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Recent research has played a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of cloisonné enamel production in China during the 19th and 20th centuries. However, Christian workshops, whether operating under missionary subcontracting or owned by the Catholic Church, have yet to be accurately identified and contextualized. This article delves into three significant contexts. Firstly, it identifies and contextualizes the Christian connections and interactions of the Decheng private cloisonné workshop, involving the French Lazarist Bishop Alphonse Favier, in Beijing. Secondly, it identifies the cloisonné workshop stablished by the Lazarists in the Beitang complex in Beijing and elucidates the role it played. Finally, this paper presents new evidence concerning cloisonné Christian objects crafted by the Tushanwan Jesuit workshop in Shanghai. Some of the primary works of these three workshops are identified for the first time. Additionally, this paper shows that certain cloisonné crosses, some of them thought to be originally Japanese, including those referred to as Namban, were, in fact, crafted in Beijing during the 1920s. These preliminary results will contribute to placing Chinese Christian cloisonné within the history of Chinese Art and its interactions at a global level in the context of evangelization in China, the production of the so-called export art, and the processes of indigenization carried out by the Lazarists and the Jesuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently the Chinese government has been actively collaborating with nonprofit nongovernmental organizations to provide social welfare services to older adults at the community level. The role played by NGOs in facilitating governance has only recently gained attention in the literature on Chinese NGOs and urban governance. Addressing this gap, the paper advances geographers' understanding of State–NGO collaborations in facilitating urban governance in the Chinese context using fieldwork in Beijing and Shanghai on the provision of community eldercare services as an example. It also explains the political control of these NGOs and their changing role in the eldercare market. We argue that collaborations between the state and NGOs in China have gradually transferred eldercare services to the NGOs, and led to a fragmented welfare system, which, as a consequence, has facilitated entrepreneurial urban governance. The paper sheds light on community-based organizations, their collaboration with local governments, and how they have become not only welfare providers but a significant site for social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration or segmentation of regional carbon prices implies that barriers may hinder prices from adjusting efficiently and impede linkages between regional carbon markets. Past studies have found that crossregional carbon prices in China tend to diverge, indicating unbalanced regional markets and that carbon cap-and-trade policies may be insufficiently effective. China's carbon trading pilots opened in 2013. Is the integration efficient? This is the research question addressed in this study. This paper uses the carbon prices of four carbon-trading pilot regions in China (i.e. Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangdong) over the period of January 1, 2014, to March 23, 2021, to explore whether prices are correlated across three dimensions: long-term convergence, short-term correlation, and volatility transmission by adopting a vector error correction model with heterogeneous variances. And by using longer-term daily data and empirical tests that can account for the multiple-faceted correlations, this paper provides evidence showing that long-term convergence and risk transfer between the four regional carbon prices exist, which indicates significant regional integration. The results indicate that the price behavior of the Beijing pilot is efficient and that the Shanghai pilot has the lowest volatility. The paper also documents an information transfer pattern. For example, the Beijing pilot is shown to be the leading risk transfer market, whereas the Shanghai pilot is shown to be the market where most risk is transferred. Contrary to findings elsewhere, our main results demonstrate that China's carbon markets exhibit integration efficiency and no imbalance between regions. This may be because the efficiency of China's carbon markets has improved over time. The evidence also implies that if a multi-dimensional correlation has not been considered, it may underestimate the efficiency of regional carbon prices' integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latecomer technology imitation and learning is an important driving force to enhance their competitiveness and total factor productivity (TFP). This paper constructs green TFP (GTFP) based on the SBM–Global–Luenberger index, using Chinese provincial panel data from 2003 to 2017. The marginal effects of foreign direct investment (FDI), outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), import and export, and intangible and total international technology spillovers (ITS) on GTFP were assessed. These effects were analysed under the influence of absorption capabilities such as research and development intensity, economic and financial, and openness. A spatial diffusion model based on three diffusion sources in China's first-tier cities, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, was constructed to describe the heterogeneous impacts of ITS on GTFP under the marketisation of diffusion sources. We found: (1) ITS based on exports and OFDI promote economic, imports and FDI are relatively small, independent technological innovation is the dominant source of economic growth. (2) Considering spatial diffusion, the contribution of Beijing's ITS is relatively weak, and Shanghai's contribution is stronger. Coastal areas have the largest marginal effect of ITS on GTFP, and ITS do not attenuate as geographic distances increase. (3) The market has a multiplier effect, modifying the relationship between ITS and GTFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends existing Bourdieusian theorisations of the educational involvement of working-class parents by adding the less-examined axes of rural origin and migration status with an intersectional approach. It focusses on the 'labourer' families involved in internal rural–urban migration in China. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Beijing and Shanghai with 32 migrant parents, teachers and head teachers. It examines how the intersection of rural origin, migration status and working-class identities shapes the parents' habitus and their exertion of capital in the urban education field. The findings show that the intersection of two aspects of their habitus—one, resulting from their rural background, leads them not to treat themselves as academic educators, and a second, arising from their migrant working-class status, the necessity to 'strive for survival'. Since the parents' actions do not match with the teachers' expectations of home-school cooperation, they are identified as 'incompetent'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we first analyze the 5 most cited papers with the title containing “Urban ecosystem health” in Chinese academic journals, and 5 newer papers retrieved from the CSSCI (Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index). The results show that the number of indicators to be used together in more than three papers is 28, and then we select 27 of them to assess Beijing and Shanghai's urban ecosystem health from 2000 to 2011. Secondly, when we standardize the original data, the worst value adjustment coefficient is introduced innovatively. Thirdly, using the entropy method, the weights of concrete indicators of Beijing and Shanghai in the different adjustment coefficients are calculated respectively. Fourthly, based on the fuzzy matter-element method, using the Hamming approach degree, the two cities' ecosystem health index and the contribution value to overall health index from each component are calculated. Lastly, using gray prediction model, the evolutionary time response sequence function of Beijing and Shanghai's urban ecosystem health index is identified, and thus both cities' urban ecosystem health is predicted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper summarizes the urban water management framework that China's central government has adopted to manage the supply of water to the country's urban areas. These laws, policies and institutional arrangements cover water resources management, urban planning and environmental management issues. This paper considers the application of this framework in three urban areas: Beijing, Shanghai and Shaoxing Prefecture in Zhejiang Province. These case studies are used as the basis of a discussion on the ways that the framework could be enhanced, both structurally and in terms of its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to look into the transformation of local innovation systems in the high-tech parks of Shanghai and Beijing and their technological learning and upgrading. The areas that we have chosen to investigate are Beijing's Zhongguancun and Shanghai's Yangpu District. The main reason that we selected these two areas for study is because they are home to most of the top universities and R&D institutes in these two cities. Our main focus will be on how institutions—the local state, inter-firm relations and the relationship between R&D institutions and firms—are co-evolving to shape and constrain a local system of innovation. Our research finds that the capacities and autonomy of the Zhongguancun of Beijing's Haidian District and Yangpu District of Shanghai differ in various aspects, but both regions are struggling to upgrade innovation and enhance economic development. The ‘high-tech cluster’ provides a useful instrument or label to achieve goals other than innovation and R&D. Elite universities are regarded as engines for network formation, but visible and invisible walls of Chinese universities discount efforts to foster a university-centered innovation hub which especially shows in the Yangpu case. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: External wall insulation plays an important role in building energy consumption through affecting cooling and heating energy uses. In this paper, a study on the effects of external wall insulation thickness on annual cooling and heating energy uses under different Chinese climates is reported. Firstly, two indexes: Energy Gain Ratio (EGR) and Relative Variation Ratio (RVR) of the sum of annual cooling and heating energy uses, to assess the effects of external wall insulation thickness on energy saving potential are introduced. Secondly, a model space having four different exterior zones facing four different orientations in an office building is presented and the settings of the model space described. Lastly, the simulated annual cooling and heating energy uses for the four different exterior zones at different external wall insulation thicknesses under three different climates in China, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, are reported. The results suggested that energy saving was significant by increasing the external wall insulation thickness in exterior zones facing all orientations under Beijing’s climate, since the heating energy use was dominant and can be reduced remarkably with the increase in insulation thickness. Under Shanghai’s climate, increasing external wall insulation thickness to over 26mm would not reduce the sum of annual heating and cooling energy uses in the south-facing exterior zone, but would help save energy in exterior zones facing the other three orientations. For all exterior zones under Guangzhou’s climate, it was, however, hardly possible to reduce the sum of annual heating and cooling energy uses by increasing the external wall insulation thickness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the roles of Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong as financial centres by utilising interview and secondary data to analyse the decision-making of financial and regulatory actors, and the different functional roles of foreign banks in those cities. Their intercity relations demonstrate a complex mix of competition and collaboration that embeds them in evolving networks of interdependence. Empirical findings indicate differentiated markets leading to the distinctive development of Shanghai as a commercial centre, Beijing as a political centre and Hong Kong as an offshore financial centre, with all three financial centres performing distinctive and complementary roles within the regional banking strategies of foreign banks. The analysis first explains Hong Kong’s continued dominance in the region and, secondly, reveals insights into changing intercity relationships between these prominent Chinese cities that contribute to their distinctive development as financial centres. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Previous studies have understood urban competitiveness mainly from an economic perspective. Drawing on insights from recent debates on urban governance that argue for sustainable development, this study employs a more balanced view that takes into account the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of urban competitiveness. A four-level hierarchical indicator system is used to examine the competitiveness of 253 Chinese cities at the prefecture level or above in the year 2000. The results show that most of the top 20 cities are in the eastern part of China and have populations over 0.5 million. The bottom 20 cities are located primarily in the western part of China and have smaller populations that range from 0.2 to 0.5 million. In 2000 the city with the top economic competitiveness was Shanghai, the top social competitiveness was Beijing, and the top environmental competitiveness was Zhuhai. A given city does not necessarily rank the same in economic, social, and environmental competitiveness, but may perform well in different ways. The paper argues that, in order to sustain urban competitiveness, a city should achieve not only good economic performance, but also satisfactory social and environmental development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this paper describes, for China, province-level variation in the year in which below-replacement fertility was achieved. The second part, also based on province-level data, is a multivariate analysis of the effects of (1) fertility policy, and (2) economic and social development on fertility in the year 2000. In 1975, only two provinces—Beijing and Shanghai—had below-replacement fertility, but by 2000, 29 out of 31 provinces had below-replacement fertility. Among these 29 provinces, 22 had a total fertility rate (TFR) below 1.7, and 20 provinces had a TFR below 1.5. The main findings from the cross-sectional multivariate analysis of province-level variation in the TFR are that (1) depending on the measure of economic and social development used, between 33 and 42 percent of the effect of the one-child policy on the TFR, as measured by policy TFR, is actually due to development, and (2) the effect of policy TFR on TFR, after development is controlled for, is 38 to 50 percent less than the effect of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on the generic dynamic building energy simulation environment, EnergyPlus, the simulation model of energy recovery ventilator (ERV) is developed in this paper. With different indoor temperature set-points, the energy performance of ERV along with the availability of ERV is investigated both for Beijing and Shanghai weathers in China in terms of the ratio of heat recovery to energy supply by HVAC devices and ERV. Simulation results show that the seasonal average of the ratio is linear with indoor temperature set-points. The availability of ERV in Shanghai is better than that in Beijing during the winter. In summer, the utilization of ERV is uneconomical if the indoor temperature set-point is higher than 24°C for the Beijing climate. The indoor temperature set-points have the reverse effects to the availability of ERV in the mid-season and to that in the hottest months. Meanwhile, the heating amount recovery in summer and the cooling amount recovery in winter, both of which impair the strong points of the energy recovery, are analyzed quantitatively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the role of ‘information hinterland’ as a determinant to financial agglomeration and financial centre development. The concept is then applied to investigate the potentials of Beijing and Shanghai in becoming financial centres in China. Specifically, the information hinterlands of the two cities are identified in two steps: first, the boundaries of the hinterlands are demarcated on the basis of distance, intensity of transport connection and interactions in terms of migration. Second, the intensity of information from the hinterland is assessed in terms of business information, policy information and the seats of multinational headquarters. Results of the analysis and their implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom holds that the high competitiveness of the newspapers in Beijing and Shanghai is due to fast economic development in these cities. This research, however, finds that the degrees of newspaper competitiveness in Beijing and Shanghai do not relate positively to their GDP growth rates. While Shanghai's GDP outranks Beijing, the newspaper business in Beijing outgrows Shanghai. This paper argues that under the current Chinese management system, economic impact upon newspapers' development is limited. Only after the government management over media is reformed, can economic factors become a decisive force behind newspapers' innovation and advertising competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although since reforms rural-urban geographic mobility is no longer as much impeded by the hukou system, new institutional mechanisms have emerged that likewise impede the equal participation of rural migrant workers in the urban labour market. Given the daunting challenges implied in rural-urban migration flows, the burgeoning of labour fairs, job advertisements in the media, and intermediate service centres offer migrants some respite. Migrant women in particular can participate in the domestic service labour sector through the 'housemaid agencies', which often appear as ineffective, but may also offer significant possibilities for migrant women to find a job in China's cities. In this paper the author examines the activities and functions of these housemaid agencies and the role they play in shaping the employment opportunities of migrant women. Most of the information is based on fieldwork achieved between 1998 and 2001 in Beijing and Shanghai. The aim is to assess the extent of these agencies' benefits to migrant women's work opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy (RE) is strategically important to achieve sustainability. Its development in China, however, is clearly imbalanced across regions. The uneven distribution of natural resources, financial resources and other factors across this country has brought serious challenges to the policymakers. It is thus important to give a comprehensive evaluation of China's regional RE development. To do so, this paper introduces a multidimensional approach and establishes a quantitative evaluation framework. Based on the existing literature, five dimensions of factors have been chosen for the framwork: economic foundation, institutions, technological development potential, energy security and environmental protection, and current status of the RE sector. A dynamic principal component analysis technique is applied to data from 29 provinces between 2008 and 2014. The results demonstrate large variations in RE development across provinces in China. More economically developed regions, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, have maintained a higher ranking and have clear advantages in almost all dimensions. Policy implications and recommendations for more balanced development across China are drawn from the empirical results. This approach can also be extended to investigate similar issues in other countries. • A five-dimensional index is proposed to quantify renewable energy (RE) development in China. • RE development performance in China has improved over time. • Disparities in RE development across regions have become smaller. • The institutional dimension is a challenging segment in RE development. • Beijing and Shanghai have the highest level of RE development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the interaction between demand forecasting and train stop planning is important, as it ensures the sustainable development of high-speed rail (HSR). Forecasting the demand for high-speed rail (HSR), which refers to modal choice or modal split in this paper, is the first step in high-speed rail (HSR) planning. Given the travel demand and the number of train trips on each route, the train stop planning problem (TSPP) of line planning involves determining the stations at which each train trip stops, i.e., the stop-schedule of each train trip, so that the demand can be satisfied. To integrate and formulate the two problems, i.e., the modal choice problem (MCP) and train stop planning problem (TSPP), a nonlinear model is presented with the objective of maximizing the total demand captured by a high-speed rail system. To solve the model, a heuristic iterative algorithm is developed. To study the relationship between the demand and the service, the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed rail (HSR) corridor in China is selected. The empirical analysis indicates that combining modal choice and train stop planning should be considered for the sustainable design of high-speed rail (HSR) train services. Furthermore, the model simulates the impact of the number of stops on its mode share by reflecting changes in travelers' behaviors according to HSR train stop planning, and it also provides a theoretical basis for the evaluation of the adaptability of the service network to travel demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]