RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
COMPLETED PROJECTS
A comparative analysis of skilled and unskilled interregional migration in China 2000-2005
Investigator: Jianfa SHEN
January 2014 - June 2016
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Bargaining for Nature: The Treatment of 'Environment' in China's Urban Planning System
Investigator: Jiang XU
Co-Investigator: Kin Che LAM
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Abstract
Chinese cities are in the midst of a volatile period of rapid expansion, growing population, and environmental degradation. From global warming and carbon emission to vanishing local characteristics and sprawling land use patterns, the environmental trends are becoming increasingly dire. As a result, environmental protection has emerged as one central and unifying theme of a new public policy agenda at all levels, at least rhetorically, since the mid-1990s. The urban planning system is recognized by many in government and academia to have a critical role to play in putting this new agenda into practice. As a result of this interest, there has been a rush of state-led projects to promote green planning initiatives. Though rhetoric is moving rapidly forward, its translation into practice remains problematic. Concepts such as environmental protection challenge the presumption in favor of development and sit uneasily with the emerging role of planning as a political tool for capital accumulation. At a more practical level, little attention has been paid to the 'green' policies and practices that are now emerging in the planning regime, and also to the processes by which these are achieved at, and contested at local inquiries. The growing importance of planning in articulating environmental concerns into spatial reality is characterized by several inadequacies and missing links in academic inquiry and political discourses. Among these are: (1) a lack of both systematic analysis and detailed case studies to understand how the environment is being conceptualized and treated in the planning system; and (2) an inadequacy in unpacking the institutional challenges of planning decisions associated with environmental care. It is this evocative contemplation that prompts us to deploy the perspective of this research.
In this research, we will go some way towards meeting the deficiency in planning research by conducting a systematic analysis of the way ‘environment’ has been conceptualized and treated within the Chinese urban planning system. Using selected cities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) as case studies, the research will assess the meaning given to, and the relative significance of, environmental issues as compared to development priorities at local planning inquiries, and the extent to which various aspects of environmental concerns can be incorporated into workable and rigorous spatial policies. To this end, we will look into four basic instruments of the planning system, namely legislation, development plan, organization and development control. These four instruments form a set of key strategic tools to put the planning system into operation and to transform rhetoric into spatial reality. The study will examine how these four instruments in each city are critically engaging with the idea of environmental care under the pressure of space commodification. The result will be used to assess the extent to which current environmental rhetoric can be operationalized. This will have a significant impact on policymaking in terms of helping to decide what should be done to better incorporate the environment into the spatial formation of Chinese cities. Further, a deep investigation into the proposed topic is expected to contribute to an improvement in the planning systems of cities and to facilitate the formation of a region-wide policy regime to help manage regional environmental quality.
Can transit experience change the attitudes towards car ownership and usage?
Investigator: Sylvia HE
Funding
Direct Grant, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Responses of Logistics SMEs under the National 12th Five-Year Plan
Investigator: Jianfa SHEN
Co-Is: Yue-man YEUNG and Gordon KEE
Funding
SME Development Fund, Trade & Industry Department, HKSAR Government
Fund Applicant and Partner
Federation of Hong Kong Industries
Abstract
Global economy and market are changing rapidly, and Hong Kong’s logistics industry is also transforming. The National 12th FYP proposes to consolidate the development of the logistics industry to support the development of various industry and trade. More specifically, the FYP supports the development of logistics industry in Hong Kong, and consolidating Hong Kong's role of international shipping center. On the other hand, Guangdong and Hong Kong are bonded by agreements such as CEPA to promote the development of logistics industry in the region. Compared with large enterprises, small and medium-sized logistics enterprises (SMLEs) usually do not have enough resources and know-how to respond to such changes effectively, and seize those opportunities. Against this background, this project tries to analyze the development and trends of logistics industry in Hong Kong, the current status, challenges and opportunities faced by SMLEs. Through a series of case studies and in-depth interviews with SMLEs, this project will examine the following issues of SMLEs: their relationship with other segments of the logistics chain, their roles in the logistics chain, the difficulties and solutions in operation, financing and minimizing cost, and the relationships with and challenges from large enterprises, expanding to other segments and exploring new markets, the market opportunities in Pearl River Delta (PRD), the benefits and limitations of CEPA. Successful cases will be generalized and categorized. By producing a final study report and an advisory kit, this project is going to make best practice recommendations to SMLEs in four aspects of the changing economy and markets, the institutional environment, the evolution of the logistics industry and the internal operation and management of SMLEs. It is the ultimate goal of the study team to reach the SMLEs to promote the best practice recommendations through a series of seminars and media publicity.
China’s shrinking cities and resource-based economy
Investigator: Sylvia HE
Funding
Direct Grant, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Community and place-making: what can Hong Kong learn from Tainan?
Investigator: Mee Kam NG
November 2015 - June 2017
Funding
Research Grant for CPOSS Initiatives, Faculty of Social Science, CUHK.
'Community capacities, social capital, citizen values and impact assessment’: Community-based planning as a missing component in the urban planning system in Hong Kong?
Investigator: Mee Kam NG
January 2014 – June 2016
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Contentious Space and Politics of Scale: Planning for Inter-City Railways in China's Mega-City Regions
Investigator: Jiang XU
Co-Investigator: James WANG
January 2013 – December 2016
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Abstract
The aim of this project is to examine the nature and spatial impacts of the politics of scale in planning intercity railways in China’s mega-city regions. In particular, the research aims to develop an insight into the planning processes and participants' strategies for negotiations, notably (1) how they position themselves in such practice; (2) their ways of developing and bargaining for their own interests; and (3) how the negotiated results impact on their cities in terms of urban structure and accessibility.
Geographers have defined mega-city regions as conurbations of contiguous cities or metropolitan areas, which are administratively separate but intensively interlinked, and clustered around one or more larger cities. Examples include the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Very often, such regions are developing at a phenomenal rate and each houses more than 50 million people in a proportionately small land area. Relatively unstudied, they often experience problems because of their rapid but fragmented growth and comparative lack of experience in managing infrastructure, and development that straddles administrative boundaries. As a means of mapping the growth characteristics of Chinese regions, geographers have noted, over the past decade, that these regions are coming to represent a new spatial scale for capital accumulation, state regulation, and political compromise. Such observation signals a critical swing away from pre-reform state socialism and a significant alternation to post-reform neoliberal urbanism. Regions are believed to represent emerging state spaces, which are shaped by the existence of overlapping competencies among contending actors at multiple scales of governance. The 'politics of scale' thesis has thus been helpful in drawing attention to this complex political ballet.
However, the growing importance of regional space is punctuated by several inadequacies and missing links in academic inquiry and political discourse. Among these are: (1) a tendency to apply a hegemonic interpretation of city-regionalism, at the expense of knowledge of place-specific practice; (2) a lack of detailed case studies revealing the key political processes and relationships that reflect historical contingencies and path-dependencies under transition; and (3) a reluctance to conduct empirical investigation to reveal the outcomes of the politics of scale in geographical terms. It is these considerations that prompt us to set out the scope of this research.
In this work, we will go some way towards addressing the shortage of geographical research by including an awareness of the politics of scale. To this end, we use the PRD Intercity Railway Network as a case study to explore the ways in which planning decisions for this mega-regional project are initiated, planned, negotiated and implemented in the context of a diffuse regional power structure and an inadequate institutional environment. We also intend to reveal the geographical impacts these might bring. Based on a pilot study, we propose to examine four aspects which will reveal the manifold features of the politics of scale in planning intercity railways. They are inter-ministry conflicts, inter-scalar tensions, inter-city politics, and state-market relations. The study will first examine how these four aspects are inherently involved in key planning decisions, especially in terms of the number of stations, their location, the route design and alignment for selected railway lines. It will then assess how the final, negotiated choices – as outcomes of the politics of scale – affect spatial structure and accessibility of cities. The research findings will have a significant impact on policymaking in terms of helping to decide what should be done to better overcome administrative fragmentation in infrastructure provision. It will further refine our theoretical interpretation of state-space theory in studies of geographical areas under transition.
Decomposing Interprovincial Migration in China 1995-2000: The Role of Spatial Structurea and Areal Attributes
Investigator: Jianfa SHEN
Funding
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, RGC Project No. CUHK450107 (HK$257,856)
Abstract
As a spatial phenomenon, migration is subject to the effects of spatial structure and various factors. Existing studies have focused on the effects of areal attributes on migration while the effect of spatial structure is largely neglected. Two problems remain unsolved. First, although distance is often considered as a variable in migration model, few studies have estimated the exact effect of spatial structure on migration. Second, there is often a system shift in migration as a migration model estimated for an earlier period. The objective of this research is to solve above problems in migration modelling by estimating various migration models to decompose migration flows into components of spatial effect and the effect of areal attributes, using interprovincial migration in China in 1995-2000 as the case. The effect of system shift will also be estimated.
Formulating and implementing strategic spatial planning in the twin cities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen
Investigator: Mee Kam NG
Funding
Direct Grant, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Growth machines? Sustainable communities? Values and urban fortunes in Chinese cities
Investigators: Mee Kam NG
January 2015 – June 2017
Funding
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Abstract
Are Chinese cities built as places to further economic growth or to nurture sustainable communities? This study postulates that the values held by the key stakeholders and the values embedded within institutions that govern the planning and development processes in a city will determine the spatial outcomes and hence the ‘fortune’ of a place. This study aims to verify this hypothesis through a comparative study of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Xi’an.
Impact of urban-rural return migration on rural economic development in China--with Implications for Vietnam
Investigator: Winnie WANG, University of Bristol
Co-Is: Jianfa SHEN
April 2014 – March 2017
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Inter-city Competition and Cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen in the 11th Five-year Plan Period
Investigator: Jianfa SHEN
Funding
Public Policy Research Scheme, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, RGC Project No. CUHK4005-PPR-4 (HK$584,000)
Homepage
http://ihome.cuhk.edu.hk/~b890706/hs.html
Abstract
While Hong Kong and Shenzhen compete in some areas, inter-city cooperation has become an important strategy for the governments of both cities. The project will develop a conceptual framework of inter-city competition and cooperation in a unique institutional context of "one country-two systems" in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Is there any room for cooperation when two cities compete in many areas? The needs, benefits and concerns of Hong Kong and Shenzhen sides will be analyzed. Policy suggestions will be proposed regarding what Hong Kong government can do to handle inter-city competition and break the bottlenecks of inter-city cooperation.
Modeling Interregional Migration in China 2000-2005: Analyzing the Modeling Error of Regional Attributes and Spatial Interaction
Investigator: Jianfa SHEN
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Abstract
Migration modeling is a common approach to describe the migration process and identify significant determinants of migration. This project will model interregional migration in China for the period 2000-2005 using data from 2005 population sampling survey.
Much methodological advancement has been made in the modeling and analysis of interregional migration. However, previous migration modeling has been done in a black-box. The overall performance of a migration model is evaluated with the contribution of all explanatory variables including regional attributes and spatial interaction effect. In most cases, distance is considered as just one of the many explanatory variables. No detailed research has been made to examine the following. What are the contributions of spatial interaction and regional attributes to migration? How good have the regional attractiveness, regional emissiveness and spatial interaction been modeled? Which part has been modeled much better? These are important questions as it is not useful to add more regional attributes into a migration model if the spatial interaction is poorly modeled. This project will fill above research gap in regional migration modeling, using the case of interregional migration of China in the period 2000-2005. The research will overcome the problem of spatial autocorrelation in migration modeling and use the notion of migration spatial structure to estimate the effect of spatial interaction.
Most previous migration models ignore spatial autocorrelation. Using the eigenvector spatial filtering approach, this project will formulate spatial filtered Poisson migration model for interregional migration in China in the period 2000-2005. Following the notion of migration spatial structure, the real or estimated interregional migration matrices in a migration system can be fully described by four main factors: the overall effect, the relative emissiveness and the relative attractiveness of specific regions, and the effect of spatial interaction between pairs of regions. These factors based on the real and expected migration matrices will then be compared. Estimation approach will be used to assess the contribution of the modeling performance of each of the four factors in the goodness of fit of the migration model.
Methodologically, the findings of this project will point to directions to improve migration modeling on whether one should look for more and better regional attributes or should improve the approach to model the effect of spatial interaction. Practically, this study would contribute to a better understanding of migration process and better approaches of modeling migration system.
Planning and Financing Regional Infrastructure in Mega-city Regions in China: An Institutional Perspective
Investigator: Jiang XU
Funding
South China Programme Research Grant, Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies
Abstract
China's mega-city regions are clusters of contiguous cities or metropolitan areas, such as the Pearl River Delta in South China and Yangtze River Delta. These regions are administratively separate but intensively networked in various ways. They are developing phenomenally and each houses more than 50 million people in a rather small land area. Relatively unstudied, these places are often problematic because of their rapid but fragmented growth and relative lack of experience in managing infrastructure and development that spill-over administrative boundaries. The negative impacts of these problems are commonly felt, and governments at various levels have launched tremendous efforts to handle them. One key initiative is to develop regional infrastructure to underpin growth in mega-city regions. Nobody doubts that this initiative has drawn keen attention and wide support across the country especially when the financial crisis has thrust us into a discernible recession. The overall objective of the study is to understand the institutional configuration of regional infrastructure planning and financing in China's mega-city regions. There are two specific aims. One is to examine how a regional infrastructure project is initiated, planned, and negotiated, while the other is to identify major methods and politics in regional infrastructure financing.
Planning for sustainable urban neighbourhood change
Investigator: Mee Kam NG,
June 2016 - May 2017
Funding
CUHK-University of Manchester Fund 2015-16
Planning for the Mega-city Region in the Pearl River Delta: State Reconstruction and Regional Strategic Planning
Investigator: Jiang XU and G.O. Anthony YEH
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Abstract
The Pearl River Delta (PRD) is a mega city-region in Guangdong in southern China. It covers nine municipalities with a total population of more than 60 million. Since the late 1970s, the PRD has undergone significant transformation because of market reform, globalization, and rapid urbanization. Many cities and towns that were formerly peripheral or rural areas have developed into active economic centres in their own rights. The resultant polycentric spatial form has combined with the rise of urban entrepreneurialism (a widespread key municipal strategy to enhance place specific socio-economic assets). This reform-imposed transition leads to a rapidly developing political environment that exhorts cities to compete against one another for mobile capital and policy inclination. The undesirable results of political fragmentation are thus becoming more and more acute, causing an increasingly fragmented spatial structure in the PRD. Facing the complication of such changing conditions, there is a resurgence of state’s regulatory power to promote territorial coordination. Regional strategic planning (RSP) constitutes a new policy option to overcome the negative effects of political fragmentation. However, with the prevalence of urban entrepreneurialism, RSP is still one of the most neglected policy areas.
This study will examine RSP within the context of state reconstruction and regional politics in China in order to explore the prospect of such planning in a mega city-region. The main objective is to evaluate whether or not RSP can be used effectively to restructure state function in spatial development in the PRD. To this end, the study will examine the reasons for the past failure of RSP in the PRD through a three-dimensional perspective (plan-making, spatial conceptions, and plan implementation) and assess how lessons can be drawn to improve new planning practice. The study will first contextualize the failure of past strategic plans and examine regional politics to delineate the interactions of such politics with the three dimensions of RSP. The results will be used to assess whether or not current RSP can rectify previous problems. The study will then address issues concerning the prospects for RSP in China in general, and in the PRD in particular. It will increase our knowledge on how planning rhetoric can be turned into daily practice and provide a theoretical interpretation of state re-articulation in space formation. Important, yet under-researched, these issues can provide a useful analytical starting point through which many other dimensions of regional development under transition may be illuminated.
Shaping Hong Kong—Strategies for optimizing Hong Kong’s living environment beyond 2030
Investigator: Mee Kam NG,
2014 - 2015
Funding
Institution of Civil Engineers (Hong Kong Association)
The Development of Major Mainland Cities and its Implications to Hong Kong under the 12th FYP of China
Investigators: Jianfa SHEN, Yun Wing SUNG, Jiang XU and Guixin WANG
Funding
South China Programme Research Grant, Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies
Abstract
Since the early 1980s, Hong Kong has developed close economic relations with mainland China. The recent rise of Chinese economy and its major cities is changing the global political and economic landscape and the world urban system hierarchy. Shanghai has been identified as an emerging world city and international financial centre in the world. This project will examine the impacts and implications of the development of major mainland cities in the 12th FYP period on Hong Kong. Rapid development in China has attracted the attention of many scholars. Understanding the role of state and FYP is an important part of Chinese experience. The project can contribute to academic debates and conceptualization of three interrelated issues, namely the role of state planning in economic development in socialist China, the relation between state and market in capitalist Hong Kong, and inter-city competition and urban competitiveness.
'The Production of Space is a Matter of Life and Death'? A Lefebvrian Perspective on Old Urban Neighbourhood Renewal in Hong Kong and Taipei
Investigator: Mee Kam NG
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Abstract
Lefebvre (1991) argues that the production of space is a matter of life and death to sustain the economic system of a place. Based on "rational" standards and regulations, governments often formulate plans to produce space for economic growth which is detrimental to lived space, space imbued with meanings and value through the life experience of its inhabitants. To Lefebvre, the outcomes, however, will be determined by the roles played by different players in determining the future of a place. Is this the answer to the divergent modes of urban renewal in Hong Kong and Taipei, both seen as representative capitalist market economies in Asia? Urban renewal in Hong Kong is done by a dedicated authority with only marginal involvement of the local community whereas in Taipei, the city government just plays a facilitative role in encouraging renewal by concerted community efforts, often aided by social activists and professionals and sometimes the private sector. Does it mean that all the renewal plans in Hong Kong have only served economic growth purposes and neglected people's lived space? Has the community-centred mode of urban renewal in Taipei resulted in plans that respect people's lived experience? This study tries to argue that the production of space, in this case, urban renewal, is a matter of life and death, not only for meeting economic needs but also for the continuation of the lived experience of local communities. In order to test this postulation, thick case studies will be conducted: four cases of Urban Renewal Authority-led projects at various stages of redevelopment and with different degrees of community resistance in Hong Kong; and a reference case on Treasure Hill, a squatter area transformed into a co-living arts village with welfare housing and youth hostel facilities in Taipei after the community protested against the government's plan to demolish the illegal settlement. Through data collection, site visits and in-depth interviews with researchers, renewal agents, local residents and social activists including professionals in both cities, the research team will examine to what extent the renewal plans are formulated to meet economic needs by established spatial practices and to what extent the community's resistance and alternative visions based on their lived experience have influenced the final outcomes of the renewal plans. And what are the factors accounting for these results?
Understanding the demand for electric vehicles in Beijing
Investigator: Sylvia HE
September 2015 – April 2017
Funding
Faculty of Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
'Walled Buildings', 'The Right to the City', Place Governance and the Delayed Amendment of an Outdated Planning Ordinance: An Institutional Analysis
Investigator: Mee Kam NG
Funding
General Research Fund, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Abstract
With the mushrooming of massive 'walled buildings' in Hong Kong in the past two decades, critics have condemned the planning system for turning Hong Kong, Asia's World City, into Asia's 'walled' city. Those living in the old neighbourhoods behind the 'walled buildings' have suffered from blocked views and ventilation, 'heat island effect' and deteriorated air quality. They are angry in face of a planning system that seems to deny their 'right to the city' (Brenner, 2000; Harvey, 2003; Lefebvre, 1968, 1991), a right to reshape cities into socially just, economically vibrant and environmental sustainable spaces. In fact, the government had undertaken a comprehensive review of the then outdated Town Planning Ordinance (TPO) in 1991 with a view to making the planning system more open, fair and accountable to the public. A Town Planning White Bill was published for consultation in 1996 and a comprehensive Town Planning Bill was introduced in the Legislative Council in 2000 but it was not until 2004 that the TPO was partially amended. Has such a delay led to the emergence of 'walled buildings'? This study would like to use Healey's institutional perspective (2006, 2007a, 2007b) and Flyvbjerg's phronetic (practical wisdom) social science research guidelines to analyse why it took Hong Kong 13 years to enact a partially amended TPO. It will investigate the relationships of this delay with the growth of 'walled buildings', people's 'right to the city' and the mode of place governance. The study will first review the historical relationships among urban planning, urban development and urban form to provide the contextual background for three thick TPO and 'walled buildings' related case studies. The first one is a review of the genesis and evolution of the TPO reform to examine the politics involved in the rhetoric and practices of various stakeholders for or against it. The second one concerns the emergence of 'walled buildings' and its relationship with the delayed amendment of the TPO. It will also examine how and when such 'walled buildings' became a social concern that eventually changed the routinised planning practices. The third case zoomed into a 'failed' case of 'walled building' development as a result of strong local objections in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2004 amended TPO. Finally, the research will put forward recommendations for a better mode of place governance that will guarantee people's right to a socially just city with quality places.
Projects before 2008
Book Project on Pan-Pearl River Delta Infrastructure Development
A series of research findings on the infrastructure development in the Pan-Pearl River Delta has been mounted in our Occasional Paper series. Three occasional papers on superhighways, railroads, port and waterways have been published in 2005. Another two papers on airports and power supply have been published in 2006 to complete this series. A Research Monograph has been published in 2007.
泛珠三角基礎建設發展研究系列：V. 電力 (Basic Infrastructure Development in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Research Series: V. Electricity). Hong Kong. Occasional Paper Series No. 167, 2006, 42 pp.
泛珠三角基礎建設發展研究系列：IV. 機場和民航 (Basic Infrastructure Development in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Research Series: IV. Airports and Civil Aviation). Hong Kong. Occasional Paper Series No. 163, 2006, 42 pp.
泛珠三角基礎建設發展研究系列：III. 港口及航道 (Basic Infrastructure Development in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Research Series: III. Ports and Waterways). Hong Kong. Occasional Paper Series No. 158, 2005, 44 pp.
泛珠三角基礎建設發展研究系列：II. 鐵路 (Basic Infrastructure Development in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Research Series: II. Railways). Hong Kong. Occasional Paper Series No. 155, 2005, 38 pp.
泛珠三角基礎建設發展研究系列：I. 高速公路 (Basic Infrastructure Development in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Research Series: I. Highways). Hong Kong. Occasional Paper Series No. 153, 2005, 30 pp.
Book Project on Hong Kong-Shenzhen Development
港深合作發展：尋求前瞻性的思維 (Hong Kong-Shenzhen Cooperative Development: The Search for Forward-looking Ideas). Hong Kong. Occasional Paper Series No. 166, 2006, 62 pp.
Hong Kong-Western Pearl River Delta Development Forum
A book collecting the presentations at the HK-Western PRD Development Forum organized in January 2006, in collaboration with ATV, HK Commercial Daily and Singtaonet, has been published in April 2006.
港澳與珠三角西部發展：掌握發展新機遇 (Development of Hong Kong and Western Pearl River Delta: Seizing Emergent Opportunities). Hong Kong: Research Monograph No. 66, HKIAPS, CUHK, 2006, 155 pp.
Book Project on Regional Studies on China
With the participation of a large number of contributors from universities in Hong Kong and research institutes worldwide, four books written in English in the series of regional studies on China have been published by The Chinese University Press since 1996. The fifth book, with some of the authors from 9+2 who attended the development forum were involved. It is anticipated that the book would be published in late 2006.
The Pan-Pearl River Delta: An Emerging Regional Economy in Globalizing China. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2008, 595pp.
Developing China's West: A Critical Path to Balanced National Development. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2004, 604 pp.
Fujian: A Coastal Province in Transition and Transformation. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2000, 572 pp.
Guangdong: Survey of a Province Undergoing Rapid Change (Second Edition). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1998, 554 pp.
Shanghai: Transformation and Modernization under China's Open Policy. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1998, 600 pp.
Western Pearl River Delta Project
The Western Pearl River Delta: Growth and Opportunities for Cooperative Development with Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Research Monograph No. 62, HKIAPS, CUHK, 2005, 162 pp.
香港與珠三角西部：從跨界角度看協作發展 (Hong Kong and the Western Pearl River Delta: Cooperative Development from a Cross-boundary Perspective). Hong Kong: Occasional Paper No. 149, HKIAPS, CUHK, 2004, 73 pp.
The Programme completed a commissioned study for the Central Policy Unit, HKSAR Government in early 2004.
Hong Kong and The Western Pearl River Delta: Cooperative Development from a Cross-boundary Perspective. Hong Kong: Central Policy Unit, The Government of HKSAR.
Development Forum on Pan-Pearl River Delta
Taking advantage of the formation of the Pan-Pearl River Delta regional cooperation framework in June 2004, a development forum was organized on 13-14 December 2004, in collaboration with the Central Policy Unit, on the Pan-Pearl River Delta. Scholars and officials from the 9+2 regional units, together with representatives from Beijing and Singapore, were invited and presented papers. The first day of the forum was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, drawing a large crowd from the community, including the diplomatic corps and the media. The sessions on the second day were held on campus of the University. A book arising from the papers presented at the development forum has been published.
泛珠三角與香港互動發展 (The Pan-Pearl River Delta and Its Interactive Development with Hong Kong). Hong Kong: Research Monograph No. 63, HKIAPS, CUHK, 2005, 370 pp.
Consultancy Project on Xinhui as A Logistics Hub
The project has been undertaken in the background of growing interest in investment and research in the western portion of the Pearl River Delta.
Economic Growth and the Potential for Port Development in the Western Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong: Occasional Paper No. 8, Shanghai-Hong Kong Development Institute, CUHK, 2004, 45 pp.
Urban Population Dynamics Panel
The Programme has been involved in the important and worthy enterprise of the Urban Population Dynamics Panel under the auspices of the United States' National Research Council over the past three years. The final report was published in 2003.
Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World, edited by Mark R. Montgomery, Richard Stren, Barney Cohen and Holly E. Reed. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Book Project on Fifty Years of Public Housing in Hong Kong
Early in 2002, via the Institute, the Programme was invited by the Hong Kong Housing Authority to participate in a collaborative effort to produce two books marking the fiftieth anniversary of Hong Kong's involvement in public housing development in 2003. The two books, in Chinese and English, have included top scholars and professionals in the field of housing as contributors.
Fifty Years of Public Housing in Hong Kong: A Golden Jubilee Review and Appraisal. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press for the Hong Kong Housing Authority and HKIAPS, 2003, 487 pp.
《香港公營房屋五十年：金禧回顧與前瞻》(Fifty Years of Public Housing in Hong Kong: A Golden Jubilee Review and Appraisal). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press for the Hong Kong Housing Authority and HKIAPS, 2003, 454 pp.
Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Conference
The Programme undertook to edit the volume arised from the celebratory conference marking the 10th anniversary of HKIAPS at CUHK held on campus in April 2000.
New Challenges for Development and Modernization: Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific Region in the New Millennium. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2002, 500 pp.
Proceedings of the Conference on the New Economy and China's Western Development
《新經濟與中國西部開發》(The New Economy and China's Western Development). Hong Kong: Research Monograph No. 55, HKIAPS, CUHK, 2001, 243 pp.