Anchored in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the green marketing mix framework, this study explores how green purchase intention and impulse buying are shaped among urban Chinese consumers. Employing structural equation modelling based on data from 292 respondents, the analysis tests five key hypotheses regarding the effects of subjective norms, attitude, perceived behavioural control, and the four green marketing mix components (product, price, place, and promotion) on green purchase intention, as well as the subsequent impact of green purchase intention on impulse buying. The results reveal that green product quality and green promotion are the main drivers of green purchase intention, while subjective norms, attitude, perceived behavioural control, green price, and green place do not have significant direct effects. Mediation analysis further demonstrates that only green products and green promotion exert significant indirect effects on impulse buying via purchase intention. These outcomes emphasize the value of tangible product features and effective promotion in sustainable purchasing, and challenge the universal applicability of classic psychological models in digitalized urban markets. The study provides practical implications for designing targeted green marketing strategies that move beyond attitudinal appeals and focus on product credibility and impactful promotion to foster pro-environmental purchasing behaviour. Importantly, this study utilizes the classic 4Ps and the TPB framework for empirical clarity, yet is aware of the theoretical debate and boundary limitations related to their adoption in terms of developing service-based green marketing and based on cultural diversity. Furthermore, our data collection focuses on urban China, highlighting the context and limitations in generalizability, which emphasizes the importance of developing future cross-cultural comparisons and expanded models in future research.

Postnatal exposure to toxic metals for infants residing in proximity to municipal waste incinerators in China.

During rapid urbanization, the total area of green space in Guangzhou remained relatively stable; however, its spatial structure changed substantially. Green space became increasingly fragmented, patch shapes grew more complex, and overall connectivity declined, indicating a systematic degradation of green space structure rather than a simple reduction in area. Land-use transition analysis shows that the continuous conversion of farmland and grassland into construction land was the dominant process driving green space fragmentation during the study period. This suggests that urban expansion primarily reshaped the internal configuration of green space instead of directly reducing its total extent. Spatial econometric results reveal significant spatial dependence in green space dynamics, as indicated by a positive and significant spatial lag coefficient in the spatial Durbin model, highlighting strong interregional interactions. Further decomposition of spatial effects indicates heterogeneous driving mechanisms: urbanization intensity, measured by nighttime light intensity, exerts a negative indirect effect, whereas population density and per capita GDP exhibit positive direct and indirect effects. Overall, the results support a "development pressure-ecological response" mechanism, in which urban expansion generates structural degradation and negative spatial spillovers, while socioeconomic agglomeration may, under certain conditions, produce compensatory or synergistic effects on regional green space systems.

To address heavy metal pollution in river and lake sediments amid China's urbanization, this study developed an iron-based biochar stabilizer using corn straw modified by chemical-physical methods. The modification significantly increased the biochar's surface roughness, forming a 50 – 200 nm iron oxide adhesion layer. While its specific surface area slightly decreased from 418 m²/g to 376 m²/g, the proportion of mesopores rose, creating more sites for heavy metal adsorption. Characterization results show that the iron-based biochar binds heavy metals through surface functional groups like -OH and C=O, demonstrating stable adsorption performance for various heavy metals (including Cr(VI), Cd(II), Pb(II), and As(III)). Compared with unmodified biochar, it improved the average solidification rates of Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, Ni, and as by 23.5 %, 18.7 %, 27.3 %, 25.1 %, 19.8 %, and 21.2 %, respectively. Notably, the solidification of Cr(VI) was particularly effective due to the redox catalytic action of Fe³⁺/Fe². After adsorption, the material's porosity recovered to 72 %, indicating enhanced recyclability through iron-based modification. The leaching concentration of heavy metals in the treated sediment meets national standards, and the treatment cost is over 60 % lower than that of traditional technologies. Additionally, the solidified sediment can be safely reused for land improvement or building material production, offering an economical and efficient resource-oriented solution for controlling heavy metal pollution in sediments.

New particle formation (NPF) represents a major aerosol source with profound implications for air quality and global climate. While studies in heavily polluted megacities (e.g., Beijing) have typically revealed high nucleation rates coupled with slow particle growth, the mechanisms governing NPF under moderate pollution regimes remain poorly understood. Here, we report a distinct NPF pattern in the coastal city of Xiamen, characterized by relatively low nucleation rates but exceptionally rapid particle growth. Field observations and model simulations show that anthropogenic oxygenated organic molecules (OOMs), rather than sulfuric acid, dominate particle growth from the sub-3 nm size range. Despite a modest nucleation rate (J1.7 = 1.2 cm3 s-1), the observed high growth rate (GR7-15 = 7.2 nm h-1) is largely attributable to condensable organic vapors from anthropogenic sources. This efficient, anthropogenically driven growth pathway suggests that NPF could play a more substantial role in aerosol formation in many moderately polluted urban environments than currently recognized. We therefore urge the integration of such anthropogenic organic-driven growth mechanisms into atmospheric models to improve climate predictions.

Decades of rapid urbanization have reshaped China's cities, yet fine-scale built environment disparities remain unclear due to scarce building-level data. Here, we present SinoBF-1, a national building functional map of China that delineates 110 million buildings across 109 major cities using 1-meter multi-modal satellite data. Using nine indicators spanning urbanization intensity, facility accessibility, and infrastructure sufficiency, we quantify disparities across city tiers, geographic regions, and intra-city zones. Analyses reveal that: (1) Across city tiers, accessibility and amenity diversity decline sharply from top- to low-tier cities, while mid tiers show more equitable housing allocation; (2) Geographically, southern cities exhibit the highest access to healthcare, education, and public services but suffer from infrastructure overcrowding; and (3) Within cities, later-expanding zones exhibit greater disparities than early-established urban cores. This study reflects legacies of national development policies over the past half-century and offers a framework for evaluating urban inequality in rapidly urbanizing regions.

Abstract In post-patriarchal China, contemporary weddings are a key site for intergenerational negotiation, carrying conflicts and compromises shaped by cultural perceptions, gender ideologies and power dynamics. Through Critical Thematic Analysis (CTA) of interviews with 15 well-educated young brides from urban China, this study identifies four themes: a traditional vs. modern wedding debate; collaboration vs. control in intra-family relations; divergent vs. convergent expectations of wedding performances; and resistance vs. persistence of patriarchy. Critically analyzing each theme unveils several key findings: there are uncritical cultural identities across generations; unstable and uneven conditions of inverted families; intergenerational exploitation (one generation’s sacrifice serving another’s interests) based on gender bias and class disparities; and ambivalent gender perceptions of young brides and illusory gender equality (a superficial appearance of equality masking deeper inequalities) at weddings. Situated within the evolving socio-political, economic and cultural environment of contemporary China, this research highlights the complex interplay of cultural ideologies, gender perceptions, family values and intergenerational power dynamics in post-patriarchal Chinese society, offering a feminist critique of urban wedding negotiations.

Older adults in China are increasingly active digital users, but they encounter distinctive challenges when navigating deceptive content online and offline, including misinformation, disinformation, and cyber fraud. Drawing on 35 in-depth interviews with older adults aged 50+ in urban Beijing, this exploratory study examines how older users encounter, interpret, and respond to deceptive content in everyday digital practices. Instead of relying solely on individual cognitive skills, participants described resilience as emerging through interconnected multiple layers of support, including family consultation, peer discussion, platform-level safeguards, and institutional assistance. The analysis identifies a recurring tension within trusted social networks: While relational expectations and norms of reciprocity may encourage information sharing, they may also discourage correction, creating what this study conceptualizes as a <em>human sentiment barrier</em>. This concept builds on sociological research on the downsides of strong-tie social capital, illustrating how the same relationships that provide emotional support can also facilitate the circulation of misleading information. By illustrating how older adults’ evaluations of digital content are shaped by relational, cultural, and institutional contexts, this study reframes digital resilience as a socially embedded practice rather than an individual skill. Findings highlight the need for interventions that strengthen the social and infrastructural environments through which older adults make sense of online information.

China's rapidly aging urban population has intensified demand for sustainable community-based eldercare. Volunteer-supported eldercare services are increasingly promoted as complements to formal care, yet their contribution to functional, relational, informational, and managerial continuity remains insufficiently understood. This study examined systemic barriers to continuity and explored strategies for embedding volunteers within integrated eldercare systems. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design Quantitative → Qualitative (QUAN→QUAL) was conducted in Shanghai's most aged districts, Hongkou and Huangpu. A cross-sectional survey of 880 older adults assessed service willingness, utilization, and predictors of dissatisfaction using binary logistic regression. Subsequently, 21 in-depth interviews with older adults, volunteers, and Red Cross staff explored mechanisms underlying observed discontinuities. Quantitative and qualitative findings were integrated using the Pillar Integration Process and mapped onto Haggerty's four-dimensional continuity framework. Although 96.3% of respondents expressed willingness to use volunteer-supported eldercare services, only 46.5% had done so. Service dissatisfaction was strongly associated with frequent volunteer turnover (aOR = 2.31; 95% CI: 1.83-3.14) and digital illiteracy, particularly among adults aged ≥ 80 years (89.3%). Integrated analyses identified four interrelated barriers undermining continuity: restrictive Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) eligibility excluding moderately disabled older adults; unstable volunteer-client relationships; digital and informational gaps compromising coordination and safety; and fragmented governance limiting cross-sector collaboration. Bridging the willingness-utilization gap requires systemic reform across policy, organizational, service, and individual levels. Priorities include expanding LTCI eligibility, formalizing volunteer roles within interdisciplinary teams, establishing navigation mechanisms for unmet "grey-zone" needs, and enhancing digital literacy through hybrid information systems. By extending Haggerty's continuity framework beyond clinical care, this study illustrates how volunteers can be positioned as integrated extensions of professional teams-supported by stable governance and interoperable information platforms-to enable person-centered, sustainable eldercare in super-aged urban settings.

ABSTRACT Rapid urbanisation in China has reshaped historic urban cores, placing modern heritage fabric under increasing redevelopment pressure. Focusing on Zhongshan District in Dalian, a historic port city shaped by layered Russian and Japanese planning legacies, this study develops an integrated GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework to assess cultural heritage value at the district scale. Archival research and systematic field surveys are used to translate qualitative heritage significance into spatially explicit, value-based evidence. The results reveal a clear spatial gradient of heritage value, with high-value clusters concentrated around Zhongshan Square and lower values extending toward peripheral redevelopment zones. While officially listed buildings remain relatively well protected, many unlisted yet socially meaningful structures are shown to be particularly vulnerable, highlighting limitations in existing top-down governance approaches. By operationalising the UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach through a value-based GIS – AHP framework, this study demonstrates how heritage assessment can be integrated into everyday planning practice and offers transferable insights for rapidly transforming port cities in East Asia.

Wet markets remain a cornerstone of fresh food retail in Chinese cities, continuously evolving alongside urbanization. However, the drivers and implications of their transformation at the city level remain underexplored. Drawing on government documents and survey data from Nanjing and Suzhou, this study reveals that China’s wet market evolution is characterized by incremental semi-formalization and upgrading, preserving their essential role in the food supply chain without displacing other retail formats. This transformation reflects shifting government attitudes, strategic urban planning for food security, and the effective integration of public and private interests. The hybrid governance model, which combines public oversight with private operation, has enhanced wet markets’ resilience, ensuring affordability, freshness, and social interaction. Their adaptability underscores a broader lesson: inclusive urban food systems require soft–hard infrastructure synergy, where physical upgrades coexist with social functions. In this paper, we argue that wet markets exemplify social infrastructure: they are not merely food hubs but spaces fostering civic life, cultural continuity, and equitable access. Their co-evolution with supermarkets and e-commerce challenges the “supermarketization” thesis, highlighting the importance of policy flexibility and localized governance. Our findings offer insights for Global South cities grappling with food system transitions, emphasizing the need to balance modernization with the preservation of informal economies’ social fabric.

Accelerating the low-carbon transition of an urban centralized heating system is a key concern for policymakers. We propose a novel equilibrium analysis framework to assess the feasibility of implementing ETS in China's central heating sector. The results demonstrate that implementing an emission trading scheme (ETS) within the central heating sector can accelerate decarbonization process by shifting the focus of the current Clean Heating Campaign from gas boilers to industrial surplus heat and geothermal energy, aligning with China's goal of reaching 25% nonfossil energy by 2030. It can provide a more cost-effective and sustainable decarbonization pathway in which a 1% annual reduction in carbon quotas leads to emissions peak at 2033, as well as it is expected to generate significant co-benefits by reducing heating-related air pollution. A well-designed subsidy reallocation and phase-out strategy can enable the ETS to drive decarbonization and alleviate fiscal pressures. This combination of ETS and subsidies ensures a smooth transition to low-carbon heating in the short term and is sustainable in the long run through endogenous technological advancement and market self-regulation.

ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, scholars working on urbanization in China have grappled with a fundamental contradiction: the nation’s urban–rural binary simultaneously over-determines livelihoods and life chances and fails to capture the under-determined nature of urbanization as a set of social and material processes. In response to this problem, various strategies of reconceptualization have emerged, including the redefinition, complication, and recombination of China’s urban and rural categories. Nevertheless, the urban–rural binary and its misrepresentation of Chinese urbanization persists. Using the conceptual apparatus of science and technology studies, this article critically examines this literature as a basis for reengaging ongoing conceptual debates in the wider field of urban studies. Through a reading of the last 20 years of “Number One Documents,” which highlight the central government’s policy priorities for rural development, I argue that the apparent mismatch between categories and processes is not, in fact, a problem that is susceptible to conceptual resolution. By embracing the methodological principles of agnosticism, symmetry, and free association, a sociology of urban knowledge can help to expose the inherent politics of urban concepts.

A meta-coupling analysis between three-dimensional urbanization and ecosystem services in China’s urban agglomerations

Spatial heterogeneity and evolutionary pathways of PM2.5 pollution driven by urbanization in China to 2100.

Falling into poverty or escaping from it? The effect of the minimum wage in urban China

When property becomes liability: Housing wealth and public support for property taxation in urban China

Social cohesion is a central goal of inclusionary housing policy. Classical urban theories highlight the role of social ties in fostering cohesion, yet evidence from public housing indicates more complex underlying mechanisms. This study distinguishes between two types of neighbourhood ties: familiar ties, formed through affective interactions such as friendships, and invisible ties, emerging from routine encounters with familiar strangers. Using a mixed-methods design that combines a survey of 628 tenants with 21 in-depth interviews in 14 public rental housing (PRH) neighbourhoods in Beijing, we examine how different ties shape perceptions of neighbourhood cohesion. The findings show that familiar ties significantly enhance cohesion, whereas invisible ties remain socially inert, offering recognition without translating into meaningful solidarity. Situated in the context of urban China, the study underscores the central role of friendship-based ties in strengthening PRH neighbourhoods. The results suggest that housing policy and neighbourhood planning should prioritise creating conditions for repeated and meaningful interactions that can transform casual encounters into durable relationships and help cultivate more cohesive public housing neighbourhoods.

BackgroundThis study aims to investigate the associations between four dietary behaviors and physical fitness among Chinese adolescents aged 13–16, with particular attention to urban–rural and sex-related differences.MethodsThe data were obtained from the Chinese National Survey on Students’ Constitution and Health (CNSSCH). The analysis included 43,194 participants aged 13–16 from urban and rural China. Multivariable linear regression analyses were used to examine associations between dietary and physical fitness, adjusting for physical activity, sleep duration, and sedentary time.ResultsMore frequent consumption of breakfast, eggs, and dairy products was linked to better physical fitness outcomes in all groups. Higher intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) was linked to poorer fitness performance. These relationships were stronger in rural adolescents, especially for strength (β = 0.047, p < 0.001) and endurance (β = −0.063, p < 0.001). The associations were more evident among girls.ConclusionDietary behaviors were related to physical fitness in adolescents aged 13–16. The relationships were stronger in rural areas than in urban areas. Regular intake of breakfast, eggs, and dairy products was linked to better strength, speed, and endurance. Overall, higher consumption of breakfast, eggs, and milk, and reduced intake of SSBs were associated with modestly better physical fitness outcomes among adolescents.

Rapid urbanization in Asia has intensified concerns over rising CO 2 emissions, yet the moderating influence of human capital in this process remains underexplored. This study examines whether human capital can mitigate the environmental impact of urbanization in five major Asian economies—China, India, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia—during 1990–2021. Employing advanced panel econometric techniques, including cross-sectional dependence tests, panel co-integration analysis and a panel ARDL framework with Panel Mean Group (PMG), MG and DFE estimators, the study captures both long- and short-run dynamics. Robustness is ensured through dynamic OLS estimation, while Granger causality and variance decomposition provide insights into the direction and strength of causal linkages. The results reveal that urbanization significantly increases CO 2 emissions, with a 1% rise in the urban population contributing to a 7.53% increase in emissions. In contrast, human capital directly reduces emissions by 1.68% and, when interacting with urbanization, offsets its adverse effect by 11.76%. Evidence broadly supports the Environmental Kuznets Curve, although country-specific heterogeneity emerges: human capital fosters sustainable urbanization in China and South Korea, and moderates environmental stress in India, while financial development intensifies emissions in Japan and Indonesia. By quantifying the moderating role of human capital, this study adds novel evidence to the environmental economics literature and underscores human capital development as a key policy instrument for achieving sustainable urban growth and low-carbon development in Asia.