The regional concept of Zhang Jian

Abstract

The author obtained both his Bachelors degree in Economic Geography and Urban & Rural Planning, and his Masters degree in Human Geography from the Department of Geography, NanjingUniversity, Nanjing, P.R. China, and his Ph.D in Urban Planning and Design from the School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing, where he is currently Associate Professor of Architecture, acting as both Teacher and Researcher on Urban Geography and Regional Planning as well as on the history and culture of cities and regions. Based on personal research efforts or in collaboration with Professor Wu Liangyong for whom Dr Wu Tinghai acted as a research and teaching assistant, he has dealt with research on: Regional Innovative Milieu; Physical Support and Institutional Design; Regional Form Affected by Large-scale Infrastructure Construction; Spatial Development Planning for Beijing; Rural and Urban Spatial Development Planning for Greater Beijing Region; and Spatial Development Planning for Xuzhou inJiangsu Province. His publications include, among others, A Geographical Study on Urban Spatial Development in Western-Zhou Dynasty and The Regional Concept in the Study of the History of Chinese Cities. Two of his works which received high distinction in National Academic Thesis Competitions for Young Planners in China were published in the Urban Planning Review, UK in 1997 and 2001. In recent years, Dr Wu Tinghai has been a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University, UK; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, USA; and Dortmund University, Germany. He is also a member of the World Society for Ekistics. The text that follows was made available to participants at the international symposion on "Globalization and LocalIdentity," organized jointly by the World Society for Ekistics and the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan, 19-24 September, 2005, which Dr Wu Tinghai was finally unable to attend.