Centre

Background and Aims

The Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies (CURS or the Centre), currently housed at the Department of Geography of Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU or the University), was established on 1 July 2001. CURS was founded with a major donation from Heung To Educational Fund secured by Professor C F Ng, former President and Vice Chancellor of the University.

CURS aims at conducting high quality research and cultivating academic exchange on China’s urban and regional developmental issues. Research fellows of CURS include faculty members of the University from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds who share a common interest in urban and regional research on China. It is the objective of CURS to enhance the University’s status as an academic hub for the study of China’s cities and regions.

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Research conducted by CURS research fellows covers a wide range of intellectual and policy-oriented domains: housing privatization and housing market segmentation, transportation and land use, regional disparities, environmental management and sustainable development, social problems and social service provision, cultural landscapes, inter-regional and rural-urban migration, social stratification, quality of life, and urban modelling, including the application of geographic information systems and remote sensing techniques in the study of urban and regional change. Centre directors and fellows have pioneered in several areas of China urban studies including residential change, housing preferences, activity-travel behaviour analysis etc. Since founding, CURS has established collaboration with research institutions in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, such as the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, The Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning of The University of Hong Kong, the Urban China Research Network of the University at Albany, New York, the Urban China Research International Network of Cardiff University, Wales, and the Urban and Regional Research Centre of the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Centre's Inauguration

The Inauguration Ceremony of the Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) was held on 8 November 2001 at the Lam Woo International Conference Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). We are so thankful for the ardent support from all participants, particularly our geusts of honour Prof. NG Ching-fai, President and Vice Chancellor of HKBU, and Hon YEUNG Yiu-Chung, Principal of Heung To Middle School.  They respectively delivered opening addresses and officiated the ribbon cutting at the ceremony. Great acknowledgement, as well, to the Hueng To Educational Fund for its generous donation of $52,100 HKD to support the research endeavours of the CURS.

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Ribbon Cutting, officiated by (from right) Prof. LI Si-ming (李思名教授), Prof. NG Ching-fai (吳清輝教授), Hon YEUNG Chiu-chung (楊耀忠校長), and Prof. XU Xueqiang (許學強教授), benchmarks the official opening of the Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies.
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Acknowledgement to the Hueng To Educational Fund (香島教育基金) for its generous donation of $52,100 HKD to support the research endeavours of the Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies.

The official opening of the CURS was immediately followed by two public lectures. We are so honoured to have Sir Wu Ying Sheung, Chairman and Managing Director of Hopewell Holdings Ltd., and Prof. Xu Xueqiang, Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Zhongshan University, to be our guest speakers. They spoke respectively on the land use and transbounday transport development of Hong Kong, and the development of the western region of China.

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Two public lectures at the second part of the CURS's Inauguration Ceremony
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by Prof. Xu Xuexiang (許學強教授) (up) and Sir Wu Ying Sheung (胡應湘爵士)

Last but not the least, many thanks to the kind supports from all participants, and great gratitude to all parties who had contributed to the Ceremony.

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Group photo among some of the participants of the CURS's Inauguration Ceremony.
Research Themes
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Eight major research themes of the 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 decision 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.
Annual Reports
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