Foundation and application of background trend line of China’s inbound tourism

Modern inbound tourism in China has been developing for 20 years, a trend line of inbound tourists in statistical data began to show. This paper introduces the concept of tourism background trend line, and explores its two functions as a barometer in demonstrating fluctuation in the tourism economy and as a forecaster in forecasting tourism development. The tourism background trend line is a new concept, the word “background” derived from environment science, refers to the “trend line” which reflects the dynamic curve or dynamic equation of tourism development without considering the impact of unexpected incidents. The introduction of this concept was inspired by Karl Marx’s comments on the relation between value and price. Tourism background trend line reflects the summary of multiple factors involving tourism resources, tourism demand, population growth, the scale and speed of economic development, and the spatial interaction between tourism origins and destimations. It demonstrates the natural and stable trend and the temporal law of tourism development in a country or region. The tourism statistical curve is at random, susceptible to disruptions and disturbances from serious political, economic and environmental happenings, but it always fluctuates around the background line. Tourism background line can reveal the potential of a country’s tourism development. Compared with the statistical line, it can be used as a “barometer” indicating ups and downs of tourism industry in the past. When naturally extended, the background trend line also can be used for forecasting the trend of tourism development in future. In this paper, 4 tourism background trend lines of China’s inbound tourists, i. e. foreign tourists, Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan tourists, overseas Chinese tourists and total tourists from abroad, were established with statistical data from 1978 to 1996. And the impacts of the Political Event in 1989 (or Tiananmen Square Incident) on China’s inbound tourism were evaluated. The result shows that the impact of the Event was not limited within one year, but it stretched over 3 years. The total loss was 20 million in tourist arrivals and $1620 million in foreign currency income. The paper also studied the trend of China’s inbound tourism in the next 4 years. Foundation item: Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China. Brography: SUN Gen-nian(1961 —), male, a native of Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, master of science, associate professor. His research interests include environment science, geography modeling and MIS for tourism.     

Regional structure of capital market of foreign direct investment in China’s mainland

Since China’s reform and open-door, the countries and regions of direct investment in China’s mainland have been increasing. In 1995, the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China was US$ 37.81 billion that was from more than 170 countries and regions. The regional structure of capital market of FDI in China has three characteristics: (1) The most of FDI was from the near countries or regions, Hong Kong-Macao, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia provided 80.3% of the amount of FDI in 1995. (2) Only several countries and regions provided most of FDI in China. (3) According to the contributory rate, the main capital market of FDI in China could be divided into four classes, including the guiding market, subsidiary market, new and development market, opportunity market. Most of FDI in China was from the developing countries and regions, which had a negative effect on the size and technical level of foreign capital enterprises. The author puts forward the countermeasures to improve the regional structure of capital market: (1) to keep the guiding market stable, (2) to open up chiefly the subsidiary market, (3) to guide actively the new and developing market, (4) to try hard to start the opportunity market.     

Tourism resource assessment and spatial analysis of wine tourism development: a case study of the eastern foothills of China’s Helan Mountains

The reasonable development and utilization of mountainous regions closely relates to local economic development and ecological security. The wine production region in the eastern foothills of the Helan Mountains in Ningxia, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, with its excellent terroir, is emerging as one of China’s three major geographical attractions. Based on surveys of tourism resources and spatial analysis for this wine producing region, we propose a highly representative and practicable path for wine tourism development. Based on China’s national standard in Classification, Investigation and Evaluation of Tourism Resources (GB/T 18972-2003), which recommended the types and grades of tourism resources in one area, we conduct an analysis of resource characteristics and the current state of development. Using ArcGIS software, spatial autocorrelation analysis, average nearest neighbor analysis, as well as clustering and outlier analysis, we are able to derive the spatial distribution characteristics of tourism resources. Our survey showed that tourism resources in this area are relatively abundant and have good quality and clear combination advantages. Nonetheless, there are resources shortage for wine tourism and poor integration of wine production with the tourism industry. Regarding the spatial distribution of resources, we revealed the current states of and issues surrounding regions with concentrated resources, as well as characteristics of this clustering. Finally, we proposed a development path for wine tourism in this region based on the five dimensions of management mode, industrial path, product development, spatial optimization, and market development.     

Applicability and prospect of China’s development zone model in Africa

Development zones have been an important spatial approach to promoting economic development since China's reform and opening-up. They have also been major contributors to the processes of China's industrialization and urbanization. Along with improvements in the worldwide industrial division of labor and the gradual implementation of China's development zones' Go Global strategy, it is necessary for Africa, a hot spot of global industrialization in recent years, to learn from China's development zone model. By attracting China's capital, technology and enterprises to Africa via Sino-African co-built development zones, a pattern of high complementarity and mutual development between China and Africa can be formed which does favor further improvement of the global industrial division of labor. In order to study the applicability and prospect of China's development zone model in Africa as per the above-mentioned international situation, this paper first sorts out the development course of China's development zones and discusses their roles in China's industrialization and urbanization. Subsequently, this paper analyzes the status quo of industrial development in Africa as a whole and the differences in industrial development between China and Africa, aiming to justify the timing of industrial transfer from China to Africa by constructing Sino-African co-built development zones. Lastly, this paper analyzes the current situation of six Sino-African co-built development zones by focusing on their operation modes, industry types and investment promotion models. In the authors' view, Sino-African co-built development zones can function as a new window of China-African cooperation, a new carrier of African industrialization, and a new engine of global industrial restructuring. China should adhere to the general principles of ‘Sino-African Integration, Multi-Cooperation, Mutual Benefit, Scientific Location, Systematic Planning, Cluster Growth and Open Development' in the planning and construction of development zones in Africa, effectively promoting Africa as the very important part of the global industry system.     

The present situation, types and changes of China’s environment

Based on development level of regional society and economy, the paper attempts to analyze the present situation, types and change of regional environment in China through the definition of four conceptions environmental pollution index (EPI), social and economic comprehensive index (SECI), —environmental comprehensive index (ECI) and social, economic and environmental comprehensive index (SEECI) and some mathematical calculation, and draws some conclusions to be worth referring: 1). There exists close relation between economic development and environmental situation. With high-speed development of economy, the discharge of the three wastes in China has been increasing, but its environmental social and economic benefit has also been improved at the same time. 2) In the course of economic development, regional environment situation in China has continuously been changing, and there exists the difference of environmental quality between provinces, which is bigger than that of economic development level between them. 3) Except very few provinces, regional EPI in China has risen in varying degrees since the 1980s, which shows that the task for China to prevent environment from polluting its still arduous.     

Regional Innovation System: Theoretical Approach and Empirical Study of China

1INTRODUCTIONCOOKEetal.(1996)conductedadetailedsurveyontheconceptsofregionalinnovationsystem(RIS)aftertherevolutionarystudyofFREEMAN(1987)andLUNDVALL(1992)onthenationalinnovationsys-tem.COOKEpointedoutthatRISisagroupofgeo-graphicallyadjacententerprises,R&Dinstitutesanduniversities,whichsupportsandproducesinnovation.WIIGandWOOD(1999)arguedthatthebroadsenseofRISshouldalsoincludethelocalgovernmentsandlocalservicessuchasfinancialbusinessinstitutes.BasedonthereviewofRISconcept…     

Regional Financial Development and Regional Economic Growth： An Empirical Analysis of Suzhou City, China

There are many defects in researches on the relationship of the regional financial development(FD)and economic growth of China,such as simply assuming the causality direction,not highlighting financial institution,us-ing incomplete financial indicator,etc.This article,taking Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province,China as a case,builds a simple model to study the level of FD from three aspects of financial scale,structure and institution.Three original in-dicators of PRIVY(private investment/aggregate investment),DEPTH(aggregate loan/GDP)and FDIVG(FDI/GDP)are used to construct the FD economic indicator through Principal Component Analysis approach.Then we use Granger method to analyze the relationship between the FD and the economic growth of Suzhou.Empirical test results show that the FD of Suzhou is the Granger reason of economic growth,while economic growth is not the reason for FD,because the relationship between the FD and the economic growth of Suzhou is just in the"supply-leading"period.In terms of Suzhou experiences,the local government should strengthen the protection of private investment,improve the institutional environment,and establish the reasonable financial structure.So we can concluded that FD could play a great role in promoting economic growth at the economy takeoff stage.     

Distribution orientation and driving mechanism of geographical pattern change of China’s banking industry

By analyzing the relationship among government, market driving forces, distribution orientation of banking industry, service opportunity equality and spatial patterns, this paper proposes that it is distribution orientation that lead to the formation and evolution of spatial pattern of banking industry. The difference of the distribution orientation leads to the separation of the spatial pattern of banking industry, and the change of the distribution orientation leads to the change of spatial pattern. The degree of spatial pattern change is subject to the degree of change of distribution orientation, and the scale of bank resources in the regions, which supports the distribution orientation variation. Based on these theoretical frameworks, some indicators were designed to analyze the pattern change of China’s banking industry and its effects since 1995 under the change of the distribution orientation. This paper finds that the orientation of economic benefit maximization driven by market causes the banking industry to concentrate in economically developed regions. The government, which does not follow the orientation of economic benefit maximization, plays a role of stabilizer. Since the bank branches in the regions with the greatest change in bank branch distribution are too few, and regions with the greatest change in bank loan allocation are the regions with lots of loans, the pattern change of the banking industry in physical form is not as notable as that in economic form.     

Spatial and Temporal Variability of Thermal Stress to China’s Coral Reefs in South China Sea

Coral bleaching, caused by elevated sea surface temperature(SST), is occurring more frequently and seriously worldwide. Due to the lack of field observations, we understand little about the large-scale variability of thermal stress in the South China Sea(SCS) and its effect on China’s coral reefs. This paper used 4-km high resolution gap-filled SST(Filled SST) data and thermal stress data related to coral bleaching derived from Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database(Co RTAD) to quantify the spatial and temporal characteristics of chronic thermal stress and acute thermal stress to China’s coral reefs in SCS from 1982 to 2009. We analyzed the trend of SST in summer and the thermal stress frequency, intensity and duration during this period. The results indicate that, as a chronic thermal stress, summer mean SST in SCS shows an average upward trend of 0.2℃/decade and the spatial pattern is heterogeneous. Waters of Xisha Islands and Dongsha Islands of the northern SCS are warming faster through time compared to Zhongsha Islands and Nansha Islands sea areas of the southern SCS. High frequency bleaching related thermal stress events for these reefs are seen in the area to the northwest of Luzon Island. Severe anomaly thermal stress events are more likely to occur during the subsequent year of the El Nino year for these coral reefs. Besides, the duration of thermal stress varies considerably by anomaly year and by region.     

Population expansion in China’s metropolises and its scale-control

Metropolises are centers of politics, economy, culture and information, and also economic growth poles in comparatively large areas. After 1949, China’s urban structure have changed greatly, from original "pyramid" shape into "upside-down pyramid" shape, that is, more megalopolises and metropolises, fewer medium-sized and small cities. The most distinguishing feature of urban population growth was the remarkable increase of population in megalopolises and metropolises. The key reason for urban population expansion is to want to obtain the benefits of scale-agglomeration economy of metropolises. The number of urban functions directly determines the quality and quantity of urban population. Metropolises appeal not only agricultural population but also the population of medium-sized and small cities, which put much more population pressure on metropolises. The ideal goals of scale-control of metropolitan population are discussed in terms of economy, society and ecollogy. In order to control the metropolitan population expansion, the following measures should be taken: developing medium-sized and small cities, and satillite cities establishing rationally regional urban system, reasonably distributing industrial enterprises, and greatly developing township enterprises.     

Developing China’s National Emission Trading Scheme: Experiences from Existing Global Schemes and China’s Pilot Programs

Market-based emission trading schemes (ETSs) are widely used in the developed world to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which are perceived as the source of global climate change. China, as the largest GHG emitter in the world, is committed to introducing an ETS to reduce emissions. Here we reviewed existing ETSs and sustainable energy policies worldwide as well as China’s pilot programs. These studies were conducted in order to propose recommendations for national initiatives and strategies to be implemented in China in relation to climate change adaptation and mitigation. It has been shown that setting emission caps in the context of a national emission intensity target is difficult. However, implementing reliable systems for measurement, reporting, and verification of emissions are essential. A two-level management system (by central and provincial governments) for carbon trading is beneficial to ensure uniform standards and compliance while maintaining flexibility. Persistent political support from, and effective coordination of, policies by the government are crucial. In addition, strengthening of institutional innovation, and the establishment of a national GHG emissions information system, are of equal importance. This vital information could provide a great opportunity for China to re-define its economic growth and take global leadership in combatting climate change.     

Spatial interaction and network structure evolvement of cities in terms of China’s rail passenger flows

Cities separated in space are connected together by spatial interaction （SI） between them. But the studies focusing on the SI are relatively few in China mainly because of the scarcity of data. This paper deals with the SI in terms of rail passenger flows, which is an important aspect of the network structure of urban agglomeration. By using a data set consisting of rail O-D （origin-destination） passenger flows among nearly 200 cities, inter-city rail distance O-D matrixes, and some other indices, it is found that the attenuating tendency of rail passenger is obvious. And by the analysis on dominant flows and spatial structure of flows, we find that passenger flows have a trend of polarizing to hubs while the linkages between hubs upgrade. However, the gravity model reveals an overall picture of convergence process over time which is not in our expectation of integration process in the framework of globalization and eco- nomic integration. Some driven factors for the re-organization process of the structure of urban agglomeration, such as technique advance, globalization, etc. are discussed further based on the results we obtained.     

Examination and Interpretation of the Quantitative Validity in China’s Corporate-based Urban Network Analysis

As a matter of expediency, most existing corporate-based urban networks can only be quantitatively measured by either counting the number of linkages or calculating the product of estimated service values. However, the impreciseness arising due to the limits of quantitative analysis may prove fatal to studies about non-market economies like China. Employing the capital investment dataset as an example, we build a capital-weighted intervention network as well as an unweighted control network to carry out an examination of the quantitative validity in China’s corporate-based urban network analysis. Both the overall spatial pattern and top city-dyads within the capital-weighted network witness Beijing, as the most dominant city, overshadow the performance of the others, and the unweighted network shows multilateral interactions between China’s top cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. To further interpret the noticeable differences, we divide the overall network into two subnetworks, inferred by focusing on state-owned enterprises(SOEs) and private enterprises. The results show that the public and private sectors have separately created vastly different subnetworks in China and that SOEs play a much more significant role in terms of capital. Besides fresh insights into China’s urban network, this study provides a cautionary tale reminding researchers of the essentiality and complexity when making a quantitative distinction between different linkages.     

Residents’ environmental conservation behaviour in the mountain tourism destinations in China: Case studies of Jiuzhaigou and Mount Qingcheng

This study aimed at gaining an understanding of the formation of residents’ Environmental Conservation Behaviour (ECB) to promote sustainable tourism development in Chinese mountain areas. In particular, a theoretical framework was constructed by merging residents’ mountain attachment and their environmental values, and awareness of environmental consequences based on the Cognition Behaviour Theory. This research sampled 642 residents with convenience sampling method in Jiuzhaigou and Mount Qingcheng, and structural equation modelling analysis was conducted to identify the relationships among the above variables. Results verified that mountain attachment affected people’s awareness of environmental consequences, which then affected their ECB. Environmental values and mountain attachment directly and positively influenced ECB. Moreover, awareness of environmental consequences played the most prominent role in predicting ECB among all the predictors in this study. In all, this study derived several significant implications which can not only contribute to environmental management policies in tourism field but also help to improve the levels of the antecedents of residents’ ECB and promote sustainable tourism development in Chinese mountain areas.     

Evaluation of role of Home Market Effects in China’s manufacturing industries

Under the theoretical framework of the New Trade Theory and the New Economic Geography, Home Market Effects (HMEs) is considered to be important sources of comparative advantage and significant reasons for industry agglomeration. Through the analysis on the input-output tables in China, the paper confirms the existence of HMEs for the manufacturing industries and their export trades on the national and provincial level in China. Several conclusions have been drawn in this study. Firstly, there exist prominent HMEs for manufacturing industries related with nondurable goods and materials in China. Secondly, 10 of the 15 kinds of manufacturing industries considered in this study display the existence of HMEs. Thirdly, the comparative advantage of factor endowment for the export trade of manufacturing industries is declining, while HMEs for them are increasing. Fourthly, among the 30 provincial regions studied in this paper, 11 regions show the existence of HMEs, most of which are located in the eastern coast region. This paper illustrates the simultaneous existence of the comparative advantage of factor endowment and scale economies of HMEs for China’s manufacturing industries. HMEs will not only be the new dynamic for the increase of manufacturing industries and their export trade, but also be the primary power for urban economic growth, industry improvement, and urban space expansion for China.     

Regional Evolution Features and Coordinated Development Strategies for Northeast China

1 Introduction Northeast China consists of the three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, this region has supported the whole country with huge quantity of grain, raw materials, primary products, and heavy industrial products at the cost of environment and resources, and thereafter became an old industrial base as well as an important marketable grain base in the whole country (Zhang et al., 2004). However, since the 19…     

Policy review and outlook on China’s sustainable development since 1992

The Road to Rio+20 is the journey of countries in the world pursuing the sustainable development.As the first country to release the national Agenda 21,China’s experience and lessons are of great significance for both China itself and other countries.The paper reviews the progress made and problems remained in pursuing the sustainable development in China with regard to policy formulation,institutional arrangements,planning and management.In the past five years,the mandatory targets-driven approach,which focused on energy efficiency and key pollutants reduction,played a very important role and made China comprehensive outcomes for sustainability.In order to achieve the targets,China adopted an integrated policy package including legal,administrative,economic and technology instruments.During the 12th Five-Year Plan period(2011-2015),China will continue and strengthen the approach above and mainstream the transformation of economic development pattern through realizing the idea of green and low-carbon development.By summarizing policy trends in the world,the paper points out two directions,i.e.,integration approach and taking prioritized and concrete actions for a sustainable future beyond 2012.The paper also presents policy approaches and recommendations for sustainable development in the next 10 years in China.     

A Qualitative Appraisal of China’s Efforts in Fishing Capacity Management

I Introduction Many of the world’s commercially important fishstocks are overexploited and some are even depleted(FAO 1997, 2005). Overcapacity is considered to be amain factor leading to such a tragedy (FAO, 1999). Con-sequently, the existence of excess capacity has been sin-gled out by FAO (1995, 1998, 1999) as a matter of grow-ing concern over the last decades or so. This represents amajor shift in the fishery policy at the international level,from focusing almost exclusively on the is…     

Black carbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments of China’s marginal seas

This study investigates the distribution of black carbon (BC) and its correlation with total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (ΣPAH) in the surface sediments of China’s marginal seas. BC content ranges from <0.10 to 2.45 mg/g dw (grams dry weight) in the sediments studied, and varied among the different coastal regions. The Bohai Bay sediments had the highest BC contents (average 2.18 mg/g dw), which comprises a significant fraction (27%–41%) of the total organic carbon (TOC) preserved in the sediments. In ...