URBAN FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURE CHARACTERISTICS IN CHINA
TIAN Guang-jin1, JIA Shu-ying2
1. Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, China Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;
2. Peking University Green Technology Corporation, Beijing 100084, China
Abstract：In 1999, urban population in China took up 30.4%. Owing to the long neglect of the urbanization process and political factors, the urbanization level is far lower than the industrialization. It is even lower than that of the developing countries. The secondary industry is the major functions of most cities. Manufacture employment takes up 40.23% and construction is 11.2% and mining is 4.86%. Commerce is highest in the third industry which takes up 17.85%. Employment of science, education, culture, health and other services takes up 13.7%. The transportation takes up 7.17%. The weight of finance, insurance and real estate takes up lower and its sluggish development of finance, insurance and real estate baffles the economic increment. Frequency distribution curve is used to study urban function. Except for mining industry, other industries are normal curve. The mining employment converges in minor cities and the distribution is not normal. At the same time, the manufacture curve is smoother and the weight is higher which reflects the lower spatial specialization. The manufacture employment weight is higher and its function is stronger even in metropolitan cities. Chinese cities are divided into five grades according to their population, i.e. small, middle, large, metropolitan and super-metropolitan. The mining industry percentage is the largest in large cities and that of metropolitan and super-metropolitan cities are the lowest. The manufacture distribution is similar to mining. The construction weight is smaller in the bigger cities except for the metropolitan. The finance, insurance and real estates weight is bigger in larger cities. The weight of science, education, culture and health is lower in larger cities. The general trend of urban function in China is that the weight of finance, insurance, real estate, science, education and other service industry is higher with increment of urban scale while the weight of mining, construction and manufacture is lower. However, there is no dramatic relevance between the urban scale and the commerce, transportation employment percentage. The service function of Chinese cities will be strengthened with the rapid urbanization process and the deepening of the market system. It will be beneficial to accelerate the rational development of urban function.
