A Study On Medium-size And Small-size Riparian Cities In Sichuan In Modern Times

The principal aim of this thesis is to make a study on the situation and status of the medium - size and small - size riparian cities in Sichuan. There are a great number of medium - size and small - size cities which are of significance in connecting large - size cities to expansive rural regions. As the study of urban history has just begun and historical materials were destroyed in the war- lords' fighting, the research on medium - sice and small - size cities in Sichuan is nearly in vain. With an eye to medium - size and small - size riparian cities which are the majority of cities in Sichuan, the thesis mainly studies their development and undevelopment, and reveals the historical reasons of developing the inalformed urban distribution pattern of super large - size cities—medium - size cities in nowadays.The thesis consists of seven sections:Section Ⅰ : Introduction. This section illustrates the study condition of the medium- size and small - size riparian cities in Sichuan and the selecting meaning of this thesis.Section Ⅱ: The general development situation of the M - S riparian cities in Sichuan . This section summarily recommands the general development situation of the M -S riparian cities in Sichuan. They developed early, but the scales were generally small. Comparing with the M - S cities along the south - east loast and Changjing River middle- and - lower reaches, the M - S cities in Sichuan develop in a relative low speed and stiu have a longer way to go even comparing with the large - scale city Chongqing.Section Ⅲ : Relation of Water - carriage and the M - S riparian cities in Sichuan. Water - carriage not only directly effected the distribution of cities in Sichuan, but also made riparian cities possessing advantageous conditions in trades, and furthermore made export trade becoming the main function of the M - S cities. Meantime, their urban areal structure was effected greatly by water - carriage.Section IV: The analysis of the backbone industries of the M - S riparian cities. This section mainly anatomizes the salt industry of Zigong, the sugar industry of Nei-jiang, the silk industry of Santau Nanchong and Leshan. These industries were prominent in these cities and determined their prosperity and decline to a certain extent. However, the characteristics of these industries determined that they might have accelerated the development of their cities in a time, but couldn' t keep their persistent development.Section V : The relation of outside power and the M - S cities in Sichuan. The outside power included the Easten (the easten to Sichuan) and the Westen (the Westen capitalism) . The impingement of westen capitalism made M - S riparian cities in Sichuan reaching out of the close region and starring to urban modernization. The anti - Japanese Aggression War brought the riparian cities to the golden development period in which they all had quite great progress.Sective Ml: The urban and town system. Before Chongqing was opened up, the system took Chengdu as its center. After Chongqing was opened up, the urban and town system of modern Sichuan became five levels of Chongqing as its center. The change of the urban and town system of Sichuan is the result of modem capitalistic order, and complies to the request of social economy development, and will also be benefit to the development of cities.Section VE: The comments on the M - S riparian cities in Sichuan. This section mainly discusses the factors of restricting the development of riparian cities. Since the urban development is the result of combining the regional conditions and cities themselves, the factors of retricting also include two aspects: regions and cities themselves. Some of the factors of retricting still effects the M - S riparian cities in Sichuan.All in all, every city is the organic combination of time and space, and modem cities always grow up on the basis of modem cities. The M - S riparian cities in Sichuan with the greatest development potentiality, for the restriction of their regions and themselves, haven't grown up in the late century, resulting in the malformed distribution pattern of Sichuan cities today.