%0 Journal Article %A HE Renwei %A CHEN Guojie %A LIU Shaoquan %A GUO Shili %A LIU Yunwei %T Research Progress and Tendency of Chinese Rural Settlements Geography %D 2012 %R 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.08.009 %J PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY %P 1055-1062 %V 31 %N 8 %X In recent years, with the continued advancement of Chinese new countryside construction, rural development has attracted increasing academic attention. Rural settlement geography, as an important branch of settlement geography, has been attached importance again. Understanding the research progress of rural settlement geography and examining its trends can not only promote the academic development of human geography, but also promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas and the construction of a new socialist countryside. Based on consulting extensive related literature, this paper firstly briefly describes foreign research progress of rural settlements geography, and believes that the relevant foreign research is very worth learning. Then, the research progress of Chinese rural settlements is sketched out. Subsequently, this paper summarizes and elaborates the recent research in the following four aspects: (1) research on rural settlement ecology, (2) research on spatial characteristics and evolution of rural settlements, (3) research on problems of rural settlements development, and (4) comprehensive research. Finally, on the basis of analyzing domestic and overseas research progress of rural settlements mentioned above, this paper argues that the main trends of Chinese future research on rural settlement geography should be listed as follows: (1) research on the evolutional trend prediction of rural settlements in the process of Chinese industrialization and urbanization, (2) research on the modes of Chinese rural settlements in regions at different development levels, (3) research on Chinese rural settlements in regions with different landforms; (4) research on the reconstruction of new settlements, and (5) research on the interdisciplinary and comprehensive field of rural settlements. %U https://www.progressingeography.com/EN/10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.08.009