modes of transportation and periods. The paper expands the current research on the influencing factors of China's population flow from the perspective of economic, social and demographic characteristics, helps to understand the driving mechanism of China's population flow, and has practical significance for social governance and cultural diversity protection in multi-ethnic integrated China.
The historical evolution of administrative divisions is an important part of historical geography and political geography. The research of the change process of administrative units is the basis of the history of administrative divisions, and the restoration and analysis of the whole process of the evolution of administrative divisions over a long period of time in history is the basic support for exploring the law and governance ability of local administrative system change. Based on the original historical documents such as the official history and geographical records of past dynasties, this paper combs the characteristics of the long-term evolution process and spatial pattern change of China's county-level administrative units in the past 2200 years (221BC-2021). The research results show that: (1) The number of county-level administrative units in Chinese history generally shows an increasing trend, but the total number is basically stable. The Tang and the Qing dynasties had a large number of counties, reaching two peaks. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially since modern times, the number of county-level administrative units has continued to increase, which reflects the historical process of border development and county system expansion. (2) In the historical period, the scope of jurisdiction (the number of counties under the jurisdiction of administrative units that govern county) mainly shows a shrinking trend. The average number of counties under the jurisdiction of the administrative units that govern county decreased from 21.3 in the Qin Dynasty to 8.5 in 2021. (3) In the past 2200 years, the establishment of county-level administrative divisions shows a trend of spatial expansion, but there was partially inward contraction in the Xijin, Liao, Song and Jin dynasties. The counties in the historical periods mainly started from the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and gradually expanded outward. The density of counties within each region continued to increase. (4) The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (Henan, Southern Hebei, Shandong and other places) have long been high-density regions with counties. The density of counties in the Chengdu Plain, Guanzhong Basin and Fenhe River Basin is also relatively high. (5) In the past 2200 years, the center of gravity of county-level administrative divisions has changed by about 3° in the north-south and east-west directions, both of which are located to the southeast of the current geometric center of China. The changes in the center of gravity of the county-level administrative divisions in Chinese history is of great geographical significance, which is basically consistent with the migration process of the population / economic center of gravity in the historical periods.
County has long been the basic unit of national governance in China. Yet, only limited policy attention has been paid to counties. Recently, the central government proposed to carry out county-level urbanization to further deepen the people-centered new urbanization strategy. In this situation, counties need to provide enough jobs and decent income for rural emigrants. However, this is only the case for a small fraction of counties with prosperous local economies, and most of the rest counties need to enhance their industrial development to absorb the rural emigrants. Since China's industrialization process is largely influenced by the government, boundary adjustment, such as turning counties into urban districts, may also influence the local industrial development in various ways. Relying on the National Annual Survey of Industrial Firms Database (1998-2015), this paper constructs a county manufacturing industry dataset with 1110 counties and 376 four-digit level industries. With an Evolutionary Economic Geography approach, this paper explores the causal impacts of turning counties into districts on counties' manufacturing upgrading by employing difference in differences in differences method (DID). The empirical results show that, first, after turning counties into districts, counties have higher probabilities to enter more complex industries and exit less complex industries. And in both cases, the impacts of turning counties into districts has a time lag. Second, at the macro county level, turning counties into districts could benefit manufacturing upgrading through population agglomeration, economic development, infrastructure construction, and public service improvement; at the micro firm level, turning counties into districts could upgrade manufacturing industries by promoting output, intermediate inputs, profit, innovation, and tax reduction. Turning counties into districts has the largest impact on manufacturing upgrading in the eastern region and has negative impact in the central region. These findings could not only provide empirical support for the future implementation of turning counties into districts, but also enrich the institutional perspective of Evolutionary Economic Geography on regional industrial evolution.
The real-time interaction between human behavior and geographic context is becoming varied and dynamic. Understanding the interaction between human activity and environment has become a frontier in geographical research. Space-time prism provides a spatiotemporal integration method to understand the interaction, but its classical model is still a static model. In this study, we utilize the space-time prism model to investigate how individual decision-making relates to their potential activity space and real-time accessibility. We enhance the classical space-time prism model by introducing the concept of decision points, resulting in an improved conceptual model of real-time reachable space that accounts for both the real-time changes of environment and the dynamics of individual decisions. We apply time slices and isochronous circles to measure real-time reachable space quantitatively. Additionally, we propose a methodology for comparing real-time accessibility across different decision points to facilitate a detailed analysis of the real-time dynamics and accessibility of human behavior within geographic space. Furthermore, to expand the model's applicability under different real-world scenarios, we introduce a real-time reachable space model that considers specific path selection and time budget as input constraints. Dynamic measurement of an individual's real-time reachable space holds great potential for understanding how geographic space influences human behavior. By quantifying variations in real-time reachable space, we can gain valuable insights into the ways geographic factors shape individual behavior. These insights will greatly contribute to evaluating and optimizing facility and service resource allocation, thereby enhancing the fitness, support, and guidance of the geographic environment for individual behavior in the modern life.
The rapid expansion and accumulation of local government debt has become one of the critical and difficult issues affecting the sustainable development of regional economies and societies. Using economic and social attribute data such as county-level urban construction and investment bonds and public budget revenue and expenditure, this study employed methods such as spatial autocorrelation and Tobit model to investigate the spatio-temporal development characteristics and heterogeneous causes of public debt at the county level in China. The results show that: (1) From 2007 to 2020, the issuance amount of urban construction and investment bonds at the county level in China tended to expand, showing distinct characteristics of "policy debt" with obvious regional disparities and industry clusters. Throughout the study period, the distribution area of urban construction and investment bonds at the county level showed an expansion trend with clear spatial clustering characteristics, with hotspots and coldspots concentrated in the counties east of the Hu Huanyong Line. (2) Under the current local tax and levy system in China, grassroots financial operations in counties are facing challenges, among which fiscal pressure and development pressure are the key factors for the expansion of urban construction and investment bonds at the county level. (3) The proliferation mechanism of urban construction and investment bonds at the county level shows significant regional and sectoral differences. Fiscal pressure significantly encourages the proliferation of these bonds in underdeveloped districts, e.g. outside municipal jurisdictions and provincial capitals, development pressure particularly stimulates bond issuance in districts of the eastern region and districts within competitive urban clusters. Fiscal pressure has a negative impact on bond issuance in the real estate and infrastructure sectors, while development pressure favours bond issuance in the real estate and construction sectors. This study provides a new perspective for understanding the expansion of local government debt at the county level and serves as a reference for controlling the disorderly expansion of government debt at the county level and avoiding risks associated with local government debt.
The mutual empowerment and coordination of digital economy and green development is an inherent requirement for high-quality development. On the basis of deconstructing the coupling coordination mechanism of digital economy and green development, this paper analyzes the spatio-temporal characteristics of the coupling coordination between digital economy and green development in China, as well as the driving mechanism of spatial differences from 2010 to 2019 by using the vertical and horizontal scatter degree method, coupling coordination degree model, and quadratic assignment procedure (QAP). The results show that: (1) In terms of temporal evolution, the coordination degree of China's digital economy and green development has experienced a process of "reluctant coordination - primary coordination - intermediate coordination" during the investigation period, but high-quality coordinated development is far from being achieved, and most provinces are in the primary coordination stage characterized by the lagging digital economy. (2) In terms of spatial change, the spatial differences of coordination are obvious, showing an overall pattern of "multi-core" radiation, a "concave" interregional pattern of "eastern leading, central collapsing, and western catching up", as well as an evolution pattern of coordination levels of "highly coordinated transformation in eastern China, and imbalanced separation in central and western China". (3) In terms of spatial correlation, the regional coordination has gradually changed from "polarization effect" to "diffusion effect", and the spatial characteristics have changed from agglomeration to equilibrium. (4) In terms of spatial differences and decomposition, regional differences are the main source of overall differences in coordination degree. (5) Analysis of driving mechanism shows that narrowing regional differences in digital economy is the fundamental driving force to promote the coupling and coordination of digital economy and green development, while the narrowing of external differences such as economic development, industrial structure and technological innovation fails to play a positive role.
The border issue holds significant importance in China-India relations, persistently hampering their development. Existing scholarship tends to interpret the causes of China-India border disputes through lenses of colonization, history, security and third-party involvement. However, these approaches overlook the complex power dynamics within the state which regards the border as the tools. To comprehensively explore the new-round China-India border dispute since May 2020, this paper cites the thought and methods of critical geopolitics, applies discourse analysis of geopolitical imaginations, and proposes a novel perspective that analyzes the border dispute in terms of the synergetic role of multiple actors. The findings indicate that: (1) The border dispute can be considered as tools or resources for multiple actors to achieve their goals or interests through jointly constructing geopolitical discourses and imaginations related to border disputes; (2) Based on Indian mainstream media news from April 2020 to March 2021, the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress Party, the military, Ministry of External Affairs and the business and social elites in India have utilized the border conflicts as tools and resources to pursue political and economic interests through three forms of geopolitical imagination: paranoid style, intimate metaphor and moral resistance, thereby exacerbating the dispute; (3) The border dispute from May 2020 to February 2021 is regarded as a continuous process exploited by Indian multi-actors, which means that the conflicts, like the confrontation in Pangong Lake, occurred when the multi-actors' interests were not yet secured, but tend to subside once their interests are largely met. In this regard, China should rationally understand the periodic and persistent nature of China-India border disputes and actively build complementary and cooperative structures between the two countries through positive methods like "appreciative inquiry" which may effectively mitigate or resolve border disputes.
Standing at the new starting point of the comprehensive promotion of common prosperity, tourism has played a substantial role in industrial poverty alleviation. It has helped to consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation in post-poverty areas. Tourism has effectively connected these areas to rural revitalization efforts. In this context, it becomes critical to examine the adaptive relationship between tourism urbanization and residents' happiness levels, particularly in typical backward areas with abundant tourism resources. Such an examination is important for solidifying the progress of poverty alleviation, driving rural revitalization, and ultimately fostering common prosperity. By understanding the dynamics between tourism urbanization and residents' happiness, both policymakers and stakeholders can formulate targeted strategic plans. These plans can fully leverage the potential of tourism as a catalyst for sustainable development and inclusive growth, ultimately aiding both local communities and the broader society. This paper constructs a theoretical framework of adaptability between tourism urbanization and residents' happiness level. The methods of sequence matching degree, geographical detector model, and mediating effect model are adopted to examine the spatio-temporal evolution and mechanism of adaptability of Western Hunan from 2007 to 2021. The results show that: (1) The overall mean of adaptability between tourism urbanization and residents' happiness level is 0.417, which is barely adaptable to increases at different phases. This result indicates the existence of a large gap in Western Hunan and a certain Matthew effect. (2) Adaptability is characterized by a spatial pattern of Yongding district, Wulingyuan district, Jishou city, and Fenghuang county at the center. It is high in the north and low in the south of the study area and presents a balanced development pattern from center to the edge with center districts taking the lead. Districts and counties with high adaptation should fully play their leading roles in promoting balanced regional development. (3) Quality tourism resources are among the dominant driving factors. Tourism urbanization and residents' happiness level are consistent with adaptability in high- and low-adaptive areas. Adaptive areas are horizontally aggregated. Tourism urbanization and residents' happiness level have social governance as the main adaptive path and distributive justice as the secondary adaptive path. This research provides insights into the geography of tourism to enhance residents' happiness levels. Scientific references and real case studies are presented to aid the formulation of differentiated measures in tourism urbanization development. By disclosing the spatio-temporal evolution and mechanism of adaptability, this study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between tourism urbanization and residents' well-being. The results can aid the sustainable development and promote common prosperity in the region.
The rural tourism is an important industrial carrier and key industrial path for implementing the strategy of the rural revitalization and innovation-driven development in the new era, and promoting rural economy and society in China to achieve high-quality innovative development. The iterative development of rural tourism formats has reconstructed the rural economic and social forms and reshaped the nature of rural space. The continuous emergence of new industries and new formats has promoted the re-transformation of rural production functions, and the spatial innovation factors and resource allocation have broken through regional restrictions, giving feedback and enabling the development of rural tourism innovation. In foundation of criticizing and inheriting Schumpeter's innovation theory, this study interprets the connotation and characteristics of the rural tourism innovation, builds a rural tourism innovation system with "one core" and "five supports", and looks into future key areas of China's rural tourism innovation research. The results indicate that firstly the rural tourism has experienced the innovative development processes from scratch with gradual exploration and from weak to strong, which has the characteristics of times, integration and regionalism. Secondly, in the rural tourism innovation system, the format innovation is the core representation form and material space carrier of rural tourism innovation along with the institutional innovation as the start point for the top-level design and logic, the financial innovation as the solid foundation and power support, technological innovation as an important engine and breakthrough force, organizational innovation as the key support and effective guarantee, and social innovation as realistic path and core drive. Finally, the research framework of the rural tourism innovation is constructed from the perspectives of theoretical system, practice pattern, evolution process, dynamic mechanism, and optimization countermeasures to expect the important knowledge contribution and theoretical guidance for understanding, elaborating, and exploring the occurrence, succession, and innovative development of rural tourism, in pace with the effective guidance and decision-making basis for the innovative practice and management of rural tourism under the situation of China.
Common prosperity is the essential requirement of Chinese path to modernization, and high-quality development is the fundamental way to achieve common prosperity. And tourism has many advantages in the process of realizing common prosperity, such as its natural attribute of enriching people and its characteristics of adjusting income distribution. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore the impact of tourism high-quality development on common prosperity. However, there are few empirical studies on the impact of tourism on common prosperity, and even fewer on the spatial spillover effect of tourism on common prosperity from the perspective of high-quality development. Therefore, based on the panel data of Chinese 262 prefecture-level cities, this paper uses the entropy method, spatial autocorrelation analysis and spatial econometric model to measure the spatio-temporal evolution of the level of tourism high-quality development and common prosperity, and tests the direct effect and spatial spillover effect of the impact of tourism high-quality development on common prosperity and its four dimensions (development, commonality, sharing and sustainability). The results show that: (1) Both tourism development and common prosperity show an increasing trend year by year, but both the differences between cities are increasing. Tourism development and common prosperity in most cities have not exceeded the overall average, and the overall development level is low. (2) Tourism development and common prosperity have high spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the Beijing-Tianjin region and Yangtze River Delta are the common high-value agglomeration areas of tourism development and common prosperity. Common prosperity has obvious characteristics of "high administrative level driving". (3) There is a significant positive spatial correlation between tourism development and common prosperity, but it showed a decreasing trend over time. The number of H-H and L-L cities gradually decreased, H-L cities increased, and L-H cities remained basically unchanged. (4) Tourism development has significant positive direct effect and spatial spillover effect on common prosperity, and the intensity (total effect) sequence of tourism development on dimensions of common prosperity is as follows: development > sustainability > sharing > commonality. (5) The effect of tourism development and common prosperity showed obvious regional heterogeneity, among which the direct effect order is: west> central> east, south> north. At the same time, the western region has a negative spillover effect, while the southern region shows a positive spillover effect.
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), stemming from the social practices of communities, groups, or individuals, is intrinsically linked to specific locales. The dynamic interplay of globalization and localization has significantly expanded the material, conceptual, and symbolic dimensions of ICH, pushing its boundaries beyond their origins. The study explores the dyeing and finishing techniques of Gambiered Canton Gauze (Xiangyunsha) in the Pearl River Delta, examining both the tangible products and their representation within three apparel companies. By analyzing data from diverse sources, this study uncovers how brands' positions within translocal networks establish norms and scaling strategies, forging multiple ICH narratives. Each of the three brands incorporates Xiangyunsha into its design. The first, a local enterprise, demarcates an exclusive domain of heritage. Through its localization strategy, the brand's owner aligns her local identity with this heritage domain, claiming right to interpret and steward its authenticity, leveraging local elements such as history, climate, resources, and culture as a competitive advantage in marketing. The second enterprise employs a multiple localization strategy, engaging with local, regional, and global assets to advance brand development. Though not a native brand, it has established significant partnerships with local authorities to safeguard heritage, positioning it as a global eco-conscious fashion icon and achieving scale-jumping. The third brand, founded by a Western designer with international experience and an ecletic artistic sensibility, along with her Chinese husband, follows a hybrid localization strategy. Operating from China's capital, rather than the heartland of Xiangyunsha production, the brand weaves ICH practices into the global cultural fabric. This approach results in a mosaic that mirrors current cosmopolitan values, enriched by an ongoing influx of innovative ideas, discourse, and knowledge. This study discerns that scales within ICH practices are interconnected, presenting a non-hierarchical relationship. It posits that the sense of locality and place in ICH is fluid and contextual, shaped by a web of connections forged through ICH practice.
It has been approved that academic life path and discipline tree techniques developed by time geographers are effective methods to examine academic thoughts and related activity characteristics for scientists. This paper utilized the techniques to explore the personal academic history of Professor Wang Enyong (1927-2023), the former vice president of the Geographical Society of China and a faculty member of College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, who had rich life experience, a wide range of research interests, and plenty of academic writings in his life span of 95 years. On the statistical basis of his 192 papers and books which could be accessed from Internet and libraries from 1954 to 2019, the research findings are as follows: (1) It could be seen from the academic life path curve that the distribution of the number of Wang's works in the timeline showed the peaks off to the right. This reflected not only Wang's personal life growth path, but also the development pulse of contemporary Chinese politics, economy, culture and other fields. (2) According to academic life path table, the changes of Wang's academic disciplines distributed in the timeline could be further divided into four periods: the period of physical geography under the influence of the Soviet Union, the period of research stagnation and exploration, the period of multi-field exploration dominated by cultural and political geography, and the period of socialization and promotion of geography, which demonstrated both the shifts of Wang's personal research interests and the development trajectory of the whole Chinese geography in the past 70 years. (3) The integrated discipline tree displayed Wang's personal academic system, which included three levels of disciplinary relations: basic scientific research composed of geography, environmental science and pedagogy; in-depth research of human geography consisting of cultural geography, political geography and tourism geography; research on applied geography comprised of tourism planning, urban planning and environmental planning. The core academic graph displayed his representative research centered on the analysis main line of human-environment interactions in the fields of cultural geography and political geography. The discipline tree outlined the entire landscape of the academic community Wang managed throughout his life, together with the core academic graph revealing his profound academic influence till the end of the world.
