文档介绍：PETITION IN THE PEARL RIVER DELTA

Becky . LOO
Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong
and
. HO and . WONG
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong
Ref: T02155
PETITION IN THE
PEARL RIVER DELTA

Becky . LOO
Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road,
Hong Kong SAR, China

and

. HO and . WONG
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road,
Hong Kong SAR, China

1. INTRODUCTION

In 1979, there were only two international airports (at Hong Kong and Guangzhou) in the Hong
Kong and Pearl River Delta region, hereafter the HK-PRD region. After about two decades,
there were four international airports (an additional two at Shenzhen and Zhuhai) in this region
of 48,0000 sq. km (Loo, 1999). Is there any need for airport co-ordination? Before 1997, the
Hong Kong International Airport operated and thrived under the British colonial rule. On the
one hand, it faced virtually petition from airports across the border. On the other hand,
few people and freight from that area actually used its airport facilities. After 1997, the situation
gradually changed under the “one country, two systems” policy. The Hong Kong International
Airport has to petition from three other large international airports in the region. It is
easier for Hong Kong people to use airport facilities in the Mainland and vice versa. Most
importantly, the demand for air travel in a large part of the region has greatly expanded because
of rapid e growth and industrialisation. Under such circumstances, how would the
geographical distribution of air passengers change?

If one considers airports to be facilities providing services (rather than just intermediate stops),
the delimitation of market areas petitive transport facilities es similar to the
classical location problems of von Thunen’s isolated states