The Temporal And Spatial Evolution And The Innovation Of Administrative Division Of County-level Cities In China

County-level cities are an important part of China's cities and are indispensable in China's urban system.Although the Central Government has frozen the approval of the county-level cities since 1997,under the new urbanization strategy,setting up county-level cities has become an important policy tool for optimizing the pattern of urbanization in China,relieving pressure of large cities,and promoting regional balanced development and full development.In recent years,the frequency of setting up county-level cities has been significantly higher than before.However,the inherent laws of county-level cities have not yet been ascertained,and the institutional bottleneck that has plagued the development of county-level cities has not yet been completely broken,which has hindered the healthy and sustainable growth of county-level cities.To this end,this article starts from the following sections and tries to respond to key issues in the development of county-level cities.(1)The first part is introduction.We analyzed the background of the resetting of county-level cities.After reviewing the research results of domestic and foreign county-level cities,the basic ideas and technical routes for this study were formed.(2)The second part is the evolution process and distribution characteristics of the county-level cities.The process of setting up county-level cities in China is divided into four phases.The strategy and distribution characteristics of county-level cities in different stages are discussed.(3)The third part is the analysis of the system effect of county-level cities.An analytical framework was constructed.Taking Mile City and Dongning City as examples,the impact of setting up cities on development strategies,urban construction,and residents' lives was assessed.Deepened understanding of the institutional effects of county-level cities.(4)The fourth part is the optimization of the grass-roots administrative region system in county-level cities.Analyze the intrinsic relationship between the urban governance of county-level cities and their administrative district system.Taking Kunshan City as an example,the impact of grass-roots administrative regions on the urban governance capacity of county-level cities was analyzed,and put forward some strategic orientations for the reform of the county-level cities' grass-roots administrative regions in China.(5)The fifth part is the conclusion and outlook.Summarized the research results,and put forward the key content of the reform of county-level cities in the next stage from the perspectives of space strategy,argumentation mechanism and transition path.