The Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) at Hong Kong Baptist
University (HKBU) was formally established on 1 July 2001.  Pooling the
researchers of various disciplines of HKBU, including the departments of
Geography, Sociology, History, Social Work, and Economics, CURS aims at
conducting high quality collaborative research and cultivating academic
exchange on China's urban and regional developmental issues.

Eight research themes of CURS are:
* Globalization, regional change, and urban transformation in China: a
theoretical inquiry;
* China's changing urban hierarchy and world city formation in the Chinese
context;
* Inter-regional migration and its impacts on different population groups
and urban settlements;
* Urban land development and planning under market transition;
* Housing decisions and residential relocation in urban China;
* Socio-economic and spatial integration between Hong Kong and the Pearl
River Delta;
* Environmental management under hyper growth;
* Transport planning issues.

Since its establishment, CURS has launched an occasional paper series.  A
number of papers have already been published in the series, and many more
are in the pipeline.  The published papers include:
1. Housing Tenure and Residential Mobility in Urban China: Analysis of
Survey Data
(Si-ming Li and Doris K. W. Fung, July 2001);
2. Urban Development and Planning in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone:
Elements for an Informed Understanding (Wing-Shing Tang, August 2001);
3. Toll Roads in the Countryside: A Road Pricing System of Chinese
Characteristics?
(Him Chung, September 2001)
4. China's WTO Accession and its Impact on Spatial Restructuring of
Financial Centers in Mainland and Hong Kong: A Geography of Finance
Perspective (Simon X.B. Zhao, October 2001)
5. The Language and Politics of Discontent in New Millennium China
(Christopher J. Smith, November 2001)
6. Flexible Production in the Hong Kong-Pearl River Delta Region:
Regionalization of Industry and Transformation of A Local Chinese Economy
(George C. S. Lin, December 2001)
7. Population Migration and Urbanization in China: A Comparative Analysis
of the 1990 Population Census and the 1995 National One Percent Sample
Population Survey (Si-ming Li, December 2001)

For the papers' abstract, you can visit our website at
http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~curs, or you can contact us for full text subscription.

Attached please find the Issue 1 (Winter 2001) newsletter of CURS.  For the
update and further information about CURS, you are invited to visit our
website as well.  If you have any questions about CURS, feel free to
contact us at:

Address: Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies, c/o Department of
Geography
Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon, Hong Kong
Telephone: (+852) 2339-5061
Fax: (+852) 2339-5990
Email: [log in to unmask]