The Development And Morphological Evolution Of Cities And Towns In Siyi District, One Of The Hometowns Of Overseas Chinese In Guangdong In Modern Times

Located in central Guangdong Province, the Siyi District is one of the well-knownhometowns of the overseas Chinese. Vast quantities of cities and towns have been developedhere in modern times, with perfect hierarchy and clear spatial structure. Undergoing theimprovement of municipal facilities, the central cities and towns have created their specificfeatures in urban appearance and landscape with Arcades, which are major features ofLingnan.With analysis on modern major cities and towns in Siyi District from perspectives ofmacro, middle and micro scales, this paper has established the research system which isconstituted of regional urban system-overall layout of urban space-internal structure ofurban space-public space and public buildings. Accordingly, by providing a researchbackground which includes hierarchically scale, spatial distribution and structuralcharacteristics of modern cities and towns in Siyi, it carries out research on site selection andoverall spatial form of the central cities, and also analyzes the structure of internal urbanspace, usually with the Arcades predominating, which symbolized with public space andpublic buildings. Meanwhile, this paper also focuses on control and guidance by modernmunicipal planning and administration on urban spatial morphology, and represents acomprehensive demonstration of the modernization characteristics of the cities and towns inSiyi District.Firstly, considering the prosperity of the commercial economy of Siyi District as theproper access to the study work, this paper studies the hierarchical distribution of the citiesand towns, categorizing the main towns into two grades consisting of central cities and smalltowns. Based on this, this paper analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics of the urbansystem, makes the summary of its number, hierarchy, scale, density, characteristics ofdistribution and structure, and summarizes the relation to economy of overseas Chinesevillages, traffic network and local community.Secondly, this paper carries out an analysis on municipal system of the cities in SiyiDistrict, discusses the functions, institution-setting, regulations and supervision managementmethods of the works department of every county, and points out that the effective municipalmanagement and the scientific urban planning are the important impetus for thetown-development in Siyi, furthermore, they not only promote the growth of construction ofinfrastructure facilities and public facilities in the cities, but also accelerate the construction ofpublic space and public buildings. The popularity of Beneficiary Burden System is a firm guarantee of the modernization of urban infrastructure facilities.Thirdly, the sites and the characteristics of spatial distribution and expansion of centralcities are well summarized in a review of morphological features of central cites and smalltowns. The author sorts out the typical overall layout of urban space of central cities in Siyi,and sums up three types of spatial layout which include the city-connecting form, the groupform and the ribbon form. Based on the analysis of the internal spatial structure which coversArcades and morphological features of road network, the author believes that the three streetpatterns consisting of neighborhood-pattern, grid-pattern and belt-pattern to be the majorforms of the internal structure of urban spatial of the central cities in Siyi District.The spatial structure of small towns is characterized by the combination of shoppingArcades and market centers, which is the continuation of the large-scale county fairs with thecombination of traditional shops and market stalls.Take the typical central city Taishan for instance, this paper analyzes the expansion of itsurban space, occurred after the transformation of city function in modern times, and it findsout that the urban pattern has been transformed into a group form which takes the old city asthe core, meanwhile expands wings toward east and west. Homogeneous grid-pattern andcollage neighborhood-pattern jointly compose major street patterns in internal urban space ofthe central part and west wing, in which the distinct commercial spatial morphology withinterlacing network emerges; while three large-scale middle schools compose the cultural andeducational area which occupies the east wing of the city. Garden city is the hallmark ofTaishan surrounded with three large city parks.Fourthly, this paper draws upon a research dealing with the development of public spaceand public buildings in Siyi District in modern times. Given parks as important public spacein modern Siyi District, this paper takes a precise view of the site selection, spatial layout andthe artistic characteristics, finding that the combination of the spatial layout of eastern andwestern styles and the facility allocation have shown the transformation of Chinese socialculture in modern times. In the meantime, concentrating on the large amounts ofexquisitely-constructed cultural and educational architecture, healthcare architecture andmunicipal architecture on a grand scale of modern Siyi District and with the researches ontheir arrangement of architectural functions and characteristics of architecture forms, thispaper figures out that the tradition of the charity fascination and the social ideals of the nationprosperity provide the significant impetus for the rapid development of the urban public spaceand public buildings in modern Siyi District.