Beautiful China construction (BCC) is of fundamental importance for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation and a Chinese practice of the 2030 UN sustainable development agenda. The Chinese government has made strategic arrangements for the BCC with a five-pronged approach. President Xi Jinping proposed the schedule and roadmap for the BCC at the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference. But at present, the theoretical basis, evaluation index system, evaluation criteria and construction effect of the BCC are not clear. This paper puts forward the basic connotation of the BCC from a broad and narrow perspective, regards the theory of man-earth harmony and Five-dimensional integration as the core theoretical basis of the BCC, and further constructs the evaluation index system of the BCC, which includes five dimensions: ecological environment, green development, social harmony, institutional improvement and cultural heritage, and uses the United Nations human development index (HDI) evaluation method to scientifically evaluate the construction effect of 341 prefecture-level cities (states) in China in 2016. The results show that the average value of the BCC Index (Zhongke Beauty Index) is 0.28, which is generally at a low level. The average of the sub-indexes of the ecological environment beauty index, the green development beauty index, the social harmony beauty index, the system perfect beauty index and the cultural heritage beauty index are respectively 0.6, 0.22, 0.29, 0.22, and 0.07. The sub-index values are all low, and the regional development is quite different, which indicates that the construction process of Beautiful China is generally slow and unbalanced. In order to implement the schedule and roadmap for the BCC with high quality and high standards, it is recommended that we construct and publish a general evaluation system for the BCC process, carry out dynamic monitoring and phased comprehensive evaluation of the BCC process, compile and publish the evaluation standards for BCC technology, do a good job in the comprehensive zoning of Beautiful China, carry out pilot projects for the construction of Beautiful China's model areas according to local conditions, and incorporate the achievements of Beautiful China into the assessment indicators of all levels of government.
Since the reform and opening up, China's rapid urbanization has boosted the development of economy and society, but it is also confronted with tremendous challenges. The multidisciplinary research has promoted the issue of National New-type Urbanization Planning, which indicates the transformation of China's urbanization strategy. Further research, however, is needed to explore the theoretical construction of China's new-type urbanization. The paper summarizes the development process of China's urbanization and points out its characteristics, which includes peri-urbanization, special national conditions, complicated factors and governance system. China's urbanization makes a great contribution to the world. Moreover, the literature demonstrates the significance of urbanization to the discipline of human and economic geography and the scientific connotations of new-type urbanization, which refers to peiple-oriented, harmonious, inclusive and sustainable. Under the background of the humanism transformation, new-type urbanization should transform from population urbanization to people-oriented urbanization. There are six crucial scientific issues: people-oriented urbanization and equalization of basic public services, urbanization with integrated and coordinated development of urban and rural, urbanization in the context of resources and environment carrying capability and climate change, diverse regional modes, spatial effect and mechanism, as well as big data and innovation of technical methods. The paper makes efforts to illustrate a framework of China's new-type urbanization connotation, which provides references for theoretical research and policy formulation.
Spatial correlation is the link of regional interaction and influence; the urbanization spatial correlation is spatial relationship of urbanization based on population flow, which influences and continuously adjusts the regional economic and social development pattern in China. By analyzing the change of the spatial correlation intensity and the spatial correlation network of provincial urbanization in China during 1990-2015, this paper reveals the spatial correlation characteristics, formation process and influencing factors of China's provincial urbanization since China's reform and opening up. The results show that: (1) 7 types of spatial correlation intensity are identified in the evolution of provincial urbanization of China, among which the dominant type has the highest degree of coincidence with the whole country, and determines the evolution process of the spatial correlation intensity of urbanization in China. The non-dominant types of urbanization spatial correlation intensity evolution feature 2005 as the critical year, and their growth was slow or even negative before the year; then together with the dominant type, they have promoted a continuous increase in the urbanization spatial correlation intensity across the country. (2) Urbanization spatial correlation network structure characteristics are analyzed from national, regional and provincial scales. The structure of the spatial correlation network of urbanization is becoming more and more complicated, and the correlation paths have shifted from centralized to scattered. The differences in the correlation density between regional subgroups with different attributes have begun to shrink, and the high-level nodes have spread from the eastern to the central and western regions. (3) Further, the panel-vector auto-regression and panel quantile regression are used to test the interaction mechanism between urbanization spatial correlation intensity and correlation network centrality, which explains the effect of residents' income level and regional industrial structure on urbanization spatial correlation characteristics. The specialization of urbanization spatial correlation not only deepens the research on urbanization theory and methodology, but also provides a theoretical basis for the development of population urbanization and the adjustment of industrial space in China.
Clarifying the spatial pattern of population distribution, its influencing factors and regional differences at the township level is of great guiding significance for formulating sustainable development policies in ecologically fragile areas. Based on the population census data of Tibet at the township level in 2010, the population density and spatial factors were extracted. The density and clustering characteristics of the population distribution were analyzed by spatial statistical method. The multiple linear regression method and the random forest regression method were used to explore the population influencing factors and their regional differences of population distribution. The results showed that: (1) The population density of Tibet at the township level showed a strong spatial non-equilibrium. The general trend was high in the southeast and low in the northwest, and there was a strong spatial coupling between the main rivers and the main traffic trunks in high density area. (2) The "core-edge" characteristic of population clustering was obvious, and roughly to the wave of Borong (Nyalam County)-Gangni (Anduo County) as the demarcation line. (3) In the multiple linear regression method, the artificial surface index had the greatest influence on the population distribution, followed by the nighttime light index and road network density. (4) Random forest method was more accurate than multiple linear regression method to predict the population density, which can be used to sort the importance of the influencing factors. The influencing factors of the first six factors were the night light index, artificial surface index, road network density, industrial output value, GDP and multi-year average temperature, and these factors were positively correlated with population density. Among topographic factors, the contribution rate of elevation and slope was the largest, which was negatively correlated with population density. (5) The influencing factors and their interactions of population distribution in Tibet showed obvious regional differences. The valley was a gathering area for population in the study region, mainly in Lhasa River Valley, Nianchu River Valley and Sanjiang River Valley. (6) Through the analysis of random forest regression, the conceptual model can be used to express the influencing factors of population distribution, and the dominant factors were summarized as land use structure, road accessibility and urbanization level.
At present, there is a consistency that the focus of urban system research has shifted from the hierarchical to network paradigm. Based on an extensive review of existing studies, this paper investigates the shift of paradigm of China's urban system research since the 1980s, and discusses the development situation, main problems, and key topics of related research on urban network. The results show that: (1) After 2010, the amount of literature about urban network has increased dramatically and become the mainstream of urban system research, while the number of studies on the hierarchy system decreased. And the existing studies mainly focus on the urban system at national level and in the Yangtze River Delta. (2) The attribute data to a certain extent compensate for the lack of data in the early urban network research. Meanwhile, although the gravity model was widely used in these studies, its suitability is gradually decreasing. (3) In contrast, the relationship data have attracted scholars' attention, which is mainly applied to the urban system research from three perspectives: enterprise organization, traffic flow and information flow. However, due to the limitations of different perspectives, a comprehensive research on multiple perspectives has gradually become imperative. (4) The identification analysis has been the dominant theme of urban network research. Visualization analysis and design for urban system is mainly supported by directed unprivileged networks and undirected weighted networks. (5) Five important aspects of urban network research in future include adjusting the research framework of national urban network, examining the physical connections between cities directly without traffic data, measuring the horizontal linkages between the outside enterprises, analyzing and visualizing the directed weighted network research, and intensifying the geospatial characteristics of urban network research.
Based on the data of Chinese enterprises that entered the Fortune 500 list in 2015, this paper uses the eclectic model to construct the inter-city association network. Using the network analysis method, the spatial connection characteristics of 311 inter-city networks at prefecture level and above and 20 urban agglomerations networks in China are examined respectively. The research found that: (1) The overall connectivity of urban network is poor, the centripetal concentration is strong, and the network is not complete. The urban network connection shows a strong tendency of political center cities directivity, coastal cities directivity as well as resource-based cities directivity. The external economic dependence of each node city in the urban network is high, and the urban network structure has obvious flattening characteristics. The network of urban agglomerations is characterized by decentralization of power, differentiation of status and dependence on external connections. (2) The boundary effect of provinces, urban agglomerations and urban agglomerations clubs in the urban network is significant. The network evolution process is influenced by the provincial administrative district economy, the urban agglomerations economy and the urban agglomerations club economy. The size and number of central cities in the region and its surrounding areas have an impact on the provincial administrative district economy, the city agglomerations economy and the urban agglomerations club economy. (3) The function of cities is obviously divided in a multi-scale network. The large cities and regional central cities have a complete and more balanced function system than the small and medium-sized cities do. The radiation effect of three major urban agglomerations in coastal China is significant, while the dominant function of other urban agglomerations needs to be strengthened. (4) The cross-scale regional functional interaction effect of cities (clusters) is significant. The radiation-driven function of cities (clusters) is positively related to their self-agglomeration capabilities. This study provides support for the understanding of urban network model expansion and the spatial relation of urban network in China.
China's Major Function Zoning, a prospective map comprehensively envisioning China's future conservation and development pattern, actually tells how urbanization areas, agricultural development areas and ecological security areas coordinate and evolve together to maintain the territorial development order in China, right in accordance with certain principles and rules. In this paper, the overall pattern and internal differences of the core-periphery structure are gauged by a feature point-axis-area-vector method in the proportion of the three areas, with an analysis in physiographical spatial differentiation, socio-economic spatial organization and interactions between the function zones. The result shows that the core-periphery structure is prevalent in all provinces of China: the local proportions of urbanization areas, agricultural development areas and ecological security areas follow a circling layer pattern spatially differentiated against the distances to the regional core, while the structure is complicated by differences in core location, axis direction, function attribute of edge area and internal function proportion. Through analysis of relevant factors, it can be concluded that the core-periphery structure of major function zones develops out of combined effects of physiographical spatial differentiation, socio-economic spatial organization and regional spatial connection. The core-periphery of the provinces of western China is greatly influenced by the main physiographical boundaries, while that of the eastern plains is primarily affected by existing urban system structure, socio-economic layout, and inter-regional connection strength. Where the natural geographical constraint is weaker, local socio-economic development and regional spatial connection affect the region more significantly.
Research on spatial patterns of financial services industry based on microcosmic financial enterprises layout data has recently become a hot topic for financial geographers. Employing the social network analysis and GIS tools, this paper investigates the evolution of China's financial network at the metropolitan scale in the last decades from the perspective of subdivision industry. Based on the longitudinal office distribution data of top financial enterprises in banking, insurance, and security during 1995 to 2015, the evolution pattern of China's financial network is explored from the aspects of spatial difference, spatial process, and spatial interaction. The results indicate that: (1) from the perspectives of banking and insurance, the spatial distribution of headquarter enterprises is relatively centralized and the financial network is relatively sparse within most urban agglomerations of central and western China. However, from the perspective of security, the headquarter enterprises are scattered in most urban agglomerations, but they have undergone frequent replacement. (2) From the perspectives of banking and insurance, the high-level financial network between urban agglomerations is relatively dense; however, the financial connections between urban agglomerations are more likely to be at a low level from the perspective of security. Besides the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which are well-known as core codes, other core nodes of banking and insurance are concentrated in coastal regions and hinterlands respectively, whereas other core nodes of security are evenly distributed in various areas. (3) The discrepancies in financial resources attraction and headquarters finance development among urban agglomerations in different industry perspectives are different in terms of both size and changing tendency. The difference among urban agglomerations from the perspective of security is the largest in financial resources attraction, but is the minimum in headquarters finance development. (4) The differences in geographic concentration, market concentration, and the main factors influencing industrial development among different industries are main reasons for the difference in the evolution pattern of the urban agglomeration financial network in different industry perspectives.
In recent years, urbanization has been attached an increasing importance in China's overall development strategies. Migrants' settlement intention in cities has played an important role in affecting the urbanization trend in China. In such a context, both scholars and policy makers have increasingly attempted to understand the settlement intention of migrants in China. However, few studies so far have examined the role of migrants' access to urban public services in affecting their settlement intention from the perspective of different-sized cities. Based on the data from "the 2016 national dynamic monitoring survey of migrant population" in Shanghai Municipality and Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces, this paper aims to address this issue. We utilize a composite index consisting of three dimensions to measure migrants' settlement intention, namely the long-term residence intention, the hukou transfer intention, and the urban housing purchase intention. We divide urban public services into two types, namely employment-related public services and social (non-employment) public services. The paper then explores the differences in the supply of the two types of urban public services and their impacts on migrants' urban settlement intention of different-sized cities. The results show that the bigger the size of a city is, the greater the likelihood that migrants get access to urban pubic services and the higher their level of urban settlement intention is. Migrants with easier access to the urban public services are more likely to settle down in cities. Through the ordered logistic regression model analysis, we also find that, after controlling for the effects of individual characteristics, family features, and migration characteristics, the two types of urban public services provided by cities for migrants have played a critical role in affecting migrants' urban settlement intention. However, the impacts of access to urban public services on migrants' urban settlement intention are different among different-sized cities. This is reflected in the following facts. First, migrants with easier access to unemployment insurance, medical insurance and housing security are more likely to settle down in cities, but this positive effect is limited to large cities. Second, in all size cities, migrants who are more likely to be covered by resident health records and receive more health education are more likely to settle down in cities. Finally, in small cities, only those covered by resident health records and receiving more health education have great effects on urban settlement intention.
The housing and employment system in urban China has experienced profound transformations in the late 1980s and 1990s. Thus, individual daily behavior and its trajectory in life process have been reshaped and changed. However, previous studies barely focused on the feedback interaction of home-work behavior among different generations, especially beyond Chinese policy transition. Based on the intergenerational difference theory and the perspective of time geography, this paper combines individual jobs-housing course and inter-generational issue to analyze the spatio-temporal characteristics and structural differences of living and working behavior among different generations. These generations were born either before the reform of employment and housing system in 1988 or after in 1998. Through the analysis of the questionnaire, the main results are as follows. (1) Considering the migration of residence, all generations tend to move out from the old city area, and the migration of work places surrounds two city centers, forming a transition process from core area of old city to the suburbs. (2) The average commuting distance increased from 4.91 km to 6.46 km, while the work places and residences of post-1990s' changes much more than those of other age groups, who have suffered higher jobs-housing separation. (3) The commercialization and socialization of housing have greatly increased the freedom of individual residence and job choices after removing residents' house restrictions. In 1998-2016, the rates of post-1960s' and post-1970s' housing change increased to 113.16% and 112.33%, while the rates of their employment place change increased to 148.68% and 197.26%, which are higher compared with before housing reform. (4) The residence time decrease obviously due to the mobility of occupation, with a most obvious change among post-1960s from 14.43 years before 1988 to 5.43 years after 1998. Besides, and the staying in employment place decreased from 12.43 years to 3.95 years. The staying time of post-1980s and post-1990s was much shorter as well after 1988 while that of post-1970s was relatively long. (5) The influences of housing price, marital status, education, welfare house and laid-off status, etc. in capability constraints, coupling constraints and authority constraints are different among different generations on both living and working place migration. However, children's attendance at school and colleagues relationship in combined constraints have no significant different influences between groups on working place migration.
National unification is a crucial issue for regional stability and national rejuvenation, which is, however, out sight of the mainstream geographers in China. In fact, human geography has a more comprehensive and systematic theoretical framework for interpreting the process of national unification than political science and law studies have, especially due to the rapid rise of political geography. This paper aims to probe into the mechanism and implications of national unification based on a series of theoretical establishments, such as state sovereignty, geopolitics, post colonialism, and new imperialism. We attempt to deconstruct the process of national unification into three-dimensional restructuring of space, namely, geo-political relationship, capital space, and cultural identification. The case of Germany's unification in 1990 represents the process of unification after the collapse of the Berlin wall, which can be regarded, first, as a result of upheaval of international political pattern, say, the end of the Cold War, due to the decline of the former Soviet Union while the rise of neoliberal capitalists. Second, the unification of Germany is a durable process that takes place in economic integration between West and East Germany, during which the capitalist imperialism has been playing an invisible role in speeding up barbarous expansion of capital. Third, the cultural imperialism that has permeated into the people's ideology and perception of state has been chronically influencing the formation of the identity as "one Germany".
At the same time as the gentrification movement has increasingly become a mean of urban renewal in some cities around the world, the connotation of the gentrification theory has been greatly enriched, and it has attracted the attention by different disciplines such as geography, planning, and management. In particular, with the rise of the cultural and creative industries in the 1990s, the renovation of old industrial zones led by creative parks has become one of the most important strategies for urban renewal, industrial upgrading and urban marketing, similar to the Western society's gentrification. And how to analyze the logic behind this phenomenon and reveal the dynamic mechanism of gentrification in the old industrial districts has become a research hotspot and difficulty in the study of gentrification and urban planning in the 21st century. In this article the Ningbo Hefeng Creative Plaza was chosen as case, questionnaires and interview data were used and the rooted theory and structural equation model were applied to construct and verify the dynamic mechanism of gentrification in the old industrial districts covering space production, push-pull mode and creative clusters. The findings can be concluded here: (1) The creative restoration process of Hefeng Creative Plaza presents a typical gentrification phenomenon, with characteristics of the openness and multi-landscape dominated by high-end office buildings, privatization of thesettled enterprises, the characteristics of creative production factors and the externalization of production relations, as well as group characteristics of younger population, feelings of creativity and service-oriented, creativity and service-oriented. (2) The phenomenon of gentrification in Hefeng Creative Plaza is a social space replacement formed by the push-pull method under the production of space in the old industrial districts. That is, spatial fix is dominated by the production and reproduction relationships linked by capital, power, and creativity; The material space creation and creative practice of architectural planners and creative class form a spatial representation; Spatial representation promotes the endogenous development and evolution of creative clusters, catalyzes cultural consensus and identity based on cultural, ideal and emotional experiences, and sublimates into a representational space. the Logical path of "sensual recognition of local elements → rational constraints of capital elements and relationship forces → coordination of local elements, capital elements and relationship forces → feedback of relationship forces" has been formed, which has activated the spatial evolution of the old industrial areas. (3) The development of Hefeng Creative Cluster depends on the interaction of cultural atmosphere, office environment, economic location, government policy and social relationship network.
The interprovincial geographical entities are the key areas of Targeted Poverty Alleviation and the regional integrated management. Based on the geographical names dictionary, the thematic maps and the atlas of provincial administrative boundaries of China, we established a database of interprovincial physical geographical names (ITPGN) and analyzed the spatial pattern of the ITPGN from the aspects of numerical features, spatial variance and spatial association. The problems and the impacts of the separate management of the interprovincial geographical entities were further discussed and four suggestions were offered accordingly. There were 11325 ITPGN including 4243 water ITPGN and 7082 terrain ITPGN in China. Hunan Province had the largest number of the names, and Shanghai had the smallest number. In addition, the spatial variance of the terrain ITPGN was larger than that of the water ITPGN, and the ITPGN showed a significant agglomeration phenomenon in the southern part of China. Regional terrain and population were important factors influencing the spatial patterns of ITPGN. The largest number of ITPGN was found in areas where the relative elevation was between 1000-2000 meters, and where the population was between 40-50 million. The separate management led to apparent differences in the development goals, development patterns, and management modes in the different parts of the same interprovincial physical geographical entities. These problems would reduce the efficiency of resources utilization, affect the integrity of natural reserves, hinder the cultural exchange and intensify socioeconomic differences among different parts. It was suggested that the government should explore unified management mechanism for interprovincial physical geographical entities, establish special organizations directly under the central government to manage the interprovincial entities, build up interprovincial cooperation zones to realize coordinated development of the interprovincial areas, and take the interprovincial physical geographical entities as unified units for the application of national parks or other protected areas.
Taking 342 cities in China as an example, this paper explores the spatial correlation between haze (PM2.5) and tourism flows, as well as analyzes the impact of haze on tourism flows and the spatial spillover effects from 1998 to 2016 by using bivariate LISA (Local Indications of Spatial Association) Model and Spatial Panel Dubin Model. The results show that the spatial distribution patterns of haze (PM2.5) pollution and tourism growth in China are both high in the eastern region and low in the western region, showing some regularity related to the factors, such as terrain and urban development on both sides of Hu Huanyong population line. Haze and tourism flows (including domestic tourism flows and inbound tourism flows) show both significant spatial agglomeration and spatial dependence during the study period, indicating that haze pollution has great spatial effect on tourism flows. The area where haze curbs tourism flows is expanding. The increase in the number of HL (High-Low) -type cities, the expansion of LH (Low-High) -type agglomeration area and the hollow phenomenon of LH-type agglomeration that appear in north and central China all show that tourists tend to travel to the cities with low haze pollution. The inverted U-shape curve relationship between haze pollution and tourism flows illustrates that the classical Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is suitable for tourism growth in the cities of China. The negative impact of haze on inbound tourism flows is significant. Both haze pollution and tourism flows have positive spatial spillover effects. Combining haze management with other measures, such as economic development, tourism development, ecological protection, traffic construction, we can create a beautiful environment for tourism development and achieve a healthy, coordinated and sustainable high-quality development of international and domestic tourism.
The 2018 International Geographical Union Regional Conference was held on August 6 to 10, in Quebec City, Canada. "Appreciating Difference" is the theme of the conference. This session is the largest conference in Canada's geography-related conferences, attracting more than 1,500 experts and scholars around the world to gather in Quebec City to discuss the latest developments in geography. The current development of international geography advocates the concept of geography education that respects differences, emphasizes the coupling of social-natural systems in change and difference, pays attention to the innovative academic value of geographic information science, and focuses on the integration of globalization and regional development. The enlightenment to Chinese scholars is mainly reflected in: Grasping the development trend of geographical diversity; developing comprehensive theories and methods based on interdisciplinary research; reshaping geography education to promote global differentiation and diversification. As an important result of the working meeting of the International Geographical Union and its members' representatives, a new member of the executive committee was elected, and academician Bojie Fu? was formally appointed vice chairman of the International Geographical Union.
