"The aim of this book is to examine the transformation of the geography of China in the years since the start of China's policy of reform and opening up as seen through the eyes of Chinese geographers. Throughout that period Chinese geographers have studied these processes from close at hand, drawing on sources that are far from easy to access, and publishing their results in Chinese. Much of this research has underpinned the assessment of policies and the policy choices of the Chinese government at different levels, and yet it is not well-known outside of China. This volume deals with aspects of the socio-economic geography of China's transformation including its changing relations with the rest of the world, although it also deals with the impact of China's development path on China's ecological systems. Each chapter deals with aggregate trends and with specific cases to show the ways in which the particular characteristics of China's economic and social order (economic organisation, political system and cultural model and values) have shaped and are shaped by its geography"--