CHINA CITIES: CHARACTERISTICS AND EVOLVING TRENDS OF THE SOCIAL SPATIAL STRUCTURE

The social spatial structure of cities is a spatial reflect of the urban social differentiation. On the basis of introducing the general social spatial structure law of Western cities, this paper studies the unique social spatial structure and its forming mechanism in China cities, and moreover, according tothe social and economic changes in China cities, the paper analyses four evolving trends of the social spatial structure of cities: (1)social and economicstatus is gradually becoming a main cause of the social spatial differentiationof cities; (2)family structure is showing its influences on the social spatial structure of cities; (3)ethnical regions and townsmen regions begin to appearing in China cities; (4)the function of units in social spatial structure is gradually being replaced by urban administrative setup.