Bilateral Symmetry of Spatial Distribution of Cities in China

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the research of bilateral symmetry distribution of cities in China at the global level,based on Ye Danian(2000)'s precursory work.Using the idea from Cartesian transform in mathematics and Zhou Yixing's notion of urban economic regions in geography,the authors make two models with bilaterality for spatial distributions of China's cities.Taking Qin Mountain-Huai river as an axis of symmetry,we can find that the cities in northern China corresponds to those in southern China;while taking a line along the cities of Hohehot,Taiyuan,Zhengzhou,Wuhan,and Guangzhou as another axis of symmetry,we can find that the cities in eastern China seems to be a mirror image of those in western China.Symmetry research is significant to the theory construction of urban geography because it associates with universality.On the other hand,symmetry implies beauty,perfect,and order.Therefore studies of symmetry of cities are of help to developing urban spatial optimization methods.