Page 43 - JCAU-5-4

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Learning from the countryside

Figure 2. The theoretical model of the area of Huizhou prefecture marketing urban-rural continuum structure. The three centers of Huizhou, Huiyang,
and Huidong form an equilateral triangle with sides measuring 33 km. The hexagons identifying the market areas have sides that are 1/6 of the distance
between the three centers, equal to 5.5 km. Source: Meriggi, 2018, p. 38
to the most articulated and integrated ones in high-density the one hand, and the bottom-up organization of marketing
deltaic areas. 5 activities that follow the distribution of villages around
Skinner’s studies showed that a form of urbanization different levels of market towns and cities, on the other
in situ already existed in traditional Chinese settlements hand. These two networks intersect in what is defined as
and that the urban-rural continuum should be considered the “standard market town,” a type of settlement positioned
as a specific form of territorial structure characterizing between the village and the county due to its economic
Chinese urbanism. This structure matches the top- and social performance. These are small towns where rural
down network of administrative centers in the imperial marketing is conducted alongside urban functions, such
bureaucracy, composed of cities at different levels following as local administration, social regulation, and traditional
6
the geographical structure of the water flow hierarchy, on rituals – like the citang of clan culture – as well as temples
dedicated to local deities. In addition to these functions,
5 We could find samples for almost all the variants defined there are institutions of higher education, referred to as
by Skinner in our work (2018) about Hakka villages and
marketing communities in eastern and northern Guangdong 6 More information about the clan culture and its origins, see:
Province. Faure (2006, 2007) and Hayes (2001).

Volume 5 Issue 4 (2023) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0981