Economic and Cultural Complexes of China

Abstract

The article introduces the notion of the economic and cultural complex (ECC) as a unit for integrated economic and cultural analysis in human geography, and develops a formalized method for the identification of such complexes with the help of cartographic regionalization and statistical clustering on the basis of ethnic, cultural and economic characteristics. Economic and cultural complexes in China are identified and studied. There are 20 economic and cultural complexes and two limitrophe zones, which demonstrate that China is a more diverse country than what is reflected by other purely economic or cultural types of regionalization.

Keywords

• methodology
• human geography
• cluster
• regionalization/regionalisation