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This dissertation, Service Linkages and Intra-urban Location of Producer Services: a Case Study of Guangzhou by Hong, Yi, 易虹, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled Service Linkages and Intra-urban Location of Producer Services: A Case Study of Guangzhou Submitted by Yi Hong for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in April 2006 Chinese cities have been experiencing dramatic transformation since the establishment of the Socialist State Regime in 1949. This transformation is generally recognized to be manufacturing-determinant, primarily due to the socialist urban development policies, which were industrialization-biased. With the initiation of reform and open-door policy at the end of 1978 and the corresponding introduction of marketization and globalization, together with the changing urbanization policies, service industries have gained certain revitalization in Chinese cities. Over time, these service industries have not only become a significant component of urban economy, but a crucial container of the growing labor force. During this process producer services also witness significant growth. In this study it is argued that China's recent growth of producer services is driven by the market-oriented and demand-induced force in the form of marketization and industrialization. Experiences in other economies have shown that producer services are characterized by the intensive linkages with other service activities, in addition to manufacturing industries, as implied by its name. In the case of China, on the one i hand, the close correlation between urbanization and industrialization is now receiving increasing doubt; on the other hand, the tertiarization process, although in the general context of industrialization, is a phenomenon that cannot be ignored particularly in large urban areas. Thus, the role of producer services in the contemporary urban economic transformation and spatial restructuring occurring in China in the context of simultaneous industrialization and tertiarization, is particular noteworthy. To examine the service linkages and intra-urban locations of producer services, this study examines one of the important subsectors of producer services, namely the information and consulting services, as a case study. By taking Guangzhou, the conventional gateway city of Southern China, as the study area, this study identifies both commonalities and contrasts between China and the West. The development of producer services in China and the linkage patterns they create follow the trajectories of the West with some time lag; on the other hand, they also display some special linkage characteristic that leads to their current location patterns at the intra-urban level. Producer services are now undergoing a concentration and centralization process which impacts the restructuring of the landscape in Guangzhou, making the city centre similar to the CBD landscape seen in Western cities. Meanwhile, producer services are also a crucial instrument for re-positioning the status of Guangzhou on the regional and the national scale. ii DOI: 10.5353/th_b3578021 Subjects: Service industries - Location - China - Guangzhou

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