Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which integrates human and non-human factors, as well as physical and social elements, into an Actor Network, can provide geographers with a powerful theoretical tool to survey the “space”, and so the theory now has been widely applied in different branches of human geography. From the perspective of Actor-Network Theory, this paper studies the spatial production process of Kaiping Diaolou and Village from remote countryside to a world heritage. The study reveals that the actors in the actor network of Kaiping Diaolou and Village involve the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO, local governments at different levels, the Special Foundation of Kaiping Diaolou and Village, the tourism enterprises, the tourists to Kaiping, the overseas Chinese owners of Diaolou, the local owners of Diaolou, the non-owner residents of Diaolou, and the physical and social environment of Diaolou and Village. Since the 1980s, the dilapidation of Diaolou and the recession of local rural economy have confused the related actors. Under this condition, the application for the List of World Heritage and the following tourism development would be an acceptable means to satisfy different actors’ interests. In that process, the concerned stack-holders actively took part in the reproduction of the space for their own projects. The issue of the collectivity of the actors which was presented because of the economic recession of the Kaiping Diaolou region was both the reason of the transformation and also the new origin of the spatial reproduction of the Kaiping Diaolou. Application for the List of World Heritage and tourism development were the process of interests, enrollment, mobilization, and also the process of the reproduction of space. The objections to the network presented by some of the owners were referenced to the reproduction of the new space. The results of this case study indicates that, ANT is an effective theoretical device to explain the spatial production of a particular locality. The production of space stresses that space is an orderly system of social practices and actions, and the ANT, from the identification of the actors to the identification of network, provides a specific view for interpreting the spatial production.
Ethnic identification in PRC has attracted many researchers. However, more attention has been paid to the national construction from the discourses of the outsiders, while less to that from the discourses of the insiders (ethnic minority). According to the field work, we find that the local government constructed the ethnic identity of Longtan Gelao with the ethnologist’s theory of ‘Pu people-Lao people-Gelao people’ ethnic origin evolution. Further more, written records constructed the relationship between Gelao and cinnabar, which promoted the rationality and legitimacy of Longtan Gelao ethnic identity in China`s ethnic minority system. Consequently, the placeness of cinnabar is a necessary factor of ethnic identity. In the context of tourism, the local government continued to construct and strengthen the ethnic identity by digging the cinnabar text, reviving sacrifice rite and the landscape, but how to improve the place reproduction, how to impact the local culture development, how to arouse the real ethnic affection, and how to enhance the cohesion of the local main bodies, the elites, and the common people, are still need to be paid more attention to and further considered.
Nostalgic phenomenon promoted by modernity, globalization and urbanization has attracted broad attention from academic circle and has become an important issue in the research at home and abroad,. The nostalgic consumption, which covers basic necessities of life and spiritual culture, is popular all over the world. As a synthesis during the nostalgic consuming process, the special consuming space and its construction are worth more discussion. This paper takes Tai Ping Koon (Taipingguan) Western Food Restaurant in Guangzhou, which has been famous for hundred years, as a case to reveal the process of the construction of nostalgia consuming place. We conducted the study of the relation between the space and the consumers through analyzing the process of constructing the physical space, place making and emotional space, and adopted the method of combining participant observation and semi-structured interview. We also collected the information from the related media as the data source. The paper analyses the relationship between nostalgia space and consumers through the construction of physical space and emotional space. It is considered that the owner of Tai Ping Koon Restaurant should construct the place on collective memories, which could promote the reproduction of the sense of place by selecting external location and internal material space constructing. From experiencing the vision, touch, taste, smell and hearing, consumers’ memories and emotional experience for “text”, “image”, “symbol” could be produced. Meanwhile, consumers as positive subjects in constructing nostalgic place would promote sustainable construction of nostalgia consuming place in place attachment and place identity through their own emotional experience and consuming behavior, and would have sense of belonging and place identity in such place. Finally, nostalgic consumption space would continue to be all the rage, the symbol consumption, landscape transplantation, the tourist gaze, the power relation between the consumer and the constructor, the emotional experience of space, which are involved in the construction process of nostalgic space, are worth further discussion of scholars.
Danwei community is a principal territorial unit formed in the early phase of industrialization and urbanization in China. As such a complex compound, danwei was not only the pattern but also a driving force of early urbanization. As danwei system was abrogated and sectorization-oriented city planning was initiated, danwei was going to be peripherized. Geographers in China did not set foot in and pay close attention to danwei’s spatial pattern until the 1990s. Taking an underdevoloped town in northern Guangdong as an example, this paper looks into the evolution of danwei’s physical space and inner poverty. The result turns out that physical space of danwei changes in different degree, which can be classified into 3 types: complete-reverse type, compact-decomposition type and enclave-decomposition type. Enterprise-type danwei space mostly overlaped poverty area of town. Danwei was becoming a space of poverty cluster, poverty solidarity and structural poverty. The data also indicate that female residents may be more influenced by the collapse of danwei system. The social network of residents in danwei is of high density and strong ties, that may be a main reason for its poverty solidification.
Baietan constraint reach of the Pearl River in Guangzhou, located in the west of downtown, is the deepest and widest water area in the city, with Front Channel, Back Channel and the Liuxi River converging here. Owing to its distinct location and physical conditions, Baietan plays a significant role in Guangzhou urban development. This paper discusses the geologic and geomorphologic features of the constrain reach, and then analyses its watercourse topographic evolution as well as scour-and-silting alternation based on ancient terrain map and remote sensing data. The result shows that Baietan reach plays a control role in stabilizing water level of the Pearl River, and its general evolution is characterized by evident narrowing but relatively slower shoaling. The narrowing of the reach would obstruct upstream flood discharge and reduce downstream tidal prism. Therefore, for protection of the Pearl River and the safety of the city, the evolutional law of the watercourse should be followed, the open space of the neck reach be maintained, and further narrowing of the river channel be avoided.
As the direct user of rural housing land, the farmer households play very important role on rural housing land transfer, and the cognition and willingness of farmer households are the key factors on decision- making of rural housing land transfer. In this paper, on the basis of special investigation of “rural housing land transfer in Jiangxi Province”, the current cognition and willingness of farmer households were analyzed, and the Logistic Regression Model was used for the quantitative analysis of the factors affecting farmers’ willingness to rural housing land transfer. The results show that the farmers’ understanding on national policies related to the rural housing land is not very well, farmer households have higher expectation on the construction of effective and legal mechanism of rural housing land transfer, farmers generally are worried about the high house prices and speculative behavior resulted from rural housing land transfer entering the market; and the age of householder, annual income of family, size and the number of rural housing land are the main affecting factors of the farmers’ willingness on rural housing land transfer.
A field pot experiment was conducted to study the effect of biochar on maize growth, soil CO2 concentration and emission rate, karstification in karst area. Five mass percentage levels of biochar from sugarcane bagasse were added into limestone soil, which were no biochar (CK), 0.5% (T1), 1% (T2), 2% (T3) and 5% (T4), respectively, then maize was planted. The changes of soil CO2 concentration and emission rate, the concentration of Ca2+and in soil leaching water were monitored during the growth period of the corn. The TOC of soil, soil bulk density and biomass of maize were tested after harvest of maize. The results indicated that: the correlation coefficient between the TOC of soil and biochar content was 0.992, however, the correlation coefficient between soil bulk density and biochar content was -0.982. As compared with the control, the biomass of maize straw under T3 and T4 treatment were significantly increased by 12.92% and 33.01%, maize cob were significantly increased by 11.51% and 16.41%, root were significantly increased by 20.88% and 51.13%, respectively. In the seedling stage of maize, soil CO2 concentration and emission rate were significantly increased by 76.00% and 66.91% under T4 treatment, respectively. In the jointing stage, heading stage and grain filling stage of maize, soil CO2 concentration of T4 treatment were significantly increased by 172.86%, 149.40% and 54.48%, those of T3 were significantly increased by 91.43%, 44.58% and 18.66%; Soil CO2 emission rate of T4 treatment were significantly increased by 79.52%, 84.49% and 102.22%, and those of T3 were significantly increased by 17.04%, 17.49% and 29.63%, respectively. The main reason of soil CO2 concentration and emission rate increase was the increase of respiration of maize root, the respiration increase of soil microbe might also contribute to this result. The concentration of Ca2+and in soil leaching water of T3 treatment which were collected after the jointing stage of maize were significantly increased by 16.00%~29.17%, and 17.39%~28.57%, those of T4 treatment were significantly increased by 38.46%~50.00% and 34.78%~52.38%, the increase of soil CO2 concentration might contribute to those increases. Therefore, to some extent, bagasse biochar as amendment of limestone soil, can improve limestone soil properties, accelerate maize growth, and increase soil CO2 concentration and emission rate.
Reservoir has been one of the main water supply sources in the world. Xinfengjiang reservoir supplies drinking water not only for Heyuan city directly, but also for downstream cities Huizhou and Dongguan through the Dongjiang river, as well as for other cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong through interbasin water transfer. Therfore, Xinfengjiang reservoir is one of the most important water sources in Guangdong province, and research on its water supply ability and safety is very significant. By using month by month data of reservoir water quantity (RWQ), water quality index (WQI) and water supply for drinking to Heyuan city (WSFD) during 2003-2012, the article calculated the yearly and monthly average values of the three indexes and those in dry and wet seasons. The result showed that WSFD was increasing with fluctuations generally. The value of WSFD in 2012 was 3.3 times of that in 2003. No pollutant exceeded standard and the worst water quality was in Janurary on average for many years and annual average of WQI was generally declining during the ten years and water quality improved. Water quality and WSFD in wet season (from April to September) were better /more than those in dry season. The WSFD difference between dry and wet seasons was very significant by statistical analysis, the WQI difference between the two seasons was also significant, but the RWQ difference between dry and wet seasons was not significant. The WSFD month by month had obviously positive linear correlation with RWQ, and negative linear correlation with WQI. The correlationship between WSFD and WQI had significant negative linear characteristics during dry season, wet season and the year, while that between WSFD and RWQ was not significant. In last ten years, both the demand for drinking water and the water supply were increasing, however, the reservoir water quantity was frequently deficient (the months when RWQ was insufficient accounted for 58 percent of the total in the ten years). Although water quality was fine, some potential problems occurred in the reservoir watershed, for example, livestock farming, mining, domestic sewage drainage, unreasonable forestry structure, etc.. Thus the imbalance between supply and demand was becoming increasingly serious. Water supply safety of the reservoir was facing two hidden dangers from the reduction of water quantity and quality. For the sake of long term water supply security, effective measures should be adopted to readjust hydraulic scheduling according to the character of water supply and to monitor and controll water pollution.
Based on the identification and analysis of diatom fossiles and heavy minerals, and combined with 14C ages in the V10 core from Hongkong, we discussed the evolution of Holocene environment in the studied area, as well as the responses of diatom assemblages and heavy mineral compositions to the marine environment changes. The diatom analysis results show that coastal brackish water species always occupied absolute advantage during the Holocene, followed by the marine species, and almost no freshwater diatoms were detected. Meanwhile, mineral analysis reveals that authigenic pyrite and siderite possessed a large percentage in heavy mineral composition. So, these two indexes together indacate that the studied area was in low-salinity inshore environment over the last 10 ka, and the depositional interface was strong reducing condition during the most time of the Holocene. Affected by the global and regional climate change, the Holocene climate and environment of the studied area evolved in phase. From 11 650 to 10 650 cal. a BP, the climate became warm or cool after the cold last glacial period, and sea-level began to rise. During 10 650~7 200 cal. a BP, the Asian summer monsoon intensified, the climate became warm but may be relatively dry, the sea-level change was still mainly controlled by the global transgression, and the water salinity maximum occurred during this stage. The period of 7 200~6 000 cal. a BP was a warm and humid stage. At this time, the sea-level continued to rise and reached its highest point around 6 900 cal. a BP as a result of increased summer monsoon precipitation and freshwater discharge. After 6 000 cal. a BP, sea-level fall, and the climate might become warm and dry again.
Garment industry belongs to the traditional industry in the city. During more than 20 year urban development, Shenzhen garment industry has evolved from its infancy to maturity. Based on the garment enterprises point data, by using kernel density estimation, standard deviation ellipse, hot spots and Ripley's K function as point pattern study methods, a comparative study was made in this paper on spatial distribution and clustering phenomenon of Shenzhen garment enterprises in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010. After that with the negative binomial regression model, determinants that affect the location of garment enterprises as well as their variation of impact among subdistricts in Shenzhen were validated. The research results indicate that garment enterprises developed fast during 1995-2000 and manifested some different spatial distribution for every 5 years. Changing over time, the high kernel density value zones of garment industry increased obviously, which showed the concentrated distribution trend: the area of standard deviation ellipse contracted, hotspots area expanded with western hotspot moving northward and central hotspot being further reinforced, spatial clustering revealed “increase-decrease” tendency and the clustering range extended annually. The results of negative binomial regression model demonstrate that, from the perspective of Shenzhen subdistricts, industrial agglomeration, regional cooperation and institutional factors had the significant impact on the spatial evolution of garment industry, in which the industrial agglomeration and institutional factors were strengthened gradually while regional cooperation was searching the spatial dynamic balance throughout the development of Shenzhen and its adjacent cities garment industries. Because enterprises’ internal demand of agglomeration economies and their external demand of regional conditions generated the path-dependence, the spatial evolution of Shenzhen garment industry had prominent inertial effect, which constrained and influenced the subsequent characteristics of the industrial spatial evolution.
Economic and social development of China is entering an important transition period. Industrial upgrading and space optimization are key factors to improve the level of urbanization in the city cluster region. The relationship between industrial structure evolution and urban space is now a new and urgent scientific topic to be studied. From a visual angle of space, this article proposed the Coefficient of Urban Space Response to Industrial Structure Evolution, with which the authors described the temporal-spatial characteristics of the response intensity in the Pearl River Delta since 1996, and analyzed the internal relation between urban space response and the industrialization level. The results show that the urban space response to the industries in the Pearl River Delta presented spatio-temporal differences. Coefficient of Urban Space Response to Industrial Structure Evolution was increasing year by year, and was decreasing from inner circles to outer circles, or from urban districts to surrounding counties. According to the strength of the urban space response to the secondary and tertiary industries, the cities and counties in the Pearl River Delta were classified into three categories: 1) consistent response, 2) response partial to secondary industry, and 3) response partial to tertiary industry. The major factors affecting the urban space response strength were economic level, urban population concentration, and regional policy and system. From the results we can conclude that: urban space response is closely related to the industrialization stage. If the industrialization process is faster, urban space response will become stronger. To establish positive interactive relationship between urban space and industries, and achieve sustainable growth, spatial optimization and upgrading of industry should be combined. In the early stage of industrialization, the urban space response is not so strong, the government should establish industrial park and development zone through the planning guidance, promote the development of industry, improve the urbanization rate of land and the development level of the secondary industry. In the middle stage of industrialization, the secondary industry dominates the economy, urban space expands more fast, the urban space response becomes strong. In order to improve the efficiency of construction land, the government should introduce policies to improve the structure of the secondary industry, and to accelerate the development of the tertiary industry. In the late stage of industrialization, the tertiary industry is dominant, but urban space expansion still has inertia, and the urban space response becomes very strong. The government should strengthen the planning management and policy guidance, and define the function of area development, determine the direction of industry and land supply according to the area’s function.
According to the times connotation requirement of Beautiful China construction, this paper built a set of evaluation index system including 32 indexes and its judgment standard of Beautiful Hunan construction from ecological subsystem, economic subsystem, political subsystem, cultural subsystem and social subsystem, made a quantitative and comprehensive evaluation of Beautiful Hunan construction by BP artificial neural network model at city level. The results are as follows: 1) In 2011, the mean evaluation value of political subsystem was 0.651 4, which was of grade Ⅱ, that means the political subsystem in Hunan Province was in “beautiful” status; the mean evaluation values of ecological, economic and social subsystems were 0.501 8, 0.450 2, and 0.473 0, respectively, the results were at grade Ⅲ, that means those subsystems were in “less beautiful” status; the mean evaluation value of cultural subsystem was 0.419 7, which was of grade Ⅳ, that means the cultural subsystem was in “the least beautiful” status. 2) As a whole, the mean value of the system comprehensive evaluation was 0.492 7, the evaluation result was of grade Ⅲ, showing that Hunan Province was in “less beautiful” status in year 2011; 3) The BP artificial neural network method is simple and highly effective, its evaluation result is objective and reliable. The method would be applicable and valid in comprehensive evaluation of regional construction level.
The theory of the coordination degree has been viewed as an important way to research the degree of coupling between the regional economic, social development and environmental protection. Based on the theory, this paper established an indicator system, a model and a calculating method to study the coordination degree of the rim cities around the Pearl River Delta, which include 12 prefecture-level cities in east, west and north of Guangdong province. The results show that the coupled coordination degree of those cities varies, that means different cities are in various stages of sustainable development. Six cities, including Zhanjiang, Shaoguan, Maoming, Qingyuan, Yangjiang and Heyuan are in the stage of coordinative development. All the cities are classified into three types according to their level on economic development, social development and environmental development. The cities with a higher level on economic development than social development and environmental protection should promote their population concentration and industrial agglomeration. The cities with expansion of regional disparities and rapid economic development should improve the population bearing capacity of the central city, plan and construct sub-center, and accelerate suburb’s economic development. The cities with high level economic development and low level environmental protection should strengthen the construction of regional ecological and environmental protection infrastructure.
In some undeveloped regions of China, the relationship between central cities and their jurisdictional areas is usually described as “a pony drags a cart”, and the radiation and promotion functions of the central cities for their jurisdictional areas are limited. Hence, the selection and cultivation of central cities are the key problem that the less developed regions must face and solve. Taking 2000, 2005 and 2010 as three time sections, with the social-economic statistics and traffic data of Jiangxi Province, this paper analyzes the evolution of urban system in the former Central Soviet Area in the south of Jiangxi Province from three aspects, namely, urban scale, hierarchy and hinterland structures, by Kernel density of urban space and “bottom-up” urban level and hinterland division methods. On that basis, the central cities in the areas are identified and their cultivation paths are put forward. Firstly, simulate the evolution of spatial structure of cities’ and towns’ scale by using Kernel density of urban space method, and then identify the concentration areas in the former Central Soviet Area. Secondly, utilize accessibility analysis to acquire the shortest time distance between each two cities/towns in 39 county-level administrative regions, then measure the intercity space contact intensity with the help of gravity model which takes time distance as model parameter. Finally, mark out the levels and hinterlands of cities in the Area by using the “bottom-up” division method. The results show that: during 2000-2010, the population scale of cities in the Area was acceleratingly expanded, and its spatial structure presented a significant core-edge feature. Therefore, core areas of urban agglomeration concentrated in Ganzhou, Ji’an, Ruijin and Nancheng appeared and showed significant spatial agglomeration effects, and became the essential growth poles promoting the urbanization of the Area. The levels of cities and towns in the Area can be classified into three grades, that is, Ganzhou, Ji’an, Ruijin and Nancheng have always been the first-grade cities, and their high-grade statues in cities’ and towns’ system are relatively stable. When it comes to the evolution of urban hinterlands, the hinterlands of second-grade cities continue to change, but the hinterlands of the first-grade cities keep stable all the time which are consistent highly with the stability of the four cities’ level. The study suggests that Ganzhou could be selected as the central city, while Ji’an, Ruijin and Nancheng as the secondary central cities, so lastly forms a “1+3” cities’ group. Taking the practical situation into account, we should foster central cities from several aspects, such as expanding city industries and city districts, optimizing the division of city function and transportation network, strengthening the institutional innovation and so forth.
