The aim of this book is to examine the transformation of the geography of China in the years since the start of China's policy of reform and opening-up in 1978, as seen through the eyes of Chinese geographers. Throughout that period, Chinese geographers have studied these environmental, economic, political and cultural processes closely, drawing on sources that are far from easy to access, and have published their results in Chinese. Much of this research has underpinned the Chinese government's assessment of policies and the policy choices at different levels, yet it is not well known outside of China. This volume deals with aspects of the socio-economic geography of China's transformation including its changing relations with the rest of the world, although it also deals with the impact of China's development path on the country's ecological systems. Each chapter deals with aggregate trends and specific cases to show the ways in which the particular characteristics of China's economic and social order (economic organization, political system and cultural model and values) have shaped and are shaped by its geography.

As one of the eighteen field-specific reports comprising the comprehensive scope of the strategic general report of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, this sub-report addresses long-range planning for developing science and technology in the field of regional development research. They each craft a roadmap for their sphere of development to 2050. In their entirety, the general and sub-group reports analyze the evolution and laws governing the development of science and technology, describe the decisive impact of science and technology on the modernization process, predict that the world is on the eve of an impending S&T revolution, and call for China to be fully prepared for this new round of S&T advancement. Based on the detailed study of the demands on S&T innovation in China's modernization, the reports draw a framework for eight basic and strategic systems of socio-economic development with the support of science and technology, work out China's S&T roadmaps for the relevant eight basic and strategic systems in line with China's reality, further detail S&T initiatives of strategic importance to China's modernization, and provide S&T decision-makers with comprehensive consultations for the development of S&T innovation consistent with China's reality. Supported by illustrations and tables of data, the reports provide researchers, government officials and entrepreneurs with guidance concerning research directions, the planning process, and investment. Founded in 1949, the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the nation's highest academic institution in natural sciences. Its major responsibilities are to conduct research in basic and technological sciences, to undertake nationwide integrated surveys on natural resources and ecological environment, to provide the country with scientific data and consultations for government's decision-making, to undertake government-assigned projects with regard to key S&T problems in the process of socio-economic development, to initiate personnel training, and to promote China's high-tech enterprises through its active engagement in these areas.

Volume thirty-one of Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies brings together nine essays on leading geographers and their work. With its publication, the cumulative record of geographers' lives and works in GBS exceeds 460 essays. Here, the editors bring forward critical appraisals of six French geographers, and so illustrate the rich traditions of geographical scholarship in that country; of a leading Portuguese figure; a Briton who played a major role in establishing geography in modern New Zealand; and a British woman who pioneered connections between the history of geography in practice and the histories of science and technology. Geographers' lives and geography's making is wonderfully illuminated in international, national and cross-disciplinary context.