Historical and geographical study on socio-economic structure of market towns - "shi-zhen" - in the southern Yangtze delta.

在第一年，我们走访了江苏、上海的几个小镇，调查了地理环境、城镇风貌、市场、工厂、娱乐设施等。我们还有机会听取了当地研究人员关于农业管理、文化遗产、行政体制等方面的情况。通过这次听力研究和统计资料，我们可以了解这些小城镇的基本情况。第二年的调查是在上海市区两个不同的小城镇进行的。在传统的集镇俞家角镇，我们对以居民区为基础的行政组织进行了深入的研究，得到了关于行政与人民关系的有价值的事实。这个小镇被一个大乡村包围着。通过采访这个村的村长，我们了解到，这个村可以经营很多成长型工厂，因为它有足够的土地来发展产业和富余劳动力。该地区在很大程度上实行了联产承包责任制，富余劳动力从农业部门转移出来，加速了生产率的提高。我们调查的第二个镇的土地使用和定居制度发生了重大变化，以实现社会经济结构的现代化。在罗店镇，大片农田由几个职业农民承包经营，剩余劳动力进入镇中心的当地产业，该镇对居委会进行了听证研究，结果与邹家角镇相似。在此基础上，对太湖至杭州湾一大片平原的地形形成过程进行了调查。我们可以有几条新的线索从地理角度来解释这一过程。

In the first year, we visited several small towns in Jiangsu Sheng and Shanghai, and investigated geographical environment, townscape, markets, factories, entertainment facilities etc. We also had occasions to hear from native researchers about agricultural management, cultural excise, administrative system and so on. With this hearing study and statistical material, we could get basic knowledge about these small towns.The research in the next year was carried out in two contrasting small town in the Shanghai City Region. In a traditional market town, Zyujiajiao Zhen, we made a intensive research on the administrative organization based on residential blocks and could get valuable facts about the relationship between administration and peoples. This small town is surrounded by a large rural village. Through the interview with the director of this village, we understood that this village could manage many growth factories because it had plenty of land for industry and surplus labor. The contracted responsibility system has been largely adopted in this area and surplus labor has come from agricultural sector with the raise of productivity accelerated by this system.Land use and settlement system was greatly changed to modernize socio-economic structure in the second town we investigated. In this town, Luodian Zhen, large farmland was managed by a few professional farmers under the contracted responsibility system and surplus labor was employed by local industries in the town center.The hearing research concerning residential committee was made in this town and the result was similar to that in Zyujiajiao Zhen. In addition to such study, the investigation was done to reveal the landformation process in a large plain from Taihu Lake to Hangzhou Bay. We could several new clues to explain this process from the geographical point of view.