The implementation of “the belt and road initiative” and the interpretation of its orientation of “facing the radiation center of South Asia and Southeast Asia” have created an important opportunity for Yunnan border ports. With the "labor shortage" problem, a large number of foreign workers have poured into Yunnan territory. Cross-border workers issue has become a hotspot in the field of anthropology, geography and economics in the western world, especially in the field of border study. Most researchers pay attention to the push-and-pull factors of foreign workers and its impacts on the local labor market. On contrast, cross-border issue causes a debate in the field of ethnology, demography and economics in the domestic literature. The main points are as follows: the influencing factors of foreign labor, the service and management of foreign labor, and its economic impacts on both two countries. It can be found that quite few geographers pay attention to the cross-border workers issue and the past study regarded border area as a whole area to explore, ignoring the spatial differences among different border ports. Consequently, from the view of geography, this paper analyzes the spatial difference and contributing factors of the foreign workers of border ports in Yunnan based on field research and questionnaires. Firstly, this paper summarizes the overall characteristics of foreign workers of border ports in Yunnan. In detail, first of all, the number of foreign workers shows an increasing trend. Secondly, they are distributed in a range of industries widely, and the different types of industries directly determine the frequency of cross-border labors. Thirdly, the educational level of foreign labors is generally low, which restricts their labor skills and wages. Fourthly, the employment path of foreign workers is single, and their legitimate rights and interests can’t be protected effectively. Subsequently, three characteristics of foreign labors and their spatial differences were analyzed, including the basic characteristics (gender structure, age structure, education level), job characteristics (cross-border approach, employment type, income level), and condition characteristics (living conditions, adaptability to the local environment). This paper concludes that the spatial pattern of the diversity of cross-border workers in Yunnan border ports is in fact the results of border effects, including both “shielding effect” and “mediation effect”. It is to note that human geography elements, such as development opportunities and hinterland supports of ports, foreign workers’ management and service system, the economic and political conditions of neighboring countries, and cultural and social differences, as well as physical geography elements, such as border types and traffic accessibility, contributing to border effects. Finally, this paper suggests that Yunnan should take advantage of political opportunity and pay close attention to the service and management of foreign workers. It would be good to change “shielding effect” into “intermediary effect” and rationally guide foreign workers to participate in the regional economic activity in good order.
With the speeding up of regional economic integration process, the socio-economic structure of the border areas between China and Vietnam has changed, and with the deepening of economic cooperation in the greater Mekong sub-region (GMS), shielding effect in the border areas has weakened, cross-border population migration, such as the population movement of intermarriage and business workers, has become more frequent, so that population in the border areas has become more complex, and the population structure is changed, leading to a series of population security problems. This paper makes an analysis on those problems with the macro-scope statistic data from County Governments and the data from qualitative interviews on illegal cross-border intermarriage in border areas of Yunnan and Guangxi. The results show that cross-border intermarriage in the border areas of the two provinces is increasing rapidly, intermarriage circle extends continuously from the border to the hinterland, cross-border marriage extends broader, Parts of the cross-border marriage will soon turn into the hinterland's transnational marriage, Married population gender structure presents serious imbalance, the number of the women from neighboring countries married into China is much more than that of Chinese women married into the neighbors, the couple’s education-cultural quality of the across border marriage is very low, their cultural levels are mostly primary school and junior high school, the couple’s education resources present a combination of weakness and weakness, across border marriage registration rates is very low, mostly in the form of de facto marriage family in China, And early marriage and many births phenomena in those families are serious, that would not be conducive to China family planning implementation. Couples’ age difference is too large and the cross-border marriages have features of intergenerational inheritance. Further analysis finds that the causes leading to the continuous increase of the cross-border marriage are closely related to the geo-spatial proximity of Vietnam, the homology of cross-border cultural circles, the closure of the marriage circles, the promotion of the two-level economic stair among the neighboring countries, China border areas and inland China, the cumbersome marriage registration procedures and high cost, the complementarity between the two countries’ population sex structure, the dislocation of the marriage system between the two countries, and the instability of the political situation in the border areas. It is difficult to effectively connect the marriage institutions of China and Vietnam because of the great difference of marriage systems between the two countries, including marriage registration certificate requirements, the legal age for marriage, marriage registration fees, and so on. To accomplish this, a special marriage registration agency or department in the border areas should be set up to maintain the reasonable pursuit of cross-border marriages of those people. Traditional security development strategies pay attention to the competition processes, obtaining a relative earning, while non-traditional ones lay more emphasis on cooperation to get absolute return. “Cooperation” should not only be embodied at the sector levels, but also at the national and international levels. China and her neighbors should not be a “zero sum game”, but a benign interaction process. In short, the persistence of Yunnan and Guangxi border areas cross-border marriage is not only connected with historical reasons, but also with the reality conditions, not only affected by cross-border ethnicity’s cultural assimilation, but also by the political restrictions and economic role of China and Vietnam, not only restricted by macro social structures, but also related to the micro life custom of the inhabitants living in the border areas. Cross-border marriage of those people from border areas in Yunnan and Guangxi has become a stable mate model, forming a unique marriage culture in the border areas. That is the result of the inter-action among many factors, and needs to be surveyed from long-term strategic view.
Border regions are an important geopolitical area, also a national gateway and an important trade route. After the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative and Healthy China, there is a pressing need to strengthen research on health care services in border regions. In this paper, we systematically reviewed the publications on health care services in border regions from 2000 to 2016 in China and abroad. There were 282 articles in Chinese and 359 in English shown by CNKI and Web of Science, respectively. The Keyword Co-occurrence tool of CiteSpace software was used to visualize the keywords of the articles we searched for so as to show the current research trend more clearly. In terms of study areas, overseas scholars mainly focused on the U.S.-Mexico border, while Chinese scholars focused on the border regions in Yunnan Province. In terms of research subjects, overseas scholars mainly focused on the ethnic minorities and women who lived in the border regions, while Chinese scholars mainly studied the minorities living in Yunnan Province. In terms of contents, overseas scholars mainly focused on two topics: 1) health care services and disease control in border regions, and 2) cross-border health care utilization behavior and cross-border medical tourism. In the first topic, the health conditions of border residents who were suffering from HIV and cancer were discussed, and how community health workers and governments managed to deliver intervention to the border residents were demonstrated. In the second topic, the characteristics and the influencing factors of various cross-border behaviors which took place in different border regions were studied, and the development and emerging risks of medical tourism which is a special form of cross-border utilization of health care services were pointed out. In addition, some overseas scholars also highlighted the importance of health care accessibility and equality. Because of the complexity of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of border regions, many non-spatial factors had determinant effects on health care accessibility. In comparison, related research in China started relatively late, and mainly focused on the prevalence, control and influencing factors of various infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and dengue in Yunnan Province, and the related health care services offered by hospitals. As for research methods, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used by overseas and Chinese scholars, and interdisciplinary characteristics began to show. Quantitative methods are advantageous in identifying the influencing factors of certain diseases or health care utilization behaviors, while qualitative methods perform better in revealing the mechanisms behind phenomena and also in analyzing the interaction between various factors. In general, future research needs to include more areas and discuss health issues in border regions from the perspective of health geography and political geography in the new era. China has many neighboring countries and the geopolitical environment is complex. Research on health care services in border regions needs to be strengthened. In the future, new research methods developed in western countries should be employed based on the Chinese context, such as spatial distribution of health care services and optimization of service layout, and health care service utilization behavior. New conceptual models and emerging theories in border studies need to be combined to perform further research of multidisciplinary characteristics.
Actinidia chinensis, a large deciduous climbing vine, is native to China and listed as an endangered plant of the national second-grade protection. The origin of Actinidia chinensis is supposed to be the Yangtze River valley, and Actinidia chinensis is known as the widely introduced and cultivated kiwi fruit. The kiwi fruit has both edible and medicinal value. In recent years, because of rapid urbanization and ecological environment change, its wild resources were seriously damaged and its habitat fragmented, which need to be protected, reasonably developed and utilized. Mapping its current distribution is useful for conservation planning，and understanding the change in distribution impacted by climate change is important for mitigation of the impact from future climate change. In this study, 181 historical investigation records were used to predict the potential suitable distribution and current distribution space reconstruction of Chinese kiwi fruit based on ArcGIS and Maximum Entropy niche model. We modeled the potential geographical distribution of the kiwi fruit in China under current and future climate change, and analyzed the key factors determining such distribution areas in China. Results show that the main suitable areas for Chinese kiwi were current distributed between 23° N and 35° N latitude and in the subtropical hilly areas to the east of 102° E longitude, such as the Qinling-Dabashan Mountains, Yun-Gui plateau, Luoxiao Mountains, Nanling Mountains and the Wuyi Mountains. The Maximum Entropy niche model is evaluated to be highly reliable by Receiver operating characteristic (ROC).Training data and Testing data of AUC were both above 0.950, indicating a better forecast. Response curves created by Jackknife method displayed that mean temperature of coldest quarter, min temperature of coldest month, mean diurnal range and temperature seasonality, which are all related to low temperature and their variation range, were the dominant environmental variables that mainly contributed to prediction of suitable distribution potential. The total area of suitable region under current climate condition is 2.38×106 km2, accounting for 25.19% of China's total land area. Under moderate greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 (RCP4.5) scenario, the area of suitable region would change weakly, but the spatial distribution pattern would shift rapidly. Results showed that under the influence of climate warming in the future, the area of suitable region would increase and migrate northwards. These results would provide valuable reference for conservation of the wild resources of Actinidia chinensis as well as regional planting design, and might contribute to the establishment of climate change adaptation policies for considering various adaption options.
Floods, droughts and locusts were always the three most common types of natural disasters, which seriously impacted agricultural production in China during historical periods. Current studies of historical locust outbreak are focusing on the Eastern Monsoon Region of China, especially the North China Plain and its adjacent areas. Around the main research theme “locust breeding area evolution and drainage network change during historical period in China”, this article first reviews the research background of the migratory locust hazards and locust breeding area evolution, then examines the current progress and difficulties in “climate and disasters”, “locust breeding area evolution and drainage network change” and other related topics, and at last points out the future scientific issues and their significance: 1) More attention should be paid to the systematic data mining and record excavation of the historical locusts and their breeding areas and also to qualitative, quantitative and normalized statistics of sub-species of locusts in different dynasties and regions. Historical locust database is to be improved and coupled with hydrological/climatic/social factors and other disasters. The Atlas of the history of locust outbreak is to be compiled and the Chinese Historical Locust Geographic Information System (CHLGIS) is to be established. 2) The spatio-temporal evolution history of locust breeding areas is lack of simulation and interpretation, especially lack of studies on typical spatio-temporal evolution history during typical hydrological periods and climate period, as well as the mutual transformation process and mechanism of four types of locust breeding areas. The spatial evolution maps of locust breeding areas need to be compiled, the time series need to be updated for high resolution reconstruction, the process analysis of major locust events need to be strengthened, and the explanation from the perspective of ecology and phenology need to be improved. 3) The interaction process and mechanism between locust breeding area evolution and drainage network change under climate change background in the Eastern Monsoon Region of China during the historical period should be explored. It is urgent to study the integration of “Climate-Hydrology-Locust” systematically and integrally, and to find convincing evidence and facts. 4) The coupling relationship between locusts and other natural disasters and social crises in the typical locust breeding areas and drainage network, the response process of the drainage network change and climate change, the quantitative impact on social development, and linkage among “Climate-Disaster-Society” should be examined. 5) Implication to future disaster and risk assessment should be disclosed. In particular, it is important to focus on the four types of locust breeding areas: river flood locust breeding area, lake shore locust breeding area, sea coast locust breeding area and internal plain flood locust breeding area. They have a significant feature of “water attachment” which indicates the interaction process and mechanism between locust breeding area evolution and drainage network change in the Eastern Monsoon Region of China during the historical period should be an important research direction. 6) Modern process studies focus on the characteristics and risks of future catastrophes in the context of global warming. These characteristics and risks need to be predicted and evaluated, which is expected to offer historical reference and scientific foundation for eco-environmental protection, disaster risk assessment and disaster reduction strategies.
Feeder aviation is an important part of the air transport system, and our policy has been pledged to promote feeder development, but the increases are mainly concentrated on the main lines while feeders are lagging behind and stagnant. Researches about Chinese air transport network emphasize on network characteristics, hub-spoke structure and so on, however, the focuses of which are on the hub and trunk, and feeder related research is relatively weak. According to the existing limited studies, there is a large difference on the Chinese current situation of feeder air, which is mainly due to their different criteria on the feeder judging, and what’s more, there is no clear and uniform definition either, which is not conducive to the development and implementation of feeder aviation-related policies. The paper systemically reviews the concepts of feeder aviation at home and abroad to conclude that the judgment standard of feeder route is less than 800 km. And the airline data of small airports that have less than 100 000 passengers in 2014 is collected to analyze the spatial pattern and service level of Chinese feeder aviation in small airports. We find that feeder development in small airport as a whole is not high, and only 41% of the routes are in line with the definition of feeder airlines, which are mainly distributed in western China. There is a large proportion of inter-province routes for small airports, which accounts for 53.6%, and hub-spoke shape seems to be developed in some places. On the other hand, destinations of Chinese small airports are not well designed in consideration of 3 routes and above opening in 1/3 of those airports; what’s important, the feeder airlines’ operational efficiency is slightly better than that of the non-feeder, the average landing frequency of the former is 2.3 times the landing frequency of the latter, and among routes which have 7 times landing and over a week, feeder routes account for 53.1%, what’s more, the average attendance of feeder airlines is nearly 10% higher than that of non-feeder, that is related to their different selections on aircraft type. For example, ERJ-190 (medium), Xinzhou 60 (small) and Bombardier CRJ9000 (medium) are popular in feeder routes, while the main types of non-feeder route are Boeing and Airbus series.
Based on the satellite image survey data of Huangshan City in 2014, by using the related spatial analysis methods such as landscape pattern index and GIS spatial analyses, the spatial pattern characteristics of rural settlements in Huangshan City were analyzed. Some conclusions are drawn as follows: First, the overall distribution of settlement density of Huangshan City is sparse, but highlights the characteristics of “central city” agglomeration distribution; Second, the scale distribution of rural settlements shows a strong spatial autocorrelation, the high-value and low-value clusters of rural settlement scale are respectively characterized by aggregation distribution in space; Third, the spatial differentiations of township residential spatial pattern in Huangshan City are evident. There exists a distinct spatial disparity in Huangshan City. On the whole, the northeast part is more complex than the Southwest part. The quantitative analysis to rural settlement spatial distribution factors in the regional level indicates that the driving force of influencing rural settlement space distribution is mainly altitude, slope, traffic, central town, population, economy, planning, policy. On that basis, the main factors of rural settlement spatial pattern, as well as the rural settlement spatial morphological characteristics are discussed. 1) The scale of rural settlements in Huangshan City decreases with the increase of regional elevation and slope gradient. 2) With the increase of the distance between the traffic routes and the central towns, the scale of rural settlements shows a downward trend. 3) There is a positive correlation between population size, economic strength and settlement scale. If a town has a larger population size and stronger economy, the scale of rural settlement will be larger. 4) Planning and policy are also the important factors that affect the spatial distribution of rural settlements, they play an important role in the regulation and guidance. Although different factors have different characteristics on the spatial distribution of rural settlements, the final formation of the spatial pattern of rural settlements is the result of the interaction of terrain, location, social-economic conditions and other factors.
