Factors influencing land circulation in urban villages, through the cases of Beijing

There are many urban villages in Beijing, which disorders the planning of the whole city and the construction of infrastructure. The government is studying on how to implement different policies to redevelop them, and the land circulation is closely relative to the mode of redevelopment. The main objective of the research is to test whether land circulation is more widespread in urban villages in the centre of city than those in the suburbs. This research chooses the combination strategy of survey and case study. Questionnaires and interviews are done in an urban village in the centre of city and one in the suburb. T-test is used to analyse the difference in land circulation in these two villages, and logistic model is used to explore the relationship between urban village and land circulation. Conclusions are drawn as follows. Firstly, villagers in Huairou Town (in the suburb) may depend more on agriculture, and their income is less than income in Xibeiwang (in the centre of city) Town. At the same time, their comprehension and acceptance of policy are similar. Secondly, area of land flowing out and the percentage of people who have transferred their land under use rights in Xibeiwang Town is more than those in Huairou Town. Thirdly, men, elderly people, villagers with higher education level and income may be more active and willing to participate in land circulation. Age, education level, part-time job and insurance seem to have a positive relationship with the area of land flowing out. The effects on inflow of land are in reverse. However, the influence of another variable perception is confusing. The acceptance of laws/regulation tends to have the negative effects, while the effect of comprehension of policy, acceptance of pricing mechanism and management of transaction is positive. At last, cases from interviews are clarified into six types. Three reasons for inflow are low price of land use right, help of government and economies of scales, and three reasons for outflow are benefits from transfer, lack of labours in household and higher income of other jobs.