Abstract:

In this paper, 126 traditional villages in Guangdong Province were taken as the research object. GIS spatial analysis was used in order to understand the spatial distribution pattern of traditional villages (TVs) in Guangdong, the differences in distribution pattern between in Guangdong and in other provinces, and the Han Chinese subgroup characteristics of TVs. The spatial distribution type was judged using the nearest neighbor index; the spatial distribution equilibrium was determined by the geographical concentration index and the unbalanced index; the spatial clustering region was measured by the nuclear density; the spatial autocorrelation analysis was carried out using the Moran index; and the spatial link function was used to determine the relationship between the TVs and Han Chinese subgroup characteristics. The results show that: 1) the spatial distribution of TVs in Guangdong Province is condensed. From the perspective of the city scale, TV distribution is concentrated in Meizhou, Qingyuan, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, and Zhaoqing. There are 87 TVs in these cities, accounting for 69% of the total in Guangdong, and Meizhou City is home to 40 TVs, accounting for about 32% of the total in the province. The TVs are generally unevenly distributed, mainly in northern Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta region. 2) There are significant differences in the spatial distribution density of TVs in Guangdong Province. The average distribution density of TVs in the province is 0.59 per thousand km2; the highest density of 2.14 per thousand km2 is in Meizhou; in Heyuan and Maoming, TV density is less than 0.1 per thousand km2; and there is no TV distributed in Yunfu City. There are four noticeable agglomeration areas: the Meizhou-Chaoshan Area, the Guangfo-Dongguan Area, the Zhanjiang-Leizhou Area, and the Qingyuan-Lianzhou Area. The core-edge distribution pattern is noticeable. 3) The spatial distribution of TVs in Guangdong Province shows significant global spatial autocorrelation and clustering characteristics of similar areas. As the distribution of the TVs in the province is relatively decentralized, it is of a noticeable “few-moderate-many” pyramid-like distribution. From the Moran scatter plot, most of the TVs are located in the first and third quadrants, displaying serious polarization. The overall spatial distribution pattern is of “hot spots - sub-hot spots - sub-cold spots - cold spots” in the province, with “sub cold spots - cold spots” as the major pattern. 4) The TVs in Guangdong Province are mainly distributed in the Guangfu and Hakka areas. The TVs in these two subgroups account for about 72% of the total in the province. The TVs of the highest density, 1.31 per thousand km2, are in the ethnic minority areas, followed by those of about 1.00 per thousand km2 in the Shaozhou Tuhua civil area. Although the Hakka and the Guangfu areas have the largest number of TVs, the density of TVs is only 0.59 and 0.48 per thousand km2, respectively due to wide distribution of the two ethnic groups. The distribution type of the TVs in Guangdong Province is similar to that in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Shanxi, and other provinces in the country, which is condensed with its core area and spatial autocorrelation having their own characteristics.

Key words: traditional villages, spatial distribution, spatial autocorrelation, Han Chinese subgroups distribution, Guangdong