The Research Of Capital Cities In Central Area Of China Which Based On "City Image"

Cultural and scientific developments and the congregation of population give rise to cities. Symbolizing the advances of civilization and human society, cities are more than platforms for civil production and livelihood. It has become a serious concern for modern cities to optimize their layout, to refine their infrastructures and to deal with the environmental problems. As early as in 18^th century, western city engineers such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe have already proposed theories in city layout, construction and practical guidelines, which critically served as the central dogma for contemporary city engineering. However, the theories have also contributed to the uniformity of modern cities to some extent. As people are more and more aware of such concepts as "city characteristics" nowadays, they all grow weary of the "typical" look of modern cities. In response to this problem, there grows the science of "city image".Since its birth in the 20^th century, "city image" has been a hot research topic in the scientific world. In China, the main research directions in "city image" include: (1) theoretical investigations of the content, scope and interpretation of "city image"; (2) analysis of the design schemes of "city image" for certain selected cities; (3) possible impact of the theory of "city image" on the engineering practice of city layout and design.As the largest developing country in the 21st century, China must be devoted in improving its cities because they directly affect the domestic and even the world economic developments. However, the critical situation now is that China is plagued with the problem of extremely unbalanced developmental status of its cities: many mainland cities, especially those in the central area, are falling far behind. This has severely hampered the overall competitiveness of the country. As a result, the government has proposed a long term strategy "rise of center". This strategy is beneficial to the whole country. Moreover, it has offered a tremendous opportunity for the development of the central area.