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Commencing in the 1990s, market reforms, high rates of urban growth and dissolution of public-subsidized housing created cumulatively a speculative property boom in Beijing. Economic housing was meant to provide affordable housing to low and middle income residents. But with the state earnest in using property market to promote GDP growth, political commitments were weakened and resources allocated went scarce. Non-target middle class “free riders” were also let into economic housing by developers to generate higher profit. The paper investigates the causes of misallocation of economic housing in Beijing. A housing survey was conducted to look into the competing interests in two starkly contrasted economic housing clusters — inner city resettlement and middle-class neighbourhoods. This paper aims to address the importance of balancing the growth-led policy with social equity and redistribution of public resources. An excessive emphasis of the former would deprive the latter of social justice and more equitable distribution. Short-term and longer term solutions are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to rapid informatization and increasing urban sprawl, currently, metropolitan residents are facing challenges regarding spatial imbalance between their home, workplace, and activity locations, which seriously affects the quality of life and subjective well-being of urban residents. However, only a few existing studies have analyzed the relationship between home, workplace, and other activity spaces of urban residents and the influence mechanism of spatial separation of the three locations. In this study, we used the mobile phone signaling data of the residents of Beijing for May 2019 to explore the degree of mutual separation of the three locations, based on the identification of the homes, workplaces, and main activity spaces of over 2.3 million residents in Beijing. Leveraging these data, we discussed the influence mechanism of activity separation, in terms of the built environment and socioeconomic factors. The results indicated that the degree of the home-workplace separation was the highest, followed by the home-workplace-activity space separation, and the home-activity space separation was the lowest. Notably, the three types of spatial separations had significant spatial disparities. Attribution analysis indicated housing price as the dominant factor affecting the spatial separation of the residents, while the accessibility and location also having important effects. Moreover, the interaction of these factors had a stronger explanatory power for the spatial separation of the daily activity spaces of the urban residents. This study is the first to estimate the degree of spatial separation among the homes, workplaces, and other activity spaces of urban residents and analyzed their correlation using geographic context factors. Our results can provide useful scientific insights to explore the spatial characteristics of the home-work-activity relationship with respect to metropolitan residents and optimize the spatial distribution of urban functions. • 2.3 million Beijing residents' homes, workplaces, and major activity spaces were identified based on mobile phone data. • This study is the first paper to estimate the spatial separation among the homes, workplaces, and activity spaces. • The separations of homes, workplaces, and activity spaces had significant spatial heterogeneity at the subdistrict scale. • Housing price is the dominant factor for the spatial separation, and accessibility and location also had important effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the traditional hutong street system and siheyuan courtyard house as an urban development model in contemporary Beijing by comparing it with the practiced alternative. Official government standards are used as criteria for measuring the performance of the urban form types. Criteria derived from government documents emphasise the efficiency and low-carbon emission of the transportation system and efficiency in land use, via higher densities. Minimum site areas devoted to green space are also specified. We compared the use of land resources in a sample of 9 hutong areas with those of a sample of 22 newly built communities. We collected traffic data and interviewed residents in these areas. We also examined transportation as a user of urban land, as well as the implications for land resources if the 2002 conservation plan is fully implemented. It was found that the hutong development models underperform with regard to building density depending on form type, but achieve much higher population densities than suburban housing. Motor traffic infrastructure in contemporary development takes up 3 times as much of the development area as the hutong do in their development area. The hutong outperform the rest of the urban fabric with regard to sustainable transport with 0.17 of the car mode proportion for all of Beijing. There is heavy dependency on three-wheeled vehicles for goods transport and high levels of walking. Moving the remaining population of the hutong as planned would require about 1800 ha of new residential land more than 30 km from the city centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The setting of urban construction boundaries (UCBs) through the imposition of master plans (MPs) is commonly practiced in China and Taiwan. However, the effectiveness of UCBs in containing urban sprawl has been challenged. In this paper, from a property rights perspective, we first explain, theoretically and conceptually, why UCBs in general could cause urban sprawl, rather than stop it. Using the case of Beijing and Taipei in particular, we further examine the effectiveness of the UCBs policy and conclude, as predicted by our analysis, that the urban sprawl in Beijing during the two planning periods from 1983 to 2005 took place mostly outside the UCBs. In contrast to Beijing, the UCBs in Taipei, a counter example for our hypothesis, from 1958 to 1991 were quite effective in containing urban sprawl. The different results between Beijing and Taipei, we argue, lie in the effectiveness of regulations setting. In Taipei, the regulations were effective in restricting developers from searching for land outside the UCBs, but no such evidence was found in Beijing. We argue, therefore, that a successful land control measure, such as UCBs, should take into account developers' behavioral reaction to plans and regulations in order to stop effectively urban sprawl. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Diversity, complexity and change have become the hallmarks of contemporary Chinese rural settlements. However, the literature so far has paid insufficient attention to this phenomenon from the standpoint of functional transition and related land-use change. To fill in this gap, this paper explores the functional transition of rural settlement through analyzing land-use differentiation in a transect of Beijing. Land-use changes are presented along the differentiation of land-use structure and use change of rural housing. The results indicate that there is an obvious differentiation of land-use structure from near-urban countryside to the rural hinterland. Besides that, the use change of rural housing also has regional characteristics. They are different responses to the urban sprawl, respectively from the collective economic organization and single rural resident. The regional differentiation implies a functional transition in some rural settlements, including increases of non-agricultural function and urban servicing function. Quantitative evaluation of the functional intensity and its rules on spatial–temporal evolution still need to be approached in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The effect of urban expansion on transportation in growing megacities has become a key issue in the context of global climate change as motorized mobility is a major source of domestic greenhouse gas emissions. The management of forms of urban development on the city fringe in order to encourage a sustainable transport system is usually overlooked in China, although it is increasingly attracting attention in developed countries. Examining the case of Beijing, this paper aims to reveal the policy implications of urban growth management for sustainable transportation in China''s megacities. The analysis shows that in the rapid urban expansion process there has been obvious urban sprawl on the fringe of Beijing, characterized by low density and dispersed development in its physical aspect and a low degree of local mixed land use in its functional aspect. Trip distance and car use for travel on the city fringe have increased greatly due to urban sprawl. The results of the analysis suggest that urban growth management designed to curb urban sprawl would contribute to containing the growth in vehicle miles travelled in the suburbs. In addition, since urban sprawl has been greatly fuelled by increasing local government autonomy and fiscal responsibility, the negative effects of sprawling development on transportation certainly reflect the government''s failure to manage growth in the current transformation process. To achieve sustainable urban expansion, stronger metropolitan development management measures should be enforced to control local development on the city fringe and promote sustainable transportation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]