The Spatial Distribution And Characteristics Of The Urban Poverty In Beijing

Urban poverty has been existed for a long time. In China, along with the double transition of China’s economic and social structure, as well as the acceleration of urbanization process, the number of poor people is increasing. There is an obvious phenomenon that poor people trand to live together in many cities, which has lead to the formation of "urban poverty space". Based on this background, the paper chooses Beijing as example to study the characteristics of urban poverty space. First, it analyses the historical evolution, current distribution and temporal evolution of Beijing urban poverty space from a macro perspective. Then, it conducts questionnaire survey on the residents in typical urban poverty spaces about their lives and does data extraction and statistics based on it from a microscpoic view. In the end, it discusses the formation mechanism, impacts and countermeasures of Beijing urban poverty space. The main conclusions of this study include the following three aspects:i)By summarizing the regular pattern of spatial evolution of urban poverty, it shows that the dominant factors affecting the spatial distribution of Bejing’s urban poverty changed with time. Beijing’s urban spatial differentiation was based on status in Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was also affected by institutions and religions. Economic status had become the main factor in the early20th century. In mordon times, Beijing’s urban poverty spatial distribution was affected by many factors, including policy, economic system, the process of urbanization, etc.ii)The distribution of Beijing’s urban poverty space has a significant "spatial deprivation " reconstruction phenomenon since1978. Urban poverty spaces has moved from the inner city to the suburbs, and further to the outer suburbs. In the deprivtation-type reconstruction of Beijing’s urban poberty spaces, the loss of urban advantaged location will possibly lead to the rise in the cost of traffic, employment and living, and the reduction of opportunities for moving upwards of poverty-stricken families.iii)The formation and existence of urban poberty space are inevitable and objective. It is the result of uneven development of urban space and closely related to the process of urbanization. Countermeasures of urban poverty space should be aimed at reducing the number of poor people. Otherwise, it will only end in the "transfer" of urban poverty spaces.