Strategic Objectives and Regional Orientation of Urban–Rural Transformation in China

Abstract

In line with the new trends of economic growth, social development and population flow, principles such as people-oriented, intensive and efficient, overall consideration and regional coordination are important premises to promote the development of new-type urbanization and urban–rural integration. The key tasks of urban–rural transformation are to improve modern agricultural production system, strengthen the division and connection of urban–rural industries, accelerate the orderly reconstruction of urban–rural space and deepen the comprehensive reform of urban–rural systems, thus continuously promoting regional economic growth and urban–rural structure optimization, improving social and living conditions and solving the increasingly prominent problems of urban–rural development. In term of the spatial pattern, the agglomeration of the high-value areas of urban–rural socio-economic transformation from 1990 to 2015 is more obvious in the eastern coastal areas, while the vast western region is the main distribution area of low-value areas; the level of urban–rural structural transformation in the eastern and northeastern regions was higher than that in the central and western regions; the spatial pattern of urban–rural relationship transformation in 2015 was similar to that in 1990, but the urban–rural synergy in provinces such as Inner Mongolia and Jilin decreased significantly. According to the cluster analysis, urban–rural transformation in China during the period of 1990–2015 can be divided into seven regions and 19 sub-regions, and there are obvious differences in the characteristics, formation mechanism and development orientation of different regions.