The Spatial Restructuring of Population in Metropolitan Beijing: Toward Polycentricity in the Post-Reform ERA

Based on data from the third (1982), fourth (1990), and fifth (2000) Population Census of China, this research examines the changing patterns of population distribution in the Beijing metropolitan area in the post-reform era. In the mid-1980s, China launched a series of urban land use reforms aimed toward achieving a market economy. A direct impact of these reforms in Beijing was the restructuring of land uses, evidenced by the relocation of central-city residents to the suburbs to make room for commercial development. This residential suburbanization trend emerged during the 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s. Population change rates varied significantly across subdistricts, and variation was much greater in the 1990s than in the 1980s, indicating an increasingly diverse set of growth trajectories across metropolitan Beijing over time. Various population density functions are tested. The population density pattern is best characterized by a monocentric model in 1982, a dual-centered model in 1990, and a seven-centered model in 2000. This transition in Beijing's urban form toward polycentricity is similar to trends in most Western cities.