The Statistical Study On The Function Orientation Of Central Cities In China

The study of urban system gets much attention of academics with the deepening of urbanization process in China. The studies that classify and locate cities according to the urban functions are few. The study about central cities’ function of all the provinces is fewer. However, the function orientation of city determines urban development strategy in the future. It makes difference in practice that classify cities according to function orientation, because it can help the same kind of cities study the development and evolution of function orientation from each other.From the perspective of economy, the paper evaluates the urban function of51central cities from2009to2012with the time series-global principal component analysis method. Then the paper clusters the results of comprehensive evaluation with the two-stage cluster analysis method, and get urban orientations direction according to functional characteristics of each category. Afterwards the paper analyzes functional evolution process, causes and rationality of the function alterations in detail. In the end, the paper puts forward proposals on promotion of reasonable function position based on the research findings. Through empirical analysis, results of this study show that:Firstly, according to the results of various types of urban function orientations, we can know that function orientations of city diversify with the advance of modern city function building. By forming one or two strong functions, strengthen the linkage and synergy between functions, cities can stimulate greater potential function to play a role. This is the common trend to all urban function orientations.Secondly, combine the function orientations of city with the actual situation of the city, we can get that:In the process, most cities can strengthen its own mining of the city’s most characteristic features, focus on urban personality highly, and bring the greatest benefit with limited resources. Thus they can form an unparalleled competitive advantage to achieve sustainable development of urban function.Thirdly, the functional position levels of deputy central cities in some provinces is not high enough, so they should rely on their provincial capitals appropriately. They also should strengthen the association with industries of provincial central cities, and focus on the sharing of resources, information exchanges and so on. Based on this, they can cultivate and support relatively competitive industries, and form industrial agglomeration effect to increase the level of urban functions.Fourthly, the function orientation of city is a location in a specific period, but not absolute and unchanging. When conditions change, we need to adjust based on the original city positioning. We need to monitor the development of different functions constantly, so that we can explore the potential industries in time. Then we can make use of inter-industry linkage effects, and allocate limited resources in order to adjust the functional orientation dynamically.Fifthly, a lot of cities emphasis on improving the ecological environment when they adjust the current city functional positioning. With the rapid development of industry in cities, the ecological environment deteriorate. And a good ecological environment can improve the cohesion and attractiveness of the city to boost economic development.