Search

Against the background of the international dialogue and action agendas regarding climate change and the protection of biodiversity, China has embarked during the past years on a new urbanisation approach, gradually advancing from an era of high-speed sprawl to one of more high-quality, green and low-carbon city development. Several national policies and strategies have been put in place, which are consequently rolled out at the sub-national level in provinces and cities. Energy efficiency in urban areas, nature-based solutions and new green ecological site developments are particularly important planning priorities fuelling the national government's ambition to transform cities to be more liveable and sustainable. Further priorities are digitalisation and smart city approaches, as well as responding to COVID-19 implications in the sense of 'green recovery'. This paper summarises the low-carbon development policy framework in China and provides three case studies of selected projects from the capital city, Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As responses to metropolitan suburbanization and rural urbanization, the formation and evolution of urban fringes should be understood against the background of overall economic development and spatial reconstruction of entire metropolises. At the same time, however, endogenous interactions between industrial structure and spatial patterns of non-agricultural activities are also worthy of scholarly attention. Since the 1980s, studies on urban fringes in China have been restricted by the lack of micro-level data. This paper investigates the spatial expansion and structural evolution of the urban fringe by taking the case of Beijing and uses systematic firm-level data in 1996 and 2001 from the National Census of Basic Units. The diversity of distribution patterns across industrial sectors brings about two interrelated results. On the one hand, structural adjustment of non-agricultural industries promotes the expansion and spatial evolution of the urban fringe. On the other hand, the stability and dynamics of industrial structure coexist in the moving urban fringe. This study also reveals that the outward-moving urban fringe is the optimal location for manufacturing, especially heavy manufacturing, as well as traditional producer and consumer services. However, industries with spatial stickiness such as tourism and sports have not moved with the fringe. Most advanced services remain concentrated in the city center. The authors argue that it is essential for understanding and managing urban fringes to take into account spatial evolution and industrial structural adjustment together with their interaction with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the retail rent dynamics of two Chinese cities, Beijing and Shanghai. We use an error correction modelling framework to estimate long-run equilibrium relationships and short-term dynamic corrections. The study period covers 1999–2012. We also run tests to examine the presence of structural breaks. The empirical results suggest that both supply and demand significantly affect retail rents for both cities in the long run. However, in the short term, the change of rent responds to change in income for Shanghai market. Both markets have a rapid speed of adjustment, especially Shanghai market that is more price and income elastic. The results shed some light on the behaviour of retail rent adjustment processes in one of the largest and fast growing emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The increases of commuting CO 2 emissions are several times larger than the urban size, population, and economics' developments. • Metro services reducing commuting CO 2 emissions near the metro stations is not statistically significant, possibly because the proportions of car users near the metro stations are similar to the two cities' average levels, which is caused by their higher household income and the longer travel time using the metro. • In Beijing, there are the smallest commuting CO 2 emissions in the outer suburbs due to job-housing balances, short distance and large percentage of non-motorized mode uses while the largest commuting CO 2 emissions in the inner sprawl suburbs due to car trips with long distance. Abstract To understand the changing relationships between commuting CO 2 emissions (CCE), travel behavior and urban forms, this paper provides a comparative study between the typical Chinese cities of Beijing (more developed) and Xi'an (rapidly developing). Further, the effects of metro services on reducing CCE were explored, and comparative analysis on CCE between the inner sprawling suburbs and outer suburbs was conducted. It was found that: (i) the increases in CCE are several times larger than the increases in urban size, population, and economic developments; (ii) metro services reducing CCE near metro stations is not statistically significant, maybe because the proportions of car users near the metro stations are similar to the two cities' average levels, which is caused by their higher household income and the longer travel time using the metro; (iii) in Beijing, there are smallest CCE in the outer suburbs due to job-housing balances, short distance and large percentage of non-motorized mode uses while largest CCE in the inner sprawl suburbs due to car trips with long distance. These findings indicate that to cope with the rapidly increasing CCE, more attention should be paid to developing strong industry and real-estate simultaneously; the improvement in the feeder bus and public bicycle systems should also be reinforced to reduce the total travel time of metro users; and satellite cities with job-housing balance are greatly needed. The implications will benefit efforts to reduce CCE and mitigate global climate change, and they also provide empirical evidence and reference values for other global cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyses the duration of housing project sales in the city of Beijing, China. In the housing market, new properties sometimes experience delays before they are sold. Such delays reflect the preferences of buyers with regard to the characteristics of the dwelling. Therefore, it is important for managerial purposes to identify the causes of delays in the sales of housing projects. A survival model with heterogeneity is adopted in the present research. The principal finding of this study is that delays are largely explained by the characteristics and the location of the housing project. Policy implications of the research findings, particularly those related to means of reducing the delays, are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]