The Multiple Cooperative Mechanism and Globalization Path of Small Inland Cities in China: A Showcase Study of Dunhuang, China

Qing Liu, Yongchun Yang (), Qingmin Meng, Shan Man and Yidan Wang
Additional contact information
Qing Liu: College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Yongchun Yang: College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Qingmin Meng: Department of Geosciences, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS 39762, USA
Shan Man: College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Yidan Wang: College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-21

Abstract: Currently, urbanization driven by global capital flows entails a main trend in many large cites in China, while global capital investment in small inland cities especially in western China is extremely scarce, where their globalization characters the powerful nationalization power and market activation. Dunhuang, a small inland city in western China, has transformed successfully from an agricultural county to an international tourist city, a platform for worldwide cultural communication, and a node city in the Belt and Road region because of its unique and brilliant resources: Mogao Grottoes and Dunhuangology. Therefore, this paper develops a conceptual framework of the multiple cooperative mechanisms and globalization path (MCMGP) of Dunhuang, elaborating the process of industrial transformation, urban globalization, and multiple cooperative mechanisms between government and market actors based on interviewing records and statistics. Findings show that the MCMGP features government-led intervention, resource orientation, and centralization that embodies the driver of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Also, the MCM in Dunhuang’s globalization contains the mechanism of enrolment, mobilization and action, governance and global marketing, distributed in the two phases. Equally important, in response to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo (SRDICE) from the state, the city government has significantly reinvested and refined cultural tourism via governance mechanisms, carving out a key node city in the Silk Road and elevating an international tourist city. Environmentally, Dunhuang’s tourism internationalization enhances the process of the development of a sustainable shared mobility industry. Furthermore, its tourism development and social–ecology system maintain the synergistic relationships which international tourism promotes such as urban ecosystem and public welfare and in turn, social–ecological enhancement serve Dunhuang’s international tourism well. Practical implications of how Dunhuang’s experience may have lessons for others are discussed in China’s peculiar socialist market economy discourse.

Keywords: urban globalization path; urban localization path; multiple cooperation mechanism; government intervention; resources orientation; Dunhuang (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11241/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11241/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11241-:d:909253

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().