Zhang Luo-cheng

Evolvement of urban spatial structure and main drives in Wuxi, China

With the quick development of urbanization, urban expansion has been paid more and more attention to by researchers from western countries and China. Here Wuxi City of China is selected as a case study. Located in the core-area of Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta, as the sources of Chinese township enterprise, Wu culture, and national industry, Wuxi has experienced great change in the urban spatial structure, especially in the land use structure, and urban shape and scale. The ratio of industrial land was about one-third of the construction land in 2003. Residential and public infrastructure land had decreased a little from 1956 to 2003, but it remains to be the main construction land at present. Green land has increased at the highest speed due to the demand of sustainable development. After the reform and opening to the outside world, this kind of evolvement of urban spatial expansion is helpful for sustainable development. Economic development, transportation, and administrative planning are the main reasons for these changes. During different periods, the main drives are different. Economic development is the basic factor that influences urban expansion. Transportation influences urban evolvement in different times, but now the importance is not as great as 30 years ago, because administrative force plays an important function in urban planning of China and influences urban evolvement.

The characteristics and main problems of minority regions in China

China is a country that has a large number of minorities, who live in specific regions which are mainly located in central and west China. These regions are abundant in natural resources, which are potential advantages and also an important basis for economic development in these regions. They are of general importance for China in strategic and ecological terms. They will not only affect the environment for survival of the minority regions but also affect the sustainable development of the eastern and central parts of China and even the survival and development of the Chinese nation as a whole. Minorities live in relatively compact communities, among the 55 minorities, 35 of them were highly compact minorities, with a compact level of more than 90%. Here the development in infrastructure as well as social and economic development (e. g. export-oriented economy) has been and is still slow, regional poverty are most concentrated. The economic structures in minority areas are still in the low stage, which have resulted in underdevelopment in these regions.

The character and change tendency of agricultural land use in the Zhujiang Delta—A case study of Shunde City

In this paper, Shunde City is selected as a typical region standing for the Zhujiang Delta because of its excellent location and dike-pond system. There are three main characters of agricultural land use in this region. First, the most typical land use form is dike-pond system. It is a special form of artificial ecosystem of land-water interaction. Second, sandy field is also an important land type in this region. Third, land use is greatly influenced by export-oriented economy. Recently, with economic reforming and the opening up of the Zhujiang Delta, the structure of agricultural land use has been changed greatly. The area of mulberry dike has decreased and a variety of planting crops has increased. Various structure of dike-pond farming has emerged in the Zhujiang Delta such as “fruit dike-fish pond”, “flower dike-fish pond”, “grass dike-fish pond”, “vegetable dike-fish pond”. The area of water has slightly increased and its development tends to modernization due to the use of modern equipment and advanced breeding ways. The area for “three high” (high yield, high quality and high efficiency) agriculture has increased greatly.