FRACTAL ANALYSIS APPLIED TO SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF CHINA＇S VEGETATION

Based on the fractal theory, the spatial structure of China＇s vegetation has been analyzed quantitatively in this paper. Some conclusions are drawn as the following. 1） The relationships between size and frequency of patch area and patch shape index exist objectively for China＇s vegetation. 2） The relationships between perimeter and area exist objectively for China＇s vegetation. 3） The fractal dimension of evergreen needleleaf forests on mountains in subtropical and tropical zones is the largest, while the smallest for deciduous broadleafand evergreen needleleaf mixed forests in temperate zone, reflecting the most complex spatial structure for evergreen needleleaf forests on mountains in subtropical and tropical zones and the simplest for deciduous broadleaf and evergreen needleleaf mixed forests in temperate zone. 4） The fractal dimensions of China＇s vegetation types tend to decrease from thc subtropics to both sides. 5） The stability of spatial structure of deciduous broadleaf and evergreen needleleaf mixed forests in temperate zone is the largest, while the smallest for double-cropping rice, or double-cropping rice and temperate-like grain, and tropical evergreen economic tree plantations and orchards, reflecting the steadiest for deciduous broadleaf and evergreen needleleaf mixed forests in temperate zone and the most unstable for double-cropping rice, or double-cropping rice and temperate-like grain, and tropical evergreen economic tree plantations and orchards in spatial structure. 6） The stability of spatial structure of China＇s vegetation tends to decrease from the temperate zone to both sides, it is significantly pertinent to understand the formation, evolution, dynamics and complexity rule of ecosystem of vegetation.     

Study on wetland biodiversity in China

Wetland biodiversity means mainly the types of wetland ecosystem and biological species diversity. Biodiversity includes all species of plants, animals and microbes, all gene possessed by them and all ecosystems consisting of them and environment. According to the origin and genesis, China’s wetlands can be divided into natural wetland ecosystems including mires, lakeshores, bottomland, seashore, wet meadow, etc., and artificial wetland ecosystem including paddy field. Then based on geomorphological type, these ecosystems can be divided into 15 subsystems, then based on soil substrata and ecological niche conditions, they can be subdivided into 15 classes, finally according to construction species of plants, several types can be divided into. They are not only the expression of ecosystem diversity, but also the base for biological communities subsistence. This peculiar ecological niche provides a complex and perfect special habitat for various animal and plant communities. In this special habitat, there exist various biological types from monomolecular microbes to higher plants and animals, especially some endangered and rare plants and animals. According to the statistics, there are more than 300 species of birds in China wetlands, making up one-third of the total number of China’s birds. Wetlands not only good place for waterbirds living, but also the important environment on which wild animals and plant rely for existence. There are 65 species of mammals, 50 species of reptiles, 45 species of amphibious animals, 1040 species of fish, 825 species of higher plants, 639 species of angiosperm, 10 species of gymnosperm, 12 species of pteridophyte and 164 species of bryophyte investigated in China’s wetlands.     

IS CHINA LEARNING FROM ITS NEIGHBORS? A COMPARISON OF OVERSEAS INVESTMENT BETWEEN CHINA AND OTHER EAST ASIAN ECONOMIES

1INTRODUCTIONAfter2decades'opendoorpractice,Chinahasnotonlybeenabigplayerasanimportanthostnationtoforeigndirectinvestment(FDI),butalsothelargestFDIhomenationamongthedevelopingcountries(SUN,1998;ZHANG,1995;WorldInvestmentReport,1998).Infact,sincethelate1980s,theChinesegovernmenthasnotsimplyputitseffortintoexportingmade-in-China"productstoearnforeigncurrencyorintoencouragingforeigninwardcapital.Ithasactivelyencourageditsmanufacturerstoinvestoverseas,andhasdeliberatelyandstrategical…     

Development Mechanism of Urban System in Rapidly Changing Period in China

The purpose of this research is to investigate the socio-economic development mechanism of China’s urban system in terms of spatial structure and its change. Totally 246 cities from 340 designated cities in 1985, and 488 from 640 designated cities in 1995 are selected as sample cities. And 22 attributes concerning urban features are analyzed to clarify the socio-economic characteristics and their changes in the urban system. Finally, the primary development factors are verified with the relationship of spatial structure and socio-economic characteristics. In conclusion, the socio-economic changes occurred more extremely than spatial structure changes. Furthermore, foreign investment be- came a major power for the development of China’s urban system in the period of 1985–1995.     

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.     

CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS：CHINA‘S URBAN GOVERNANCE

Chinaˊs urban reforms have brought social progress and development,but a comprehensive national system of social welfare(for example,unemployment insurance,pensions,medical care and public housing)for new migrants from rural areas is lacking.One of the most remarkable changes in Chinese cities in the last decade was a change in so-cial“equality“,with the rise of new poverty both in individual communities and some social groups in urban society.Howev-er,there is little social assistance and public infrastructure for the migrants.Governments or communities or individual should pay attention to the control of new urban poverty and new slums.This paper consider that it is necessary to launch a successful policy,which include mainly:1)accommodating urban growth through low-cost investment projects;2)ur-ban economy depends heavily on successful macroeconomic policy;3)to broaden the three channels linking adjustment to the incidence of urban poverty;4)to restructure urban economic based on the high or new technology;5)to coordi-nate relationship between urban economic growth and environment management for sustainable development of Beijingˊs metropolitan fringe.     

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…     

A new perspective on China’s industrial development strategy

At present China is facing challenges from economic globalization, ecological economy and knowledge economy in its process of economic development. The following ideas may be heuristic in establishing China’s regional development strategies: 1) In locating industries, the impact of industries on the eco-environment should be fully considered. 2) Industrial restructuring should be focused on the restructuring of products, not on the restructuring of the three traditional industries (primary, secondary and tertiary industries). 3) The establishment of key industries should be focused on large-scale corporations or famous brand products, not on a particular industrial sector. 4) The complementarity and cooperation between the east and the west of China should be on products and markets, not on natural resources. The advantages in natural resources for the west of China can not be over-estimated. The advantages in products and market potentials for the west of China may be explored.     

A PATH-DEPENDENT MODEL OF INVESTMENT AND EMPLOYMENT FLOW IN A LARGE ECONOMY IN A PROCESS OF INTEGRATION

This paper meant to analyze the spatial evolution of a large country in its process of integration with the world economy in general, and, to look into the possible effect of China‘s accession into WTO on the future development of its spatial economy in particular. Through an approach of increasing returns, external economy, product differentiation and path-dependence, with foreign trade costs incurred by different regions within the large country discriminated, a model of investment and employment flow is developed as a simulation of a large country‘s process of integration with the world economy. The modeling indicates that in the process of integration, as there exist differences in foreign trade costs among different regions within the large country, either the spatial economy of the country deviates from its symmetric structure in autarky and falls into a core-periphery relationship, or the effect of industrial agglomeration is reinforced, amplified and locked in, if the agglomeration had been started. The economic gap on either the aggregate or structural basis between different regions within the large country will increase rapidly as the integration proceeds.     

Conception of estabilishing the Sino-Russian border free economic region

So-called free economic region is a special region without jurisdiction of customs, delimited by one country. There are mainly four types of free economic region, that is, commercial type of free economic region —free port, industrial type of free economic region — export processing area, integrated commercial and trade type of free economic region — free trade zone, and scientific and technological type of free economic region — scientific industrial park. With the development of free economic region of different countries, besides free economic region within one country, there appear transnational border free economic region established by two or multiple countries. Analysing favorable factors and unfavorable factors to establish the free economic region for China and Russia, for example, China and Russia have land boundary line of 4282.7 km; China and Russia may strengthen overall cooperation in politics, military, economy, science and technology, culture, etc. making full use of geographical factors of the two countries, borders; there is a strong complementarity in resources, labour force etc. for China and Russia; strengthening the Sino-Russian economic trade cooperation is needed, the authors proposed a conception and selected four comparative ideal locations for establishing the Sino-Russian border free economic region: Manzhouli-Zabaikalye Free Economic Region, Heihe-Blagoveshchensk Free Economic Region, Suifenhe-Pogranichnyy Free Economic Region, Hunchun-Hasan Free Economic Region. Finally the principles and patterns for establishing free economic region are discussed.     

China’s urban residential community in the course of transfer of social pattern

Even though the study of urban sociology in China is just a beginning, it doesn’t mean that urban social problems in China are new or simple. As a very sensitive field, urban residential community has not been deeply analysed before owing to various reasons. This article tries to start with the background of China’s social development and analyse the pattern, essence and evolution direction of China’s urban residential community which is in the course of transfer of social pattern. This article first analyzes the functional mechanism of seven main elements affecting Chinese urban residential community in the course of transfer of social pattern. Some of the elements come into being under the social economic background, with Chinese characteristics, and have a profound influence on urban residential community. Based on that, the author then respectively infers the evolution of four main patterns of urban residential communities in China now. Finally, it puts forward the basic principles of urban community development in the current transfer period in China, and with a development eyesight, it makes a summary of the general characteristics of the Chinese urban residential community in the future.     

EVOLVEMENT AND CONTROL OF VULNERABLE ECOLOGICAL REGION——A Case Study in Ongniud Banner and Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia

The evolvement of a vulnerable ecological region is a dynamic process, which is affected by various factors. During the evolvement process, human activities have a decisive effect. The purpose of studying vulnerable ecological region is to control human economic activities and to develop a negative feedback modulation mechanism.This paper established a model of vulnerable ecological region‘s evolvement by considering four synthetic variables.These synthetic variables are ecological carrying capacity, ecological resilience, economic development intensity, and economic development velocity. Finally, Ongniud Banner and Aohan Banner in North China were taken as study cases to simulate the evolvement processes of vulnerable ecological regions under different conditions of economic development. The results show that human activities have an important influence on the evolvement trend of vulnerable ecological region.     

Global charm of the Changjiang River Delta

Based on the theory of geo-economy, under the new situation of global economy, information network and China‘s entry into WTO, also with the holding of APEC (in 2001) and the International Exposition in the near future, the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta is striding toward the spectacular international multi-polar situation and becomes one of core regions with high-speed development. Facing the ocean and world all along, leading the progressive tides of the age and scintillating the splendor of the nation, she does advance with time. Through a long period of irrigation projects construction and intensive operation of lands in previous agricultural society, the artificial wetland ecosystem with a positive cycle had ever been formed in this region. At present, environmental pollution and urban expansion resulted from post-industrialization are being rectified. The delta will be the paradigm of industrial and agricultural modernization along the sustainable development road. With the rapid development of urbanization,she has been one of the regions with the highest density population and high urbanization level. Taking the Changjiang River estuary and the Hangzhou Bay as two parts, she is continuously strengthening and adjusting her interior structure, expanding mothball space and constructing the oriental modem ″logistics center“ to link the whole world. The butterfly-style urban system of the Changjiang River Delta is flying, probably engendering earthshaking “butterfly effect“.     

Major Function Oriented Zone: New method of spatial regulation for reshaping regional development pattern in China

Newest planning methods implemented by Chinese government are promoting a coordinated regional development and shaping an orderly spatial structure by applying the regulation of territorial function. This article analyzes the problems of spatial planning and regional strategy caused by the wrongly-set primary goal of economic development; it states that the three-fold objective of competitiveness, sustainability, and welfare fairness shall be the principal for China to implement the spatial regulation in the new era; it discusses about theoretical thoughts and technology framework of conducting the ′Major Function Oriented Zone′ based on their different major functions that each region plays in urbanization and industrialization, ecological constructions, grain productions, and protection of natural and cultural heritages; it introduces the new concept of ′Major Function Oriented Zone′ that include the major functions category, the stereo regional equilibrium mode, the two-level zoning specification, and the territorial development intensity; it offers a zoning scheme that defines development-optimized and development-prioritized zones as regions with massive urbanization and industrialization, development-restricted zones as ecological constructing or grain producing regions, development-prohibited zones as natural and cultural heritage protecting regions; and finally it addresses the main obstacle for implementing ′Major Function Oriented Zone′, which is the institutional arrangement of the supreme goal of high GDP growth rate that is currently being implemented.     

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.     

Development,territorial difference and spatial evolution of towns in China—A discussion on the views of anti-urbanism in China

Growth of Chinese small towns is a continuing process of urbanization. By analyzing regional disparity and comprehensive development level of Chinese small towns, it is considered that town development depends mainly on the regional agriculture and social development level. Their spatial distribution is restricted by population distribution and regional economic development level. Chinese urbanization, just the same as urbanization in developed countries, is a sign of socio-economic vigour and prosperity, and is not related to social and political systems. Thus, it is worth to discuss China’s anti-urbanism with abroad scholars.     

Farmer Income Differential in Regions

1 Introduction China’s success in reform and opening up policy for twenty years is regarded as China’s miracles in the world, whereas the income differential widening phenomenon has been the focus of the policymakers and researchers. The typical research of personal income allocation in regions on microeconomic data has been done in China Social Science Research Institution, and by the special income allocation research team’s household investiga- tion, we could get the useful farmer’s i…     

Regional disparity and convergence of China’s inbound tourism economy

Comprehending regional characteristics and influencing factors of China’s inbound tourism economy is important to make effective policies that will help inbound tourism develop harmoniously and shrink regional disparity. This paper studied the regional disparity and convergence of China’s inbound tourism economy during 1996–2008 with the methods of σ-convergence, club convergence and β-convergence. The results indicate that 1) inbound tourism receipts per capita (ITRPC) of the whole country, the eastern, central and western regions presented the rapid increasing trend; 2) ITRPC of the whole country was characterized by convergence; 3) the eastern region presented club convergence, but the central and western regions did not show this trend; 4) the star-hotel levels and investment in fixed assets for the tourism industry per capita had a same trend to growth rates of ITRPC, promoting inbound tourism development, and there was no difference among the 31 provinces (municipalities) in the mainland of China; 5) but the proportion of employed persons in the tourism industry accounting for total population and the proportion of the tertiary industry accounting for GDP had a reversal trend to growth rates of ITRPC, shrinking the provincial disparity in inbound tourism economy, and there were differences between the developed provinces and the developing provinces. Based on these analyses, we put forward some suggestions for the developing provinces to speed up inbound tourism economy.     

Urban China in transformation: Hybrid economy,juxtaposed space,and new testing ground for geographical enquiries

History has brought us into a significant moment when the majority of the human kind has taken up resi-dence in urban settlements. The focus of global urbanization has shifted to the developing world and the center of manufacturing is no longer confined to the Global North. This paper provides a periodical assessment of the current status of China’s urban transformation in the global context of a shifting emphasis of industrialization and urbaniza-tion. China’s phenomenal urban transformation deserves a special attention not only because of its unparalleled scale and speed but also because of its distinct trajectory of growth that does not conform to normal theoretical ex-pectations. The results of assessment revealed an urban economy with remarkable hybridity, a society that is in-creasingly stratified, polarized, and segregated, and a juxtaposed urban space undergoing restless and pervasive transformation. A decentering world should entail a decentering knowledge production. A critical reflection upon the Chinese patterns and processes of urban transformation has identified 4 main issues with great potentials for inno-vative knowledge production, namely: 1) privatization and economic development; 2) state, society, and space; 3) urbanization of capital, labor, and land; and 4) the environment and Chinese political ecology. The paper closes with the remark that a rapidly transforming urban China has presented itself as a fertile and resourceful testing ground for critical and innovative geographic enquiries.