Investigation And Research About Settlement Groups Under Impact On Salt Road In Central-eastern Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolian settlements are an important part of China’s traditional settlements,forming diverse clusters of settlements under the influence of multiple cultures,including religion,commerce and migration.The Qing Salt Road refers to the Qing salt transportation and marketing route of the salt ponds in Ejinur,Inner Mongolia,and is an important branch of the East Road of Zhangku Avenue,which provided the prerequisites for the formation of commercially dominant clusters in the central-eastern region of Inner Mongolia.The development of the salt road not only influenced the multi-ethnic social settlement relations and socio-economic changes of the communities in the central-eastern region of Inner Mongolia,but also witnessed the historical process of the development of a complete cluster of settlements from scratch and from few to many under the influence of the salt road economy.At present,there is no systematic study of the Salt Road,and the study of Inner Mongolian settlements has focused on individual cases under the influence of religious and commercial factors,but no dynamic study has been carried out on groups of settlements.This paper takes the Qing Dynasty to 1949 as the time frame for the study,and the central-eastern region of Inner Mongolia,mainly Xilinguole Meng,Tongliao and Chifeng,as the geographical scope for the study,The study shows that the macro-pattern of the agglomerations has evolved and the spatial characteristics of the agglomerations have been studied.The research shows that there are three stages in the evolution of the macro-pattern of clusters.In the complete growth cycle of "infancy-development-maturity",influenced by various factors such as natural environment,administrative control and national situation,the pattern of cluster completes from "single-core radial" to "multi-level radial".In the whole growth cycle of the "initial stage-development stage-maturity stage",the cluster pattern has evolved from "single-core radial","multi-level radial" to "multi-level network".The salt-producing settlements were the starting point of the salt road,with the temples as the core of the cluster,and the clusters were concentrated on the salt ponds;the transit node settlements were mostly created by the temples,and the clusters were mostly square or topographically shaped by the axial development of the religious groups;the transport and marketing settlements were located in convenient places,and the towns contained strips or crosses along the streets.The integrated management settlement is a salt centralisation centre,with well-developed commerce and open spaces,and has a free,irregular cluster shape.The exploration of the cluster of settlements under the influence of the Qing Yan Salt Road can provide basic information for the study of the cluster of Inner Mongolian commercial and cultural routes,and further promote the study of traditional settlements in the Inner Mongolia region.