Regional differences of border geo-cities in China and the surrounding countries

doi:10.1007/s11442-018-1477-x

Abstract

Abstract:

As the improvement of international status and the implementation of China’s neighboring diplomacy, the development of border regions and the security of border cities, as well as their spatial structure and regional differences are gaining more attention from academic circle. Based on the interdisciplinary perspectives of urban geography, regional economics and geopolitics, this paper explores the regional differences of border geo-cities in China and the surrounding countries with the help of remote sensing information acquisition and ArcGIS spatial analysis. Three primary results are found as follows: (1) The border geo-cities in China and surrounding countries are divided into five geographical regions: geo-cities in South China Sea, geo-cities in Southeast Asia, geo-cities in South Asia, geo-cities in Central Asia and geo-cities in Northeast Asia. (2) In the spatial structure system of China’s border geo-cities, the importance of geo-cities in five major regions is fairly different. In terms of the security and economic development, the rank of priority is geo-cities in Northeast Asia, geo-cities in South China Sea, geo-cities in Central Asia, geo-cities in South Asia, geo-cities in Southeast Asia. (3) Considering China’s geo-setting for the development of border geo-cities, the east region is significantly better than the west, and the north region is slightly better than the south.

Key words: geo-setting, regional difference, border regions, border geo-cities, China and the surrounding countries

Hao HU, Shufang WANG, Yuejing GE. Regional differences of border geo-cities in China and the surrounding countries[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2018, 28(3): 351-366.

Figures/Tables 6

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References 42

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Perspectives	Type of cities	Comments or examples
Based on “place” perspective or location advantage	Border port cities	Cities with border ports
	Border cities	Dandong, Baishan, Yanji, Tumen, Heihe, Yining, Ruili etc.
	Border open cities	Heihe, Hunchun, Manchuria, Yining, Tacheng, Ruili, Hekou, Dongxing, Dandong etc.
	Coastal open cities	Tianjin, Yantai, Nantong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen etc.
	Frontier cities	Cities involving 9 land border provinces and 12 coastal border provinces
Based on “relation” perspective or connection advantage	Cities with railway ports	Ji’an, Tumen, Dandong, Suifenhe, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhaoqing, Harbin etc.
	Cities with highway ports	Bole, Cangyuan, Dongning, Hunchun, Yoshita, Nielamu, Huocheng, Tengchong, Tumenetc.
	Cities with air ports	Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanning, Guilin etc.
	Cities with water transportation ports	137 cities with open water transportation ports
Based on “geo-setting”perspective	National center cities	Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing
	Regional center cities	Shenyang, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an
	Provincial center cities	Capital cities of 31 provinces
	World tourism cities	Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Hangzhou, Luoyang, Kunming, Nanjing, Shanghai, Xi’an etc.
	International friendship cities	441 cities which have friendly relations with 1433 foreign cities

Regions	Countries	Provincialstates	Border cities	Urban settlements	Urban land area (km²)	Highway mileage	Railway mileage
Northeast Asia	China	10	48	2158	1555710.14	30039.91	17490.68
	Russia	5	37	298	322755.24	4691.17	4241.65
	Japan	2	4	134	23240.37	1791.35	1201.88
	Korea	6	38	63	16705.77	1793.03	274.33
	Mongolia	8	37	40	452869.90	3510.03	470.88
	North Korea	9	55	79	31708.76	2235.00	956.50
The South China Sea	China	6	24	1110	205469.00	13635.63	3108.09
	Vietnam (sea)	18	87	137	32256.53	1304.27	1006.15
	Philippines	4	15	279	56817.25	3697.40	589.99
	Malaysia	2	37	93	52059.00	1915.24	98.94
	Indonesia	2	2	15	8628.00	165.17	0.00
	Brunei	3	12	7	1127.67	290.69	0.00
Central Asia	China	2	9	142	876855.55	7766.06	2410.91
	Kazakhstan	2	12	115	189182.34	3778.42	689.69
	Kyrgyzstan	3	3	88	122089.65	3420.23	272.51
	Tajikistan	1	1	10	37833.77	645.92	0.00
	Russia	1	1	9	19165.95	1059.78	0.00
Southeast Asia	China	2	13	359	271121.89	6375.70	1133.89
	Vietnam (land)	7	33	59	27474.69	527.19	60.69
	Laos	3	6	12	10958.98	347.12	0.00
	Myanmar	2	9	138	142224.07	1675.27	231.85
South Asia	China	2	7	166	1034593.45	7718.72	649.14
	India	5	16	95	132565.24	2853.63	459.82
	Nepal	5	10	106	109287.97	1465.29	107.12
	Bhutan	4	11	5	13720.72	0.00	0.00
	Afghanistan	1	1	3	11045.68	208.18	0.00
	Pakistan	1	1	67	67909.30	1024.78	0.00

Regions	Region scores	Countries	Countries score	Provincial states	Border cities	Urban settlements	Urban land area	Highway mileage	Railway mileage
Northeast Asia	0.30	China	0.89	0.47	0.55	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
		Russia	0.27	0.76	0.42	0.14	0.21	0.16	0.24
		Japan	0.15	0.94	0.03	0.06	0.01	0.06	0.07
		Korea	0.15	0.71	0.43	0.03	0.01	0.06	0.02
		Mongolia	0.17	0.59	0.42	0.02	0.29	0.12	0.03
		North Korea	0.16	0.53	0.63	0.04	0.02	0.07	0.05
The South China Sea	0.19	China	0.40	0.71	0.27	0.51	0.13	0.45	0.18
		Vietnam (sea)	0.15	0.00	1.00	0.06	0.02	0.04	0.06
		Philippines	0.18	0.82	0.16	0.13	0.04	0.12	0.03
		Malaysia	0.18	0.94	0.42	0.04	0.03	0.06	0.01
		Indonesia	0.11	0.94	0.01	0.01	0.00	0.01	0.00
		Brunei	0.11	0.88	0.13	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.00
Central Asia	0.16	China	0.27	0.94	0.09	0.06	0.56	0.26	0.14
		Kazakhstan	0.18	0.94	0.13	0.05	0.12	0.13	0.04
		Kyrgyzstan	0.14	0.88	0.02	0.04	0.08	0.11	0.02
		Tajikistan	0.12	1.00	0.00	0.00	0.02	0.02	0.00
		Russia	0.12	1.00	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.04	0.00
Southeast Asia	0.16	China	0.24	0.94	0.14	0.17	0.17	0.21	0.06
		Vietnam (land)	0.13	0.65	0.37	0.03	0.02	0.02	0.00
		Laos	0.11	0.88	0.06	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.00
		Myanmar	0.16	0.94	0.09	0.06	0.09	0.06	0.01
South Asia	0.15	China	0.26	0.94	0.07	0.08	0.66	0.26	0.04
		India	0.15	0.76	0.17	0.04	0.08	0.09	0.03
		Nepal	0.13	0.76	0.10	0.05	0.07	0.05	0.01
		Bhutan	0.11	0.82	0.12	0.00	0.01	0.00	0.00
		Afghanistan	0.11	1.00	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.00
		Pakistan	0.13	1.00	0.00	0.03	0.04	0.03	0.00