The Correlation Between Traffic And Urban Development In Northeast Region Of China From 1860 To 1931

This article is to explore and discuss,from a panoramic perspective,the transportation transformation occurred in the Northeast Region of China(“the Northeast”)during the period from 1860 to 1931 and its correlations with and impacts on the population structure,trading development,industrial and commercial activities,infrastructures as well as lifestyles in the Northeast,in the hope to shed some light on the correlations between transportation transformation and urban development in the modern Northeast.In the Northeast's long history,the development of its old cities was significantly restricted by the political and military functions as prescribed by the government,and as a result these cities were relatively few,small,inaccessible,and stale.In ancient times,communications and interactions between cities in the Northeast mainly relied on wagons,horses,and boats traversing on traditional dirt roads and rivers.In the mid of the Qing Dynasty,with enforcement of a series of ordinances promulgated by the government the communications and interactions between the Northeast and other areas of China were essentially impossible.These ordinances included trading bans,navigation ban,travel bans,hunting bans,as well as bans on communications,interactions and trading with Mongolian and Manchurian territories,logging bans,navigation and fishing bans,mining bans.These ordinances not only caused a complete blockage on migration and economic development,but also resulted in a decline of traditional land and water transportation in the Northeast.In modern times,the blockage in the Northeast was completely destroyed due to invasion of foreign enemies and influx of western civilizations.Drastic changes ensued,and transportation was one of most noticeable changes in the society.In terms of the power source of the transportation,natural powers generated or drawn by humans,animals,water,or wind were replaced by mechanical powers generated by steam or electricity.From the perspectives of their functions and performance,semi-mechanical transportation outweighed traditional one with its considerably improved speed and comfort.By and large,the new transportation tools in Modern Northeast China include western carriages,rickshaws,bicycles driven by animal or human force,and trams,ships,cars,trains and planes driven by mechanical force,such as steam or electricity;at the same time,along with the need of modern transportation,the evolution of the road came into being.And then,on the whole,it improved the traffic environment of modern northeast cities in China.The construction of transit traffic made it a way for immigrants to enter and flow in Northeast China.With the help of modern transportation lines,especially railway transport efficiency,northeast region had the opportunity to absorb a large number of population to spread along the traffic and its nodes,which promoted the emergence of new cities and the expansion of the original towns.At the same time,the northeast immigrants of “arrival in spring and return in winter”by a large number of modern transportation gradually formed the situation of dwellers dominated.And these dynamic changes were shown by the construction and development of modern transportation.The modern northeast transportation especially the construction and operation of the railway lines absorbed a large number of floating population and gradually transformed them into settled immigrants,and this process had an important and even decisive influence on urban structure and its form.With the development of the railway and the route,the northeast of China was developed from a single center city system to a multi center city system,from point alienation City to zonal traffic linkage urban system structure.The formation of the urban public transport had updated the regional structure of the Northeast cities.The traditional North East Town pattern of the scattered settlement type was attracted by the gathering efficiency of the traffic hub,showing a concentrated situation,and then affected the size of the city center,the distance between the functional areas and spatial distribution.The re-constructed functional zoning formed a different combination pattern,which constructed the new regional structure of the northeast city.At the same time,under the decisive influence of traffic change,modern northeast city regional form had changed greatly on the plane road network and the three-dimensional building.Under the promotion of the whole evolution of traffic brought by construction and development of railway and port,the foreign trade and the industry and Commerce of the modern northeast city also opened the course of modernization.Under the influence of traffic change,foreign trade routes,costs and values had changed dramatically,furthermore,the economic relationship between the northeast and the international market was strengthened day by day.At the same time,modern transportation will be the social production,distribution,exchange and consumption were organically linked,which had great influence on the development of urban industry,and mercantilism.The construction of public utilities closely related to traffic in Northeast China also started in Late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.Whether it was public transport within the city,or intercity traffic,all made the development of modern urban passenger transport in Northeast China,and walking mode convert into semi mechanized and mechanized transportation way.At the same time,the municipal construction of sewage,sewage treatment and greening had been developed in large and medium-sized cities in Northeast China,which changed the cities.In addition,the development of modern transportation,directly stimulated the development of related initial post,advertising and other city services industries.With the development of transportation,the content and quality of life in the northeast cities had been changed,and then the city people's living habits,behavior norms and social atmosphere had been re shaped,that is,the improvement of quality of life of people in northeast cities,renewal of life concept,and changes in social atmosphere,all were inextricably linked with the change of traffic.However,we should objectively learn,all above aspects of urban development closely related to the modernization of transportation were accompanied by the invasion of Japan,Russia and other powers.Under the influence of the traffic planning lacking of overall and long-term vision made by Russia,Japan and other countries in accordance with its aggressive intent,transport hub shifting led to the decline of some traditional towns,and cities rising near traffic lines were also divided into several parts.In the same city,there was sharp and obvious contrast between commercial district,railway subsidiaries and old city.This kind of extremely unreasonable situation tended to integrate with the Northeast administrative system,the the barriers between cities were gradually broken.These cities were often blocked by the railway line,or showed a non-natural state of reverse development,or over the railway line and then split again,resulting in deformed layout,thus,the development direction and scale of cities were restricted.At the same time,the manipulation of Modern Northeast transportation by Japan,Russia and other powers made development of all aspects of northeast economy show deficiency or distortion,which slowed down the pace of the city's normal development.