1991 Volume 43 Issue 6 Pages 526-545
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the urban internal structure of China's cities by a case study of Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu Province. At first, the spatial structure of urban life in China's cities is clarified by consideration of the formation, the roles, the internal structure and the distributive characters of the DANWEI (or working unit). Then, the urban land use pattern is also analysed, and a model of the internal structure of Chinese cities is obtained. The results are summarized as follows:
1) The life of urban inhabitants in China's cities is performed basically depending on the DANWEI, which is related to both the work and residences of the inhabitants, and has influence on the urban land use patterns. It is clarified that the spatial structure of urban life in China's cities is composed of three levels: the DANWEI, a principal territorial form of the urban life; the low level life space by the homogeneous DANWEI; and the high level life space by the Municipal District. Furthermore, the low level life space by the concentrated distribution of the homogeneous DANWEI is divided into 12 in the town area of Lanzhou, and that the low level life space formed from the industrial DANWEI can be distinguished. The institution of the low level life space has developed to far away from the city centre. Moreover, the high level life space which is formed as the Municipal District is divided into 4, and it appears that the spatial structure of urban life in China's cities is formed through the administrative control and the residential plan of the Municipal Bureau (Fig. 6).
2) Regarding urban land use, it tends to change from commercial·administrative· old residential land use to industrial·new residential land use with the change from the urban core to the suburbs. Furthermore, the residential areas are distributed generally in the town areas and correspond to the old residential area in the older town areas, to the mixed residential area mainly composed of DANWEI in the newer town areas and the new residential areas on the urban fringe, with a change from the urban core to the surrounding of the core and the suburban areas. However, the school zones are distributed in special areas.
3) When the characteristics of the urban land use in Lanzhou mentioned above are clear, the urban land use model (Fig. 8) and the development model of urban internal structure (Tab. 3) are presented. Furthermore, as a future agenda, a model of the internal structure of China's cities can be acquired, espatially of industrial Chinese cities (Fig. 9). The urban land use pattern is characterized by a four-concentric zone structure: urban core zone, mixed zone, industrial zone and outer zone. Furthermore, the residential areas are distributed continuously from the urban core to the suburbs and can be generally divided into three: the old residential areas, the mixed residential areas, and the new residential areas. However, the school zones and new industrial areas are distributed in special areas.
