Spatial Patterns, Dependencies, and Disparities of Characteristic Towns and Taobao Towns in China

Small town development plays a crucial role in urban-rural systems, especially in developing countries. Recently, characteristic towns (CTs) and Taobao towns (TTs), which are two kinds of newly-developing industrial towns, have emerged in China. The former is supported by national strategic plans, whereas the latter is generated by the industrial space aggregation that is driven by the development of e-commerce. CTs and TTs significantly affect China’s urban development and rural revitalization. However, systematic research around these two types of spatial dimensional issues within the city-town framework has not been established. In this paper, we argue that both types represent different models of “top-down” and “bottom-up” development, respectively. A novel analytical framework for analyzing the spatial characteristics and spatial heterogeneity of both types is proposed. The prime variables were selected as the carrier to represent the differences in the characteristics, then various indicators were applied to analyze the spatial patterns, dependencies, and disparities. The results indicate that: (1) There is significant heterogeneity between the CT and TT spatial patterns, of which the CTs gradually decrease from east to west with extensive distribution, whereas the TTs are more concentrated near the medium-large cities and the developed coastal areas; (2) The majority of the TTs and CTs, which are less than 50 km away from the nearest cities, have obvious spatial dependencies with the medium-large cities in a few areas; (3) The Gini coefficient represents significant features and differences in the spatial inequalities between the CTs and TTs. The population of the TTs and CTs in the west is less than that in the east. Some TTs or CTs have the potential for industrial transformation and upgrading. The proposed analytical framework integrates multiple quantitative analysis indicators with support for spatial analysis. We examine the impacts of the CTs and TTs on China’s urban-rural integration, discuss the elimination of regional disparities, and provide some policy insights.