Emerging socio-spatial pattern of Chinese cities: The case of Beijing in 2006

• Beijing's socio-spatial pattern by 2006 is the result of market forces interacting with development history and state policy.
• Housing tenure could only predict local households' residential location, not migrant households' location.
• The spatial sorting by market forces is only evident among migrant households.

China's market reforms are restructuring its cities. The value of land, previously allocated by the state – is now better reflected in market price, with a strong gradient from high values in the center to lower values in the periphery. Using data from a 2006 Beijing household survey, this paper explores the extent to which the emerging socio-spatial pattern conforms to this new pattern of land value gradient. The results offer little support for this. We argue that although land prices are becoming a significant determinant of urban development, the actual settlement pattern is still strongly affected by other factors. One is the inertia of the socialist pattern placing households with higher standing in that system near the center. Another is the continuation of a set of policy rules that relegated migrants to peripheral locations. Land values do matter but market processes based on price still operate within a larger pattern determined by settlement history and public policy.