Chinese Geographical Science 2006 16(4) 359–364 DOI 10.1007/s11769-006-0359-9 www.springerlink.com Urbanization of Jilin Province and Its Spatial Pattern WANG Bo1, GUO Qinghai1, Dou Sen2 (1.College of Information and Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China; 2. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China) Abstract: Urbanization is a crucial criterion of assessing a nation’s or a particular region’s level of modernization. It has been accelerated all over the world in the 21th century. The main purpose of this research is to provide a strategy of spatial pattern of urbanization for rural areas in Jilin Province based on the reality of economic development in Jilin and the im- balance of natural resources distribution. The strategy divides the nine central cities of Jilin Province into three economic circles. The outer economic circle, open circle, includes Yanbian, Baishan, Tonghua and Baicheng, covering the eastern and western parts of Jilin Province. The middle one includes Jilin, Liaoyuan, Siping and Songyuan. The inner one, centring as Changchun, includes Gongzhuling, Yitong, Nong’an, Jiutai and Dehui. It needs to centre as Changchun which has the good foundation of economic development and more economic increase, then by economic effect extending out gradually, other areas develop subsequently. To construct Jilin as a green ecological province, cultivation in the outer circle should be con- trolled, with the main aim to recover grassland. Large population should be moved to other places by developing labor economy. From economy and ecology, to decrease the load of the land can reduce the loss of the resources and benefit the balance of ecology. Subsequently, the whole province’s economy will be developed sustainably. Keywords: urbanization; economic circles; spatial pattern; Jilin Province 1 Introduction and the change of employment structure (Lampard, 1964; Davis, 1965). During the past 20 years, there were nu- It is indisputable that the urbanization has been consid- merous researches about Chinese urbanization, and the ered as an important indicator for evaluating a nation’s or social issues during the development of urbanization a region’s modernization and industrialization. Therefore, have been studied by the academies in economy, soci- the issue of urbanization will arouse wide and remarkable ology and other relevant domains. The urbanization concern in both domestic and international geography in would be crucial to realize the countryside modernization, the 21st century. From a comprehensive survey of the and the bottom-up model of urbanization will gradually development of urbanization all over the world, some become the fundamental force for urbanization in China successful modes of urbanization, such as the American (Liu, 2000; Gu and Li, 2000). Urbanization in China mode and the Japanese mode, and Chinese Wenzhou should avoid intervening by the government and start the mode and Southern Jiangsu mode can be found. These countryside market (Ji and Hu, 2001; Li, 2000). At the modes have boosted the global economy. Since there are same time, it is considered that urbanization will bring some differences among the countries and the regions, about environmental problem (Che and Shang, 2004). the mode of urbanization chosen should be different. The Therefore, some reserches suggested that scale of city researches about urbanization all over the world suggest should be emphasized in the process of urbanization that urbanization is a process—a natural historic process (Cui, 1995; Liu, 1998; Fei, 1996; Wang et al., 2000). from the traditional agricultural society to the modern Otherwise it is believed that China should take a com- urban society. It manifests the clustering of population, prehensive and simultaneous manner of developing small, the increasing of city quantity, the broadening of city middle and big cites, and the tertiary industry may take scale and the advancing of modernization. The urbani- an important effect in the urban development (Liao, zation always links with the development of economy 1996; 2001). To summarize the above major literatures, Received date: 2006-03-03; accepted date: 2006-10-20 Foundation item: Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40271069, No. 4041076) Biography: WANG Bo (1973–), female, a native of Songyuan of Jilin Province, Ph.D. candidate, specialized in quantitative economy. E-mail: [email protected] Correspondent: GUO Qinghai. E-mail: [email protected] 360 WANG Bo, GUO Qinghai different urbanization strategies have different merits. It ference is mainly due to the imbalance of natural re- is hard to make a judgement on which strategy is the best sources and social-economic development (Table 1). for a particular nation or region in general. But for one thing, we can say that decision on this issue should be Table 1 Population distribution in Jilin Province in 2000 based on domestic natural resources, the level of indus- Region Proportion of Proportion of Density of popula- 2 trialization, the development of agriculture, the tertiary area (%) population (%) tion (person/km ) industry’s development, etc. Eastern area 39.9 21.9 76 From the China Fifth Census, the rate of urbanization Middle area 35.5 60.1 233 of China in 2000 was 36.09%, which slightly increased to Western area 24.6 18.0 101 Notes: Eastern area includes Tonghua, Baishan, and Yanbian; Middle 37.7% in 2001. Similarly, there were around 1.0% in- area includes Changchun, Jilin, Siping and Liaoyuan; Western area creases during the each of the following years, such as includes Songyuan and Baicheng 2002 (39.1%), 2003 (40%), and 2004 (41%). For Jilin Sources: Statistical Bureau of Jilin Province, 2001; Bai, 2000 Province, the rate of urbanization was slightly above the From the natural resources perspective, the natural average of the whole country, i.e. 43.5% in 2000, 43.8% in resources in middle area are richer and more diverse than 2001, 44.5% in 2002 and 45% in 2003. Although these other areas, which can be used to traditional farming, figures may represent some advancement in urbanization forest and stockbreeding (Table 2). About 83.3% of total of Jilin, the comprehensive economic strength and indi- middle area can be utilized to develop above three in- vidual dispensable income on average are still very low. dustries, of which farmland is slightly above half (54.1%) The development of urbanization has not been played a of the total utilizable land. However, for eastern area, the crucial role as a major impulse for economy development. land is only able to be used for traditional farming and Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider the spatial distri- forest, especially, 68.8% can be used for forest. In the bution of urbanization. However, if analyzing a bit, we can western area of Jilin, the land is only able to be used for find there are so many differences in accumulating ways of farming and stockbreeding, with an area of 45.8%. It capital, the background of policy resources, etc., between needs noting that 8% of the total land in western region Jilin Province and the developed provinces along the sea can be used for stockbreeding. Comparing with the in the Southeast China. So what Jilin Province should do is middle and eastern areas, the proportion of land for to learn their successful experiences. Only when the mode stockbreeding is relative high, so the western area can be of urbanization is suitable for its own situation can it speed developed to be a stockbreeding centre. up the economic development of Jilin Province. From above, we can see that there are large amount of farmland and densely population in the middle area of 2 Imbalance of Development in Jilin Province Jilin Province, which should develop cities in order to strengthen the convergent effect and the radiating effect. 2.1 Natural resources But to the western area, pasture is abundant, so it should The population of Jilin Province is distributed unevenly. develop stockbreeding industry. Forestland is more than The disparity of population distribution in Jilin Province others in the eastern area where forest should be mainly is great. In order to make clear comparison, this article developed. The development of cities in the western and divides Jilin as three main parts: eastern area, middle area, eastern area should be driven by the cities of the middle and western area. From the ratio of population to farm- area. Only in this way, can we ensure the sustainable land, the density of population in the middle area is three development and the ecological balance of Jilin Province. times more than the eastern area. Such a great dif- Table 2 Land use distribution in Jilin Province Farmland Forestland Pasture Region Area (km2) Area (km2) Proportion (%) Area (km2) Proportion (%) Area (km2) Proportion (%) Eastern area 76.29419 1141.40 14.6 52515.75 68.8 0 0 Middle area 67.84393 36679.28 54.1 19520.92 28.8 262.26 0.4 Western area 46.89738 17711.84 37.8 0 0 3753.90 8.0 Sources: Statistical Bureau of Jilin Province, 2001; Bai, 2000 Urbanization of Jilin Province and Its Spatial Pattern 361 2.2 Economic development (Table 3), the nine sub-regions can be listed as following: Since China adopted an opening policy and has been in Changchun is the first, followed by Jilin, Siping, Yanbian, marketing economy, the economy of Jilin Province has Tonghua, Songyuan, Baicheng, Baishan, and Liaoyuan in been dramatically developed in the past 20 years. In 2004, 1994. However, this order significantly changed during GDP per capita increased to 10,932 yuan (RMB), which the past 10 years. For example, Songyuan skipped to the was 24.6 times as that in 1980. Meanwhile, GDP per third position in 2004 from the sixth position in 1994.