Balanced development: Nature environment and economic and social power in China

Abstract Uneven spatial distribution of population and human activity still remain an inevitable problem for China's urbanization strategy and regional policies. The geographical detector technique was employed to re-investigated “Hu Line”, an important population dividing line in China, and impact factors of population distribution from 1953 to 2010. Different from traditional views, we believe that rapid population concentration driven by social and economic factors leads to increasing similar spatial patterns between two sides of the “Hu Line”. This trend offers a chance to realize a more balanced development by focusing on small-scale population concentration areas such as urban agglomerations. However, due to fundamental influence of some natural factors, gap among large-scale regions hard to be eliminated in China.