ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the background and framework needed to understand the complex spatial inter-relationships that exist in the industry. After classifying the different regions, the factor endowments that characterize the major regions are described. Although the major cattle and beef production regions in the Central Plains are distant from major provincial capitals and large cities like Shanghai, they are connected to these major centres by good transport infrastructure. In general, existing production systems are too similar across regions than the opportunities under regional specialisation would suggest. After discussing cattle and beef movements, some comments are also directed at inter-regional movements in hides and edible offal. Counties such as Weichang County sell around 90% of all their cattle turned off to other regions, whereas Jia County sells less than 10%. The characteristics of hide processing and leather production entail that regional flows of cattle hides are more developed than either cattle or beef.
