The development of high-tech industrial parks (HTIPs) has become a salient phenomenon in China's economic and urban development. Current studies regarding the development of HTIPs tend to focus either on the active role of the local government or on the consequences of technological innovation that those parks may have brought about. Very few studies have paid attention to the intrinsic relationship between the process of space production in building HTIPs and the effect on urban development. To fill this theoretical gap, this article considers developing HTIPs as a territorial project through which both central and local states seek to promote economic growth by reorganizing their territories so as to facilitate capital accumulation based on building high-tech industrial parks. The authors use Beijing's Zhongguancun and Shanghai's Yangpu areas as examples to show the active role played by district governments in promoting and using the symbol of "high tech" to develop industrial estates. In the end, due to the HTIPs' quick tax-generating potentiality, their construction has given rise to commodity housing and commercial projects that district governments are much more enthusiastic to pursue. The property-led high-tech development projects have paradoxically generated a negative impact on sustainable high-tech development.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Building upon decades of global market flows, population migrations, digital technology, and accelerated interconnectedness, the twenty-first century is facing remarkable urban transformations (Harvey 1990, 2005; Sassen 2001; Holston 1999; Brenner 2004). In 1800, 3 percent of the world's population lived in cities. In 2008, that figure reached over 50 percent (Population Reference Bureau 2011). These transformations are most evident in the emerging nodes of an interreferencing urban Asian renaissance (Roy and Ong 2011). Eight of the world's ten megacities (those with populations over ten million) are in Asia. In postreform China, which is conscious of its rising power and eager to catch up with worldly pursuits, city building has reached the scale, intensity, and audacity of a revolution (Campanella 2008; Ren 2011). What characterizes this dramatic urban transformation in China? Who are its major players and winners, and who is marginalized or excluded? What cultural meanings and lifestyles are visibly forged? How are these processes intertwined with nationalistic aspirations, social divisions, and political contestations? What analytical insights and theoretical reflections can we gain at this historical juncture from an urban postmodern linking China, Asia, and the rest of the globe? These are some of the issues in the minds of Asian scholars across the disciplines. I hope this review will provide an opening for us to engage in multiple conversations, hence my citing the works of many colleagues.

Typical Chongqing architecture. Houses are buildt onto cliffs and steep hills

Source : China Digital Times

This paper estimates the effect of access to transportation networks on regional economic outcomes in China over a twenty-period of rapid income growth. It addresses the problem of the endogenous placement of networks by exploiting the fact that these networks tend to connect historical cities.[BREAD Working Paper No. 325]. URL:[http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/working/325.pdf].

This paper describes the structure and challenges facing the domestic Chinese hotel industry at the start of the second decade of the twenty-first century. It notes the progress that has been made and the increasing internationalization of the industry and Chinese chains as they commence to raise capital overseas and begin a period of mergers and acquisitions of foreign based chains. An analysis of the balance between demand and supply is provided for different cities throughout China. The challenges facing the Chinese domestic industry and for foreign chains operating in China are classified and a commentary is provided for each of these categorisations.

Along with the rapid development of urbanization, the energy problem is increasingly prominent. Based on CES production function and growth function of urbanization, this paper put forward the model of Growth Drag of China's Urbanization Caused by energy, and empirical analysis with the data of China was done. The results showed that the growth drag of energy during urbanization process in China is 0.2692,in other words, because of the restriction of energy, urbanization process declines 0.2692.From the results, the Growth Drag of China's Urbanization Caused by energy is very high. Ensure that energy security supply has become one of the important tasks for our country at present.

China is facing ecological revolution now. The basis of the revolution is establishing the ecological consciousness. Different level of ecological consciousness in urban and rural area raised our attention. According to different environment conditions and based on pollution theory, we try to find out the cornerstone of setting ecological consciousness during this changing time. Since China is on the fast urbanization period, environmental awareness change on rural-urban migrants can be this key. This paper focused on which factor(s) have significant effect to ecological consciousness. Urban and Rural residents were interviewed for data collecting, and for deep research, three groups (Urban Residents Group, Rural residents Group and Migrants Group) are split based on responders' migration experience. In this paper, ANOVA analysis and regression analysis are used. Based on pollution-driven theory, two models are given to compare the explanation strengths between within and without theory variables. We found that pollution experience and relative pollute have important effect on eco-consciousness. So Ecological Consciousness is not straight influenced by environment condition, but people think about the deterioration. We considered that, the cornerstone of setting ecological consciousness is recognizing the crisis and disruption of ecological environment.

Mégalopole de vitesse et de changement permanent, Shanghai contredit la fixité et l'idéal de ce qu'on appelle encore ville. Au visiteur imaginaire ou réel, au nouveau flâneur urbain équipé de son outillage numérique, Shanghai Nø City Guide délivre une exploration loin du récit omniscient. La texture urbaine qui se tisse ainsi à propos de Shanghai devient une invitation à se constituer soi-même des approches parcellaires et éclatées, des pratiques urbaines… À rebours du guide de voyage traditionnel, Shanghai Nø City Guide appréhende la ville par son dehors: imaginaires, espaces indécis, zones, chantiers et parcours qu'on ne trouvera pas ailleurs et que nous interrogeons à partir des pratiques qu'ils suscitent… lorsque nous nous détachons de notre rôle de touriste ou de résident. Proposition expérimentale et créative, fiction numérique mêlant les médias et les écritures urbaines en une forme éditoriale innovante, Shanghai Nø City Guide vise avant tout à créer un univers de rencontre avec cette mégalopole de vitesse et de changement

Le Shanghai Nø City Guide sorti au mois de février recèle une contribution d'Omer Pesquer qui déborde la clôture du livre, fût-il numérique, pour s'exprimer pleinement sur le Web. « Shanghai en folie » est un magnifique témoignage du renouvellement de nos écritures urbaines, par jeu et essaimage. Ceci est un témoignage sur la façon dont le Web et l'édition numérique façonnent nos échanges sur l'écriture. Le 15 mai 2011, alors que nous avons lancé notre appel à contribution pour Shanghai Nø City Guide, nous recevons la proposition suivante d'Omer Pesquer : « Mon idée est de prendre des photos FlickR de "Shanghai" en CC-by-SA et de les "passer" dans un processus automatisé pour les "unifier". Une sorte de re-photographie assistée par ordinateur ». Omer nous précise qu'il développerait une appli Web associée à notre parution, à l'aune de "UnTitre" qui est basée un peu sur le même principe « sauf que l'image n'est pas retraitée dans ce dernier cas », ajoute-t-il. Bien sûr, nous connaissions déjà, pour l'avoir utilisée, cette appli Web UnTitre, qui génère des fausses couvertures de livre aux titres drolatiques. Omer a aussi développé MotBot et Outrepart. Banco ! Mais en juin, lorsque nous établissons le premier chemin de fer de la revue, les choses se corsent. Nous annonçons à Omer que son projet entrera dans une séquence que nous avons baptisée Contrefaçons : « un angle de vue sur Shanghai par l'analogie, la métaphore, la duplication, la référence publicitaire, le kitch, la mondialisation par le bas (dont le marché de la contrefaçon au sens propre) ». Pour Omer, ça ne cadre pas : ce n'est pas l'angle de son travail ; bien loin de s'avancer sur le terrain du kitch, il s'oriente sur une poétique de la disparition d'un vieux monde, à la manière de Tati décrivant Paris dans Mon oncle. Photo à l'appui, Omer nous écrit « voilà d'ailleurs ce que pour

China's carbon markets push: Huge potential, but daunting challenges A domestic cap-and-trade system could more effectively curb emissions than command-and-control, a new report from SEI and FORES shows, but the process is still in its infancy. China observers have rightfully called attention to the country's new interest in market-based approaches to reducing the energy- and carbon-intensity of its economy. It is a major policy shift, and given that China is the world's top carbon emitter, it has potentially huge implications for global efforts to slow climate change. But can carbon trading succeed without a mature free-market economy? That is a key question raised in the report, China's Carbon Emission Trading: An Overview of Current Development, by SEI's Guoyi Han, Marie Olsson and Karl Hallding, and David Lunsford, founder of the Hong Kong-based consultancy Energy Environment Solutions. The report was released today in Brussels at a seminar with several Members of the European Parliament. "If China's carbon markets experiment succeeds, it could be decisive," says Martin Ådahl, director of FORES, which co-sponsored the report. "Not only could it slow China's rapid emissions growth, but it would be an important step towards global carbon pricing. A great deal is at stake."

China's Carbon Emission Trading: An Overview of Current Development. arl Hallding is interviewed about the SEI report China's Carbon Emission Trading: An Overview of Current Development. Source: SverigesRadio, Sweden Language: Swedish Format: Audio Listen to the interview»

Hang Xiong, China's actual fiscal decentralization is one-sided: while public expenditures are largely decentralized, fiscal revenues are recentralized after 1994. One critical consequence of the actual system is the creation of significant fiscal imbalances at sub-national level. This paper investigates empirically effects of fiscal imbalances on environmental performance of Chinese provinces. First, environmental efficiency scores of Chinese provinces are calculated with SFA for the period from 2005 to 2010. Then, these scores are regressed against two fiscal imbalance indicators in a second stage model. Finally, conditional EE scores are calculated. This paper finds that effects of fiscal imbalances on EE are nonlinear and conditional on economic development level. Fiscal imbalances are more detrimental to environment in less developed provinces. These results suggest that the one-sided fiscal decentralization in China may have regressive environmental effects and contribute to regional disparity in terms of sustainable development.

Guilhem Fabre 1, Stephane Grumbach 2 (28/02/2012) R&D and innovation have become much more strategic than ever before for the growth of China as well as for its global societal upgrade. The Chinese authorities have designed an innovation strategy to face new economic and social challenges. The first part of the paper is focused on the emergence of the policy, in the 2006-2020 Plan for S&T, with a historical perspective explaining the legacy of the past in today's choices. In the second part, we illustrate China's catching up strategy through four sectors (high-speed trains, aeronautics, clean energy, IT) and discuss its potential impact on the world industry.

"Live Maps" is the GIS platform where we offer access to georectified maps, but also where we combine various elements of data to produce maps "on the fly". Apart from producing maps based on pre-selected data, "Live Maps" includes other features. The first one is a timeline. Only the items selected for a given period will show on the maps (e.g. "schools" in 1910-1925). Each physical element like buildings, parks, etc. -- whenever this is known -- is determined by a "date of construction" and "date of destruction" (or change of function). The second feature is the link between these physical elements and the photographic database. All such identified elements in the photographic database will appear with all their associated pictures and actual location on any georectified map in Virtual Shanghai.

The rapid growth of the Chinese economy has resulted in great pressure on energy consumption, especially the energy intensive sector - the industrial sector. To achieve sustainable development, China has to consider how to promote energy efficiency to meet the demand of Chinese rapid economic growth, as the energy efficiency of China is relatively low. Meanwhile, the appeal of energy saving and emission reduction has been made by the Chinese central government. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the energy efficiency of industrial sector in China and to assess efficiency development probabilities. The framework of total factor energy efficiency index is adopted to determine the discrepancy of energy efficiency in Chinese industrial sector based on the provincial statistical data of industrial enterprises above designated size in 30 provinces from 2005 to 2009, with gross industrial output as the output value and energy consumption, average remaining balance of capital assets and average amount of working force as the input values. Besides, in considerate of the regional divide of China, namely eastern, central, and western, and economic development differences in each region, energy efficiency of each region is also analysed in this paper. The results show that there is room for China to improve its energy efficiency, especially western provinces which have large amount of energy input excess. Generally speaking, insufficient technological investment and fail of reaching best scale of manufacture are two factors preventing China from energy efficiency promotion. Based on our findings, some policy implications on the improvement of energy efficiency, particularly for economically underdeveloped regions in China, are also discussed.

China's sustained economic growth since 1978 has stimulated heated debates not only about its rise to great power status but also the sustainability of the Chinese 'model' of development and its social, economic and environmental implications at home and abroad (see e.g. Pei, 2006; Peerenboom, 2007; Bergsten et al., 2008; Zhao, 2010). One of the most important aspects of China's economic development is the accompanying rapid urbanisation. The McKinsey Global Institute (2011: 15) characterised China's urbanisation a 'massive transformation'. Although China's 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP) only sets the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate at 7% (as compared with a planned 7.5% and the actual 11.2% growth in the previous 11th FYP), the planned growth in urban population will increase by 4% per annum from 2010 to 2015, hence raising the urbanisation rate from 47.5% to 51.5% (The State Council, 2011: 10). China's growth has, however, been marked by unbalanced regional development in the past three decades as most of the coastal cities and regions are spearheading rapid growth while inland and rural areas are lagging behind. Part of this is the clear outcome of deliberate national policies in the 1980s as the coastal regions should supposedly have been championing growth for the entire country (see e.g. Yang, 1997; Lin, 1999). However, by the 1990s, there were clear concerns that such a pattern was neither sustainable nor desirable. The changing role of the Chinese state in urban and regional development is the key theme underlying this special issue. The papers assembled here address different aspects of this multifaceted process that is still unfolding. Since the launching of the reform and open door policy in 1978, China has embarked upon the transition from a planned economy to a more market-oriented system that is increasingly integrated with the global capitalist economy. Decentralisation of economic policy powers from Beijing to local governments at the

Two events have taken place that will change the way the Chinese state tackles organized crime and corruption. Law reforms re-defining organized crime while strengthening judicial oversight and the apparent demise of 'hit black' (dahei) 'strike-hard' (yanda) style police campaigns of the kind practised in the Chongqing 'experiment' are new developments in China's evolving response to organized crime. The law reforms focused on enhanced punishments and new offences with respect to food adulteration, bogus medicines and criminal gangs, which had been at the forefront of public scandals that had threatened political stability and the legitimacy of police and judicial organs. The revision of Article 294 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (PRC) specifically re-defined the elements of organised crime ('black societies'). It also addressed the role of public officials in the spread of such crime and was belated recognition that more needed to be done to reduce the penetration of business and the state by organised crime. The Chongqing approach to crime control was until recently touted as a model crime-fighting practice but is now criticized and in retreat, and its leaders are discredited. The widely publicized, Chongqing 'Red-Black' criminal 'gangland' trials involved high officials and high profile entrepreneurs mixed with vice and violence. The trials (2009-2011) became public spectacles that exemplified the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) determination to enhance public stability through clean government (Lam 2009, Liu 2011). In the vast municipality of Chongqing politburo member Bo Xilai and head of the municipal CCP had made "cleaning up the city" a key to his 'Five Chongqing' program that sought to restore party legitimacy in the face of massive inequality. Apart from a revival of Maoist values a major element was the relentless dahei anti-gang campaigns that exploited confessions to 'crack' cases. Many

The introduction of Chinese high-speed train development and approaches. ►Chinese spatial development strategies and anticipated regional and urban impacts. ► Key challenges in reshaping Chinese space economy through high-speed trains at regional and urban scales.

Xuefei Ren's work on the high-end of the building boom in China brings together the sociology of globalization with the study of architecture and the built environment. Building Globalization treats architectural production as crucial to the material and symbolic ways in which global cities are made. Based on Ren's doctoral research at the University of Chicago, the book draws on fieldwork conducted in Beijing and Shanghai between 2004 and 2008, covering the bull years leading up to the Beijing Olympics. China is now taken to exemplify the geo-demographic shift that has seen developing countries lead current processes of urbanisation. However the Chinese government's attitude towards quanqiuhua chengshi (global cities) and its support for rapid urban growth from the mid-late 1990s represented a striking reversal of official policy which had been to limit the growth of large cities and promote instead the development of small-medium centres (p.11). The re-scaling of state power to metropolitan level in the interests of enhancing urban competitiveness has been an international trend in recent decades. In China this has proved particularly effective in driving urban growth, given state ownership of land and government control over household registration, urban planning and development decisions. Metropolitan governments in China have the kind of ownership and discretionary powers of which the most boosterist western city mayors can only dream. Ren argues convincingly that the processes shaping these cities are increasingly transnational; in particular, the forces that make buildings 'operate beyond national boundaries, as seen in the circulation of investment capital, the movements of built-environment professionals, and the diffusion of new technologies' (p.6). However, while Chinese economic growth may have destabilized a global balance of power dominated by the triad of the USA, the European Union and Japan, Ren's analysis suggests that older core-peripher