Evolution of administrative division in Beijing and analysis on its spatial pattern based on GIS

The administrative division of Beijing City has been changed continuously since 1978 with different focuses. Since 1993, the focus has been in suburban areas by repealing townships, founding towns, uniting townships and towns, and preparing to establish local offices in the places where urban and rural areas meet as part of the reforms on setting up interim systems during the transitional process from townships to urban sub-districts. By the end of 2007, the number of sub-district offices in Beijing City increased by 27, that of towns increased by 35, while the number of townships reduced by 191 to 18, that of local administrative offices went up by 53. These numbers also show the radical changes made to administrative division of Beijing City during the period. The article analyzes the changes of townships, towns, and sub-districts in Beijing City in past two decades by means of GIS analysis and spatial statistics. The evolution rules and the spatial patterns and features of administrative division changes in Beijing City are summarized, and the rationality of the large-scale repealing and uniting of townships and towns is discussed. Based on the results of sampling analysis and the nearest neighbor analysis, the author concludes that the townships and towns in this city achieve relative balance in terms of their spatial distribution, which will benefit social and economic growth in local urban and rural areas. Then, by analyzing the spatial self-correlation of various indices in township and town locations including the total population of townships and towns, the proportion of non-agricultural population, and the population density, the conclusion is that the locations of administrative branches in townships and towns are obviously self-related in space and demonstrating a spatial agglomeration pattern. The article also analyzes briefly the distribution pattern of local administrative branches. As a result, the hasty decisions of promoting these places that are townships in nature into towns will do harm to local economic and social growth. Therefore, such radical changes made to administrative division will definitely cause long-term and profound impact on the spatial distribution of administrative functions in Beijing as well as on its future social and economic growth.