THE REORIENTATION OF RURAL GEOGRAPHY IN CHINA

Rural Geography is a weak branch of Human Geography in China. It is an important task for us to develop rural studies because rural population constitutes the majority. Rural areas occupy the most territory of China. The artical analyses the main research contents of Rural Geography, Rural Society, Rural Economics. The authers think these three branches have paticular emphasis. Rural Geography pays attention to different rural problems from spatial perspective angles. Rural Economics follows the laws of rural economic systems. Rural Society pays much more attention to the changes of rural society. But they have overlapping parts. Rural problems have regional and comprehensive characteristics: the functions of rural areas are changing, industrial and social structure are experiencing overall transformation from tradition to modenization. At present, Rural Geography needs to be reoriented. We should take changes of rural society and economy as the main clue to research and probe into spatial structure pattern and its law.