Meanwhile, due to the dramatic rise of land value in the city
center and more stringent environmental performance standards,
manufacturing factories which used to locate in the city proper
have had to move to designated industrial clusters in the peripheral
areas. Accompanied with the relocation of factories, some public
facilities such as universities and hospitals have also moved to
peri-urban areas. Another driver behind the land development of
peri-urban areas is national, provincial or municipal level “flagship”
economic and technological development zones (ETDZs) outside
large cities, usually developed by municipalities (Webster and
Muller, 2002). The establishment of such zones has helped boost
the economy of peri-urban areas, and created numerous job opportunities.