Identifying the Impacts of Land-Use Spatial Patterns on Street-Network Accessibility Using Geospatial Methods

While the land use-street network nexus is well acknowledged, evidence for the one-way impacts of land-use patterns on street accessibility is still inadequate. The measurements of land-use patterns and street accessibility lack systematic knowledge. Their empirical correlations also lack geographical variability, constraining site-specific land-use practices. Therefore, this study overcame the aforementioned limitations by examining the two-level spatial models to formulate accessibility-oriented land plans, using a well-developed Chinese city as an example. Firstly, two landscape metrics—Euclidean Nearest-Neighbor Distance (ENN) and Similarity Index (SIMI)—were used to quantify the intra- and inter-land-use configurations, respectively. Both city-level and local accessibility were measured using spatial design network analysis. Performing both ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models, results identified the statistically significant effects of inter-land-use patterns on two-level street accessibility. An exception was that land-use configurations within residential and industrial regions were irrelevant to street accessibility. We also found GWR was a better-fitting model than OLS when estimating locally-varied accessibility, suggesting hierarchical multiscale land-use planning. Overall, locally heterogeneous evidence in this study can substantialize land use-street network interactions and support the decision-making and implementation of place-specific accessibility-oriented land use.     

中国古代失蜡铸造起源问题的思考

迄今为止,中国发现的最早期失蜡铸件,属春秋晚期器,技术已相当复杂。早期的、技术较原始的失蜡铸件并未发现。中国失蜡法的起始年代和原始技术仍是一个学术悬案。近年来发现了一批早至商晚期的中原和长江中下游青铜器,其纹饰或附件的成形无法按陶范法解释。按技术特征分类,计有通体为难于脱范的模纹;模纹内宽外窄;模纹边缘上翘和绳索状附件缺少范线等4种。对4种现象进行了讨论,并作了部份模拟试验,据此提出：中国失蜡法起源于“焚失法”;焚失法最早见于商晚期;这种技术在无范线失蜡法出现之后逐渐消亡;至春秋中晚期,无范线失蜡法已相当成熟。     

Exploiting Sino-US Geostrategic Competition: The View from Seoul and Singapore

The mainstream literature on weak status quo states’ diplomacy tends to identify their regional security roles in terms of dealing with non-traditional security issues. This article argues that such a limited approach is not sufficient to explain the current security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific. This article reviews the literature on weak status quo states’ influence on regional order. It then identifies a security environment in which they are more likely to exert some impact on maintaining and building a regional order. After contextualising these discussions in the Asia-Pacific setting, the article examines the experience of South Korea and Singapore as secondary powers in the East Asian region. Although both countries enjoy high levels of security cooperation with the US, both have also been able to exercise a certain amount of influence in advancing their own geostrategic interests amidst the growing Sino-US geostrategic competition. Yet their exploitation of Sino-US geostrategic competition is neither a simple balancing strategy against China nor a simple bandwagoning with the US, since both South Korea and Singapore have been increasing bilateral and multilateral security cooperation with China.     

Tongzhou's Commerce in the Ming and Qing Dynasties

During the Ming and Qing dynasty, Tongzhou was not only a riverside port city for transporting grain to the capital, a key site for goods storage, but also witnessed the means of transportation of commercial goods from southern China changed from water to land, where commercial goods imported to Beijing together with those to be sold in northern China splits. Both the Ministry of Revenue (Gongbu) and Ministry of Works (Hubu) set up their customs in Tongzhou, respectively, and Zhangjiawan was the subsection of the customs; the major commercial goods including grain, liquor, distiller’s yeast, textiles, and groceries, were transferred through the customs of Ministry of Works. Judging from the establishment of broker house and broker tax, the volume of commodities being transported via Zhangjiawan might be bigger than Tongzhou. Shanxi merchants established guild halls (huiguan) in both Tongzhou and Zhangjiawan. They transported bulk commodities such as textiles and tea to the north of China, while Zhangjiakou and Guihuacheng were their main resale destinations. In other words, both Tongzhou and Zhangjiawan were important transportation ports for the businesses of Shanxi merchants regarding their trades within the northern territory as well as the trade at Khyagt between late imperial China and tsarist Russia.     

Rural Women,Displacement and the Three Gorges Project

Based on empirical research, this article examines the status, situations and development issues of rural women displaced by the monumental Three Gorges Project (TGP) in China. The study reveals that TGP resettlement is leaving women worse off as family members, as well as worse off than male members. Woman resettlers are more likely to become impoverished than men, partly because women make up the main labour force in agricultural sectors. Most women are unable to achieve occupational mobility in the process of resettlement. Fewer employment opportunities, a gender‐segregated labour market, low level of human capital and social prejudice are principal causes. Land provision for resettlers is inadequate with a lower quality of productivity. Marriage is a means for some women to remain in or move to the reservoir area to improve their socio‐economic status, but bias against granting of ‘resettler’ status to married women and their generally low levels of education and lack of occupational skills work against them. It is imperative that the authorities integrate a gender perspective into policy‐making and design of resettlement schemes.     

清代河南朱仙镇的商业--以山陕会馆碑刻资料为中心的考察

朱仙镇是清代著名商镇之一。其兴起约在明代中后期,康熙、雍正年间迅速发展,乾隆年间达到鼎盛,全镇商人商号数量超过千家。在该镇汇集的商品除相当部分供应省城开封之外,流通范围大致可覆盖河南北部的开封、归德、彰德、卫辉等府。