Evaluation of foreign trade transport accessibility for Mainland China

ABSTRACT

The foreign trade transport accessibility (FTTA) of Mainland China to overseas regions is studied in terms of the shipping connectivity and achievable market scales. First, the concept of FTTA is defined. Second, the path choice behavior of shippers is analyzed, and a method to measure FTTA is proposed. Last, with 357 cities in Mainland China as the origins and eight overseas regions as the destinations, the FTTAs from origins to destinations are evaluated. The study is helpful to acquaint decision-makers with the FTTA’s spatial distribution and to offer information by which China can expand its export-oriented industry and optimize its port and shipping industries.

KEYWORDS:

• International trade market
• market scale
• transport accessibility
• shipping connectivity
• Mainland China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the State Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71431001], the Youth Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71402013], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China [grant number 3132016303], and the Higher Education Development (for Collaborative Innovation Center) of Liaoning Province of China [grant number 20110116404].