China's Patterns of Development & Distribution (DP IB Geography)

Case Study: China's Population Distribution

Background

• China, with a land area of 9,706,961 km2, is located in East Asia

  • 27% of the land is desert

  • 33% are mountainous regions

• It is the second-most populous country in the world, with 1.42 billion people

• 10% of the population live on less than 1% of the available land

• The average life expectancy is 74 years (men) and 79 years (women)

Uneven distribution in China 

• China has a wide variation in population distribution and GDP per capita by province

• Mostly concentrated in the south-eastern part of the country

  • Beijing and Shanghai have the highest GDP per capita, over US$23,000

  • Eastern China is easier to develop due to its flat plains

  • The Yangtze and Yellow rivers provide water for farmland and cities

• Four provinces along the east coast have a GDP per capita of over US$13,000

  • These are favoured by global trade and commerce

• The province of Gansu in northern China has the lowest GDP of US$4936

  • Frequent earthquakes, droughts, and low agricultural productivity contribute to economic instability

• Western China is the least populated region

• This is due to the Taklamakan and Gobi Deserts, along with the Tibetan Plateau

  • These regions receive little to no rainfall because of the Himalayan Mountains

  • They are high enough to see extreme temperature swings from as low as -40° C in the winter to 60° C in the summer

China GDP per capita by province 

Core-periphery 

• The provinces along the east coast can be regarded as the economic core of China

• Most secondary and tertiary economic activities are located there

• The economic periphery is to the west and far north-east of China:

  • Includes the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts

  • The Plateau of Tibet is a mountainous region that includes the Himalayas

• The development gap can be seen in a range of areas:

  • 17 million people still live on US$2.30 a day

  • Over 90% of people living in poverty live in rural areas

  • The standard of housing is often poor

  • People are being moved to apartment blocks, to free up land for factories

  • Over 25% of rural households have access to piped water

  • Literacy rates in rural areas are 65%, but in urban areas they are 84%

• The rate of unemployment in rural areas is over 30%

• This leads to:

  • Increased poverty

  • Difficulty attracting businesses to these regions

  • The periphery is becoming more dependent on primary economic activities to survive

• This regional inequality has led to significant rural-urban migration in China

Core-periphery model

Case Study: China's Internal Migration

Migration in China 

• Since 1978, over 160 million people have left rural China to seek work in the major cities

• Wages in urban areas are 40% higher than in rural areas 

• Development is concentrated along the coastal zones

• The majority of the migrants are:

  • Economically active

  • Mostly female

  • From inland, rural, and poor communities 

  • They are considered a floating population, as they don't have official urban hukou status

China’s internal migration stream 

• China rapidly industrialised after the government created Special Economic Zones (SEZ) during the 1980s

• These policies allowed for foreign investment into 'special zones', that are managed by a single administration and regulations

• More than 200 million rural migrants now work in China's main cities, such as Shanghai and Shenzhen

• Around 20 million people arrive in cities each year

• Over the next decade, an estimated 60% of Chinese people will live in urban areas

Megacity growth in China 

• Approximately 56% of the world’s 8 billion people now live in cities

• This is expected to rise to over 68% by 2050

• That means 2 out of every 3 people will live in a city

• China has more than 100 cities with over one million people

• 6 of them are considered megacities with over 10 million people each

• China's megacities are:

  • The result of rapid urbanisation, economic growth, and migration from rural areas

  • Centres of innovation, trade, culture, and transportation, with leading technologies such as solar energy, electric cars, high-speed rail, 5G, AI, and space science

  • Face challenges such as environmental pollution, social inequality, traffic congestion, housing affordability, and cultural preservation

• There are 5 economic zones and 17 open cities

• These aim to attract inward investment and include groups such as the Jingjinji Integration, the Chengdu-Chongqing City Group, and the Yangtze Delta City Group

• There are plans to combine the largest megacity, Shanghai, with eight surrounding cities

• This would create the city of Jing-Jin-Ji with 130 million inhabitants by 2035