Development Of Towns In China Research Articles

Spatial Morphological Changes in Towns in the Hangjiahu Region of China under Policy Implications

With the acceleration of urbanization, towns, as vital entities for coordinating urban-rural development and facilitating local urbanization, have garnered significant attention from Chinese scholars in recent years. Among these towns, Hangjiahu towns, as one of the fastest-growing and most promising regions for town development in China, is intricately intertwined with the optimization and adjustment of their spatial forms, guided by policies that continually evolve and adapt. This study begins by elucidating the evolution of policies of towns in Zhejiang province, summarizing the key focal points of higher-level planning in different phases. Subsequently, it delves into an in-depth analysis of the morphological transformations and organizational stages of Hangjiahu's towns under the influence of policy directives. Finally, it synthesizes the spatial evolution characteristics from the past and provides insights into future trends in spatial organization, to offer a template for the development of towns not only in China but also in other regions worldwide.

The Problems and Measures for Small Tourism Town Development in China: A Case Study of Wan Town

With the rapid development of tourism and urbanization in China, small tourism towns gradually grow toward prosperity. This paper takes Wan Town as an example to analyze the problem and countermeasures concerning the development of small tourism towns in China. There are a series of issues in the process of development of Wan Town, which includes uncoordinated architectural style, inaccurate market positioning, repeated cultural themes, and vulnerable linkage of the industrial chain. Based on the factor analysis, these development issues were classified into three categories: confusing architectural style, repetitive cultural theme, and weak linkage of industrial chain. To achieve the goal of sustainable development of small tourism towns, some countermeasures must be taken which include promoting the development of small tourism towns with the new rural revitalization, strengthening services improvement in small tourism towns, gathering industrial elements related to the tourism industry, and increasing tourism cultural connotation.

Examining commuting disparities across different types of new towns and different income groups: Evidence from Beijing, China

Despite massive new town development in megacities in China, none of the prior studies examined commuting disparities of residents of different income groups living in various types of new towns. Based on established literature on urban structure and commuting and income disparities in commuting, this paper has examined the roles of income and new town types in commuting distance, mode, and time differences. Based on Beijing's new town development context, we categorize its six major new towns into residential, national park-driven industrial, market-based industrial, and satellite new towns. Using descriptive analysis and regressions on 595 new town residents, we find that high-income commuters tend to have longer commuting distances and times and are more likely to drive to workplaces. Those living in the residential new town tend to have longer commuting distances and times. Results also show the transportation resource differences in different types of new towns. Those living in the residential new town are more likely to commute by public transit. Results also show the transportation difficulties for low-income residents who live in satellite towns. Though high-income commuters living in those towns have significantly longer commuting distances, they do not necessarily have longer commuting times than low-income people living in these towns. This study has several implications for future research and policy implications for new town development in China and other transit-dependent cities in Asia and Global South.

Image-oriented design control in China: a case study from Nanjing

This paper investigates urban image-making through the lens of different sets of design control tools and mechanisms in use in the Chinese planning system before 2019. It takes the South Railway Station area of Nanjing, part of a planned new town, as the case study and examines the design and planning of the overall area, a sub-area and two selected building sites. The research offers an understanding of the performative role of urban planning in place promotion with its distinctive Chinese characteristics, which are related to the planning culture and socio-political context of China. The paper identifies a few problems resulting from an image-oriented approach to planning in the case studies. Firstly, planning strategies have stressed grandness as opposed to the human scale and wide spatial qualities. Secondly, the approach has emphasised marketability of urban images rather than the representation of socio-cultural values. The study suggests that place identity catering for the interests of ordinary citizens should be foregrounded in design control in new town development in China.

Feature town development for inclusive urban development? The case of the Jadeware Feature Town in Yangzhou, China

This article examines the current wave of feature town development in China, a key pillar of China’s new type urbanization strategy. It is based on a case study of a feature town in Yangzhou, which is being developed within Wantou Township, with a focus on tourism nominally connected with the jadeware industry through public–private partnership (PPP). The article first demonstrates how the local government took advantage of inflated institutional incentives and pursued speculative construction and commodification of places. Although PPP introduced new dynamics to project financing and operation, this Jadeware Feature Town project, integral to urban-centric socio-spatial transformations of Wantou, marginalized existing inhabitants, sustained a land-based accumulation and reproduced an urban bias. The experience of the Jadeware Feature Town deviates from the national urbanization strategy’s emphasis on inclusion and equity and raises concerns over whether feature town development, or PPPs, can offer an alternative to exploitative, exclusionary land-based urbanization.

Research on Clean Heating Technology in Northern Urban China

Currently, with the rapid development of small towns in China, residents’ heating demand has been increasing, which exposes the heating problems of the small towns. Especially in the heating season, the energy consumption of buildings accounting for a decent proportion and the increase in pollution emissions can seriously affect the lives of residents. To alleviate these problems and promote clean heating, it is necessary to investigate the resources situation of small towns and design targeted heating lines for load areas. Therefore, this article used data analysis, described the population, construction area and industrial structure of small towns in the northern region, summarized the current development trend of small towns in China. Besides, taking the small towns in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as an example, this paper tried to understand the heating problems of small towns, including low energy efficiency of thermal energy and poor thermal insulation of buildings. Based on the supply and demand side of small towns and the differences in the endowment characteristics in various regions, this paper also proposed different clean heating technology paths.

Innovative Design and Research on the Landscape in the Living Room of Distinctive Small Towns Based Upon the Multi-Dimensional Cultural Visualization Technology

Benefited from the development of distinctive small towns in China, the visualized performance on the cultural characteristics of parlor landscape in distinctive small towns has drawn increasingly attention. In view of the absence of individuality in cultural elements, irrespective of the landscape space relations, monotonous cultural experience approaches and other existed problems on parlor landscape in towns, this paper integrated the survey of cases to summarize three design techniques which consisted of refining the cultural connotation, evolving the cultural space as well as activating the cultural show. In the meantime, it focused on studying the application of dynamic digital technology to reinforce the multi-dimensional visualization of culture, thus providing fresh ideas for the parlor landscape design in distinctive small towns.

Research on “Static-Dynamic” Development of Characteristic Towns in China Based on Space and Type: A Big Data Analysis

Using the idea of big data analysis, this paper makes a quantitative analysis of the development of characteristic towns in China based on two dimensions of space and type, static and dynamic, and puts forward policy suggestions. The results showed that: distribution density of characteristic towns in China is dense and stratified, which decreases from east to west. There are significant differences in distribution density between different types of towns. The development of small towns follows the evolution trajectory of “enlightenment-initial development-high speed development-normative construction” and forms a ladder transfer pattern of “Zhejiang-southeast coast-national-southeast coast”. Town construction is highly resource embeddedness, and is undergoing a transition from resource-driven to innovation-driven.

中国農村の小城鎮建設における土地問題

This study focuses on the land problems during small scale town development in China. By investigating 3 towns in S county, 4 main problems were found: (1) the conflict between the protection of farmland and urbanization. (2) the problems regarding rural land circulation. (3) the problems with urban planning. (4) the compensations to the farmers, whose land are acquisited by the goverment, can not meet their requirments. By analyzing the different situations in the 3 towns, the authors argue that a town like C located remotely with poor industry conditions is not necessary or suitable to be urbanized now.

Tourism-driven urbanization in China’s small town development: A case study of Zhapo Town, 1986–2003

This paper investigates the process of tourism-driven urbanization as a local strategy of town development in China. Existing literature has highlighted the role of industrialization in the urbanization process of China’s small towns, but here it is suggested that tourism – a development initiative based on the creation of space for consumption, rather than production – can also foster significant expansion of urbanized built environment and remarkable transformation of local socio-economic structures. The case study suggests that, in contrast to the recent process of industrialization-based urbanization in China’s small towns, tourism urbanization in Zhapo Town, Guangdong Province has been a highly localized development initiative characterized by the absence of foreign capital investment. Tourism-driven urbanization in Zhapo has involved several processes whose joint effect has reproduced the local socio-spatial organization: the rapid of expansion of urbanized built environment; a unique pattern of land use and land development; the booming of tertiary economic sectors; and the emergence of a flexible regime of labor force. In the meantime, the research also contests Mullins’ (1991) classical theorization of tourism urbanization, and suggests that recent tourism-driven urbanization process in Zhapo Town is not the product of the post-modernization of urban cultural manifestations, but is situated within the context-specific space of China’s modernity and is based on relatively standardized provision of tourism-related service and the mass consumption of nature.

Privatization of rural industry and de facto urbanization from below in southern Jiangsu, China

At the heart of China’s economic transformation from plan to market is the institutional rearrangement of the ownership of property rights. Privatization of collectively owned township and village enterprises (TVEs) in recent years has significantly changed the rural economy and affected small town development in China. Located mainly in villages and small towns and producing 62% of the total industrial output in Jiangsu in 1994, TVEs played a crucial role in southern Jiangsu (Sunan)’s economic development and urbanization, giving rise to the well-known “Sunan model” of regional development during the 1980s. Since the mid-1990s, ownership transition ( zhuanzhi) of the TVEs from collective to private in Sunan has altered the nature of the regional economy and the pattern of small town development. The privatization of TVEs in Sunan has been so pervasive that it can be seen as the “second industrial divide” in the region’s economy. This paper traces the evolution of ownership reform in Sunan’s rural industries leading to the current phase of privatization and analyzes the effects of privatization on de facto urbanization from below in Sunan. Given the importance of privatization, continuous scholarly monitoring of its relationship to regional economic development and urbanization from below is necessary.

Economic Transition at the Local Level: Diverse Forms of Town Development in China

This paper examines China's local transition at the town level as a consequence of the interplay between local factors (e.g., local government activism and actions of peasantsturned workers) and external forces (e.g., regulatory change at the national level and the influx of global, national and local capital). Empirical evidence from five towns demonstrates diverse forms of local economic transition and supports arguments that, as in post-Communist Russia and in Eastern and Central Europe, local conditions in China matter a great deal in social formation and local accumulation. The existing framework of town-based transition (“urbanization from below”) is revised to account for the spectrum of town-based transition in - the last two decades. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, O15, P20. 1 figure, 94 references.

Development of Towns in China: A Case Study of Guangdong Province

This article examines the growth functions and population changes of Chinas towns in recent years using Guangdong Province as a case study. We examine the relationship between towns and the nations rural economic growth with emphasis on the roles of towns in rural population migration. To gain a better understanding of how the town economy functions we compare the employment structure in two distinct types of towns: county capitals and market towns. The major data source is a comprehensive survey of towns conducted in 1985 by the authorities of Guangdong for their internal use. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)