ABSTRACT
Since “reform and opening,” as market reforms progressed and China integrated into the world economy, the geographical disposition of Chinese manufacturing changed dramatically. In macro-terms, industry gradually agglomerated toward the eastern coastal regions, accompanied by gradually declining manufacturing proportions in the central and western regions, the decline of old industrial regions represented by the northeastern provinces being especially evident (Fan and Scott, 2003; Wen, 2004a, b; He et al., 20 07a; He et al., 20 08a; He, 20 08; Lu and Tao, 2009; He et al., 2010a). At the same time, numerous industrial clusters formed in many districts, counties, and even townships. These industrial clusters are often composed of hundreds if not thousands of same-industry firms and export large amounts of their products to foreign markets (Wang, 2001, 2010). Meanwhile, each level of government objectively facilitates the geographical agglomeration of industries by setting up development zones at the national level, provincial level, municipal level, and county level. Whether on the macro-scale or microscale, industrial agglomeration is pervasive in China.
