Port - Hinterland and China's Modernization Process

Author: Center for Historical Geography, Fudan University
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: How many international ports does China really need? Do all regional ports need to grow and strengthen? When considering the development of port cities, how should we take into account the factors of the cities themselves and their hinterlands? Professor Wu Songdi from the Center for Historical Geography, Fudan University, has recently conducted research on "Modern Ports—Hinterlands" and the spatial process of China's modernization. The purpose of this study is to explore the bidirectional connections, mutual influence, and impact of port cities and their surrounding regions on regional modernization. Clarifying this relationship is of great significance for coordinated regional development. This book adopts the form of a monograph rather than an anthology of papers, publishing the contributions of the participants, with the aim of facilitating readers' comprehension and avoiding the common drawback of anthologies, where individual papers lack coherence. It seeks to provide readers with a comprehensive and integrated impression. At the same time, the book strives to preserve the original form of each paper. Except for Chapter, which comes from a single paper, the remaining chapters are each based on separate papers, and most of the section titles adopt the original paper titles. For those that have been modified, the original titles are noted at the end of the respective sections. In terms of text, each section has had only unnecessary phrases removed in the introductory part to align with the current editorial objectives, and the notation of annotations and the use of certain numbers have been standardized. No other modifications have been made, even for terms that are identical in meaning but expressed differently in different papers, or for concepts that are the same but phrased differently across papers, which have all been retained. To ensure continuity between chapters, I have added lengthy introductory paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter. Some of these paragraphs also express my own perspectives, so they may not necessarily summarize the content of the sections. This attempt by the book has been understood and supported by all the authors, but its actual effectiveness remains to be tested by the readers.