Restructuring of Urban Internal Space in China in the Transition Period: Characteristics, Models and Mechanisms

Urban internal spatial structure in China is becoming more and more complex during the transition period when population, economic activities and social elements experienced a fast process of restructuring. Suburbanization of population accelerated in China in the 1990s compared with that in the 1980s. Great difference exists between the spatial restructuring of permanently registered population and that of external population. Generally speaking, the similarities of the spatial restructuring of population increased while the differences of it decrease. Analysis of the restructuring of urban industry and commerce shows that suburbanization and the centrifugal forces exert great influence on the evolution of urban internal spatial structure in the transition period. The factors of urban social space are closely related to the development of society. The types of social areas tend to vary and the components of each social area change from singleness to multiplicity. As a product of the planned economy, the model of urban internal spatial structure in the early 1980s exhibited more similarities than differences, with the feature of homogeneity, while that in the late 1990s was a product of market economy, exhibiting more differences than similarities, showing an obvious feature of heterogeneity and polycentric structure.