Hangzhou Municipality is the provincial capital of Zhejiang, on China’s east coast. It
forms part of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region. Hangzhou was “opened up” in the
mid-1980s, following Deng Xiaoping’s visit to the South, resulting in an almost immediate
flood of foreign and domestic investment in manufacturing.1
This initial investment was
significantly in the peri-urban areas, i.e., outside the built-up area.2
The authors have been
following development in the Hangzhou extended urban region, with emphasis on periurbanization
processes, since 2000.3
A previous APARC discussion paper describes findings
of preliminary field research on the Hangzhou–Ningbo Corridor, conducted in August 2000
and March 2001.4
The present paper zooms in on two peri-urban clusters in the Hangzhou
extended urban region, and assesses their development over time. The goal of the research
is to better understand how a peri-urban region changes—particularly in terms of firm
evolution, labor characteristics, and spatial dynamics—as it becomes more economically
and demographically mature. This paper also examines such changes in the context of the
increasing cost structures and emerging competitors, primarily from other areas in China,
that the Hangzhou peri-urban region now faces.