The Urban Form And Social Space Of Chengdu In The Early Stage Of Modernization

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, has a long urban construction history.The city’s establishment and development reflect the transformation of urbanmorphology and urban geographical pattern in Southwest China. Since the beginningof modern times, Chengdu has gone through a big reformation as a result of the urbanmodernization of East Asia. Compared with the costal cities, however, Chengdu madea relatively slow development. The study of the transformation of Chengdu in earlymodern times is exemplary in the study of the early development of modernization ofinland central cities.Through the way of time lay in historical geography, based on Chengdu Tonglan(Tonglan hereinafter) and maps of modern cities, this thesis is going to restore thegeographical pattern and interior structure of Chengdu at the initial stage ofmodernization at the end of Qing Dynasty, and furthermore, make an analysis of andsort out the spatial elements, exploring the process and law of modernization of inlandcentral cities in initial stage.On the basis of Chengdu’s geographic background, this thesis, in exploring andanalyzing the modern elements, draws a distribution map of these elements on theurban pattern measuring map, trying to restore the urban pattern recorded in Tonglan.Then based on Newly Edited Map of27Districts in Chengdu of1911with urbanpattern measuring map around1911and contemporary electronic map, the thesisrectifies and locates the main urban elements, discussing the characteristics andevolution of the urban pattern of the late Qing Dynasty.Before the modern times, Chengdu kept in the regional center pattern. Later, theregional conditions declined. The economic modernization was hampered with a lackof mineral resources. Many modern economic elements showed up, while they werenot a natural process of nor even necessary for urban development.This thesis indicates that although new developing elements have appeared in thecity under the influence of traditional elements, and the city’s social space haschanged in a better way which evince that urban inertia could also play a positive rolein a new historical circumstance and that urban superstructure might precedeeconomic elements, economic transformation has failed. Without the foundation ofeconomy, neither the urban morphology nor social space are able to develop in ahealthy and continuous way. Until1911, the urban morphology of Chengdu has notundergone a great change.