Reckoning the Areas of Urban Land Use and Their Comparison in the Qing Dynasty in China
中国清代城镇用地面积估算及其比较

Based on the numerable and standardized data collected from historical documents, we reckoned the areas of urban land use for 18 provinces in the Qing Dynasty, analyzed the changing situation, regional differentiation, and contrasted them with those of the contemporary age. The results are shown in the following: (1) The method, by which the areas of urban land use in the Qing Dynasty are reckoned in light with at the administrative division levels, the number of towns and city wall perimeters, was provided with rationality to a certain degree. (2) The results showed that the area of urban land use was 1,987.44 km2 in 18 provinces of the Qing Dynasty, merely 0.05% of the total land area in the region. Among which the scopes of Zhili and Jiangsu provinces were the greatest, being 316.34 km2 and 185.77 km2, respectively 0.097% and 0.188% of the jurisdiction area, and Guangxi and Guizhou provinces were the smallest, 27.92 km2 and 32.78 km2, respectively (only 0.012% and 0.033% of the jurisdiction area). (3) There were obvious spatial differences in urban land use in the region. For the scale of urban land use, the northern provinces were greater than the southern provinces, the eastern provinces were greater than the western provinces, and southwest provinces were the smallest in all the provinces. The provinces of Zhili, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were obviously greater than the other provinces.