China's Patterns of Development & Distribution | SL IB Geography Revision Notes 2019

Case Study: China's Population Distribution

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)

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

provinces-of-china-gdp-per-capita

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:

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%

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-2

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

internal-migration-flows-china

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

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