Building an international science and innovation center is the strategic direction for the sustainable development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), and it is also an important spatial carrier for China to cope with future global competitions. On the occasion of the third anniversary of the promulgation and implementation of the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Plan Outline", by reviewing the main progress and problems of the innovation and development of the region, this article presents the strategic re-thinking of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area international science and technology innovation center under the new situation. The GBA has initially entered the stage of "innovative economy" development. Platform construction, talent agglomeration, and policy support have continued to be strengthened. Diversified cross-regional innovation collaboration models have emerged, but real challenges also exist in the areas of R&D output quality, resource allocation, and structure of talents. On the basis of continuing to consolidate the progress made in the construction of an international science and technology innovation center in the region, it is necessary to focus on the acquisition of innovation resources and improvement of innovation capabilities and the coordination and redistribution of innovation resources in the future, with continuous strategic optimization and adjustment.
Positioned as an international scientific and technological innovation center with global influence, the technological innovation activities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) profoundly affect China's participation in the global competition and cooperation in technological innovation. Based on the technological (knowledge) heterogeneity perspective of evolutionary economic geography, this study conducted an in-depth analysis of the characteristics and path evolution of technological innovation in the GBA by using the data of granted invention patents with applicant addresses and international patent classifications, and the methods of distribution fitting, technology space visualization, and logit regression model. The results show that: 1) The technological innovation categories in the GBA present a power-law distribution, concentrated in a few technology categories such as electronic communication technology and computing, which indicates a Matthew effect and strong path dependence. The cross-industrial product-component/software-new product (new industry) and upstream product-component-basic material relatedness of technological innovation have driven the transformation and upgrading of the region. 2) The technological evolution paths of the cities in the GBA differ significantly, with Shenzhen carrying out a related diversification while focusing on core technologies; Guangzhou shifting from its strength in medicine to electronic communication and computing technologies and diversifying into unrelated areas of technology. Regional innovation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area tends to be homogeneous, and there is a need to further promote innovation synergy among cities in the future. Last but not the least, in comparison with the existing literature, this article proposes that technological innovation paths are strongly influenced by the characteristics of the region in which they are located. The regional scale should not be ignored in the current studies with global-local (city) perspectives.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), as a pioneer to implement the "dual circulation" strategy and promote industrial upgrading in China, needs to combine effectively industrial innovation with industrial advantages in order to achieve high-quality development of the industry. This study used the shift-share analysis method and the coupling coordination degree model to explore the temporal and spatial matching relationship between the innovation advantages and industrial competitiveness of various sectors in the GBA from 2000 to 2020, with a focus on the innovation linkages between the nine mainland cities and Hong Kong. The results indicate that although the industrial structures of innovation and production in different cities varied, all cities showed a trend of agglomerating on the sectors of manufacture of measuring instruments and machinery, metal products machinery and equipment repairing, manufacture of computers, communication and other electronic equipment, manufacture of special equipment, manufacture of general equipment, manufacture of electrical machinery and apparatus, and manufacture of raw chemical materials and chemical products. The division and cooperation pattern of production and innovation based on the industrial chain between core and periphery cities has formed within the GBA. However, the coupling coordination performances of different sectors in the cities differed. Because of the spatial and sectoral configuration of innovation chain and production chain, only the sector of equipment manufacturing with highly developed horizontal and vertical production connection in the core cities with good economic and innovation environment could realize the integration of innovation chain and production chain. At present, only in Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Guangzhou cities the innovation advantage in the sectors of manufacture of computers, communication and other electronic equipment, manufacture of measuring instruments and machinery, manufacture of special equipment, manufacture of general equipment, and manufacture of electrical machinery and apparatus are well integrated with industrial advantages. In other cities, most of the advantageous industries are still in a state of receiving insufficient support of innovation. The competitive advantages of manufacture of computers and communication and other electronic equipment are strongly supported with innovation only in Shenzhen and Dongguan. The sectors with structural advantages such as manufacture of transportation equipment and ferrous metallurgy, and sectors with competitive advantages such as non-metallic products, non-ferrous metal smelting and processing, rubber and plastics, and furniture manufacturing of many cities lack strong innovation support. Also, while the innovation connection between mainland cities and Hong Kong is constantly strengthening, it is mainly agglomerated in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Hence, this article puts forward policy recommendations on further promoting the integrated development of industrial innovation in the GBA. Furthermore, this paper provides a theoretical and practical basis for understanding the spatial and sectoral configuration of integration of industrial chain and innovation chain from an empirical perspective.
China's regional development and spatial distribution of industries are moving towards a new development paradigm championed by internal circulation as well as mutual promotion between internal and external circulations. Against this backdrop, urban agglomerations shoulder responsibilities of performing as growth poles for leading internal circulation as well as strategic pivots for dual circulations. Extant literature, however, pays inadequate attention to how the spatial pattern of high-tech industries in key urban agglomerations drive internal circulation in China and its policy implications. This study focused particularly on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), which has been deeply embedded in external circulation since China's economic reform and opening-up, portraying the multi-scalar spatial linkages, including intra-regional and extra-regional linkages (for example, driving the development of the outer ring of Guangdong Province, the pan-Pearl River Delta region, and China), initiated by high-tech industries containing both strategic pillar industries (for example, electronics, automobile, home appliances) and strategic emerging industries (for example, biotechnology, robotics, new materials). Policy implications for promoting the new development paradigm by advancing internal circulation are summarized from the research findings. The conclusions are as follows: 1) Multi-scalar spatial linkages initiated by high-tech industries in the GBA are unevenly concentrated in economically advanced regions. The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong corridor functions as the principal axis in stimulating the development of surrounding areas at the regional scale. The GBA, Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and Chengdu-Chongqing area operate as four supporting points for the diamond-shaped spatial structure, along with a number of provincial capitals in the central and western regions as key nodes at the national scale. 2) Compared to the strategic emerging industries, strategic pillar industries have formed better-equipped supporting points for the diamond-shaped spatial structure and facilitated the regionalization processes of cities and inter-regional synergetic development, with a greater scope of hinterland and more refined industrial functional division of labor both inside and outside the GBA. 3) Policymakers are recommended to strengthen the diamond-shaped spatial structure as the geographical foundation to further develop the internal circulation underpinned by multi-scalar nested interactions as well as gradient circulations among both the developed and less-developed areas in China.
Exploring the construction and reconstruction of the global value chain led by Huawei mobile phones from the perspective of urban networks is of great significance. This study examined the construction and reconstruction of the global value chain dominated by Huawei mobile phones in the process of catching up in technology development. Taking the official effective date of the "Entity List" as the turning point, this study systematically examined the data of Huawei's mobile phone suppliers before and after the "supply disruption". With the application of the headquarters-branches model, social network analysis, and community detection methods, the spatial distribution, network structure, and community structure of research and development (R&D)-oriented, production-oriented, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM)-oriented urban networks are uncovered. The results show that: 1) The production organization mode of Huawei mobile phones has a typical feature of global R&D + domestic production/OEM. After the supply disruption, R&D suppliers withdraw obviously, and the substitution trend of core components was clear. 2) After the supply disruption, the influence and control power of Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing in the urban networks increased significantly, especially in the R&D-oriented urban network. 3) The influence and control power of cities where U.S. high-value suppliers are located have dropped significantly. The influence and control power of cities where high-value suppliers from Japan and South Korea are located, mainly memory chips and camera chips, have increased significantly. 4) After the supply disruption, the network agglomeration effect of high-, medium-, and low-value production links increased to varying degrees, promoting a more regionalized Huawei value chain. 5) After the supply disruption, the biggest changes from before the disruption occurred in the R&D urban communities. The number and scale of production-oriented urban communities were moderate, and there were obvious hierarchical differences among communities. The number of OEM-oriented urban communities was the smallest, and the connections within the community were sparse. The combination strategy of globalized layout and domestic substitution is a feasible path for Huawei to solve the supply problem. It also provides some references for high-tech firms in developing countries to achieve catch-up.
The locational association of industrial layout is an important element in the study of the spatial structure of regional industries and their spatial relationship. In this study, we constructed a database of semiconductor enterprises in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region and examined the spatial pattern of the semiconductor industry and its locational association characteristics in the region by using kernel density analysis and synergistic locational analysis. The results show that: 1) Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan formed important spatial clusters of the semiconductor industry in the PRD region, and the semiconductor design segment is a common choice for entering the semiconductor industry chain in the PRD region. 2) Although Guangzhou has formed specialized clusters in design, materials, and discrete device manufacturing, only its discrete device manufacturing segment has formed a locational synergy with the design and packaging segments; while Shenzhen has formed a synergistic relationship with the design equipment. 3) Guangzhou's specialization in discrete device manufacturing is a transitional state in the construction of the semiconductor industry chain, while Shenzhen's advantage in the construction of the whole industry chain is based on the high concentration of digital technology enterprises in the city and the establishment of common knowledge, technology, and human resources bases through the semiconductor design segment and other segments.
The "growth miracle" of China's economy was driven by HKM (Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) investment and foreign investment, which not only contributed to the huge GDP growth, but also promoted the new pathways of development through demonstration effect, competition effect, and technology spillovers. However, as the reform deepens, parts of the HKM and foreign investment become an obstacle to the formation of new development paths, and regional development may fall into a low-technology trap and local companies may be squeezed out. These possible results of HKM and foreign investment have not been explained by industrial evolution theory. Therefore, this study proposed a theoretical framework to explain the relationship between HKM and foreign investment and regional industrial dynamics. Based on the prefecture-level panel data of foreign investment in manufacturing in the Pearl River Delta region during 2000-2019, we formulated the path-dependent and path-breaking indices and used a two-way fixed effect model to explore the impact of HKM and foreign investment on regional industrial dynamics. The results show that HKM investment facilitates path dependence and promotes related diversification of local industries. The reason is that HKM investment has stronger local embeddedness than foreign investment. Second, foreign investment reduces the possibility of path breaking and leads to path locking by reinforcing industrial specialization. Third, the impact of government subsidies on HKM investment is not significant, but it will strengthen the negative effect of foreign investment on path breaking and the positive effect on industrial specialization. It means that government subsidies will reinforce the path-locking effect of foreign investment. These findings are important for the optimization of China's policies on HKM and foreign investment.
Under the background of regional integration, cross-boundary cooperation and industrial development are conducive to promoting regional high-quality development and common prosperity. By means of space of flows network, coupling analysis, and exploratory spatial analysis, the evolution and coupling relationship between regional cooperation and industrial integration in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are quantified from 2010 to 2019. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) Regional cooperation has transcended geographical proximity, the networking trend has been significantly strengthened, and the network connectivity index of cities generally has increased in the study area. 2) The study area shows significant polarization effect of urban industrial layout and factor integration, and there are great differences in industrial development. 3) The coupling coordination degree between regional cooperation and industrial integration has increased as a whole. The spatial evolution of coupling coordination degree between regional cooperation and industrial integration showed an agglomeration trend, its spatial layout structure shows local stability, and the overall distribution pattern shows the characteristics of "a unique height in the southeast, convex in the middle and north, and low and concave in the surrounding areas". The spatial growth process of coupling coordination degree of western and southeastern coastal cities shows significant negative integration in the study area. However, the spatial evolution of coupling coordination degree shows spatial dependency. The research indicates that there is a significant temporal and spatial correlation between regional cooperation and industrial integration in the study area, and the area should continue to carry out multi-level and all-round regional cooperation to promote the high degree coupling of industrial integration and regional cooperation.
In the new era of development, understanding the network structure and evolution characteristics of collaborative innovation is crucial for innovation-oriented transformation of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). This study constructed a collaborative innovation measurement indicator system including three dimensions: Technological innovation, knowledge production, and innovation capital. Based on social network analysis and the construction of "space of flow" network of urban agglomerations, this study systematically examined the network structure and evolution characteristics of collaborative innovation in the GBA from multiple perspectives. The results show that: 1) The spatial structure of innovation flow in the GBA presents an obvious polarization pattern, and it has continued to strengthen over time. Specifically, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou are at the absolute core of the spatial network of innovation flow. 2) The network structure of multi-dimensional innovation flows show significant differences. With regard to technological innovation and innovation capital, the cores of the network of urban agglomerations are Hong Kong and Shenzhen; in the dimension of knowledge production, the dominant cities are Guangzhou and Hong Kong. In all dimensions, Guangzhou plays an important role as a hub city and Shenzhen's innovation level has continued to grow over time. 3) The measurement of comprehensive multi-dimensional indicators indicates that Hong Kong was the core city of the collaborative innovation network of the GBA in the early stage of development, while Shenzhen has become the core city in the new era. Currently, the GBA as a whole presents a network spatial structure with three cores: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. This research can provide theoretical and empirical support for the rational allocation of innovation resources in the GBA in the new era.
Regional coordinated development is one of the important goals of China's regional development strategy and also the core issue of human geography research in China. Existing studies on regional coordinated development are mainly based on three theoretical strands: the first one is based on the paradigm of regional geography and emphasizes the homogeneity within a region, such as regional industrial zoning and major function oriented zoning; the second one is based on location theory, "pole-axis" spatial system, and territorial-production complexes and underlines the functional complementation within the region, such as the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the strategy for large-scale development of western China; the third one is based on the theories of regional governance, space of flows, and city networks and highlights the functional linkages and cooperation within the region, such as the strategies of integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). However, few studies have adopted the theories in political geography and most of the arguments in previous studies are limited to the regional scale. Based on the dilemma faced by regional coordinated development and recent progress in scale theory, this study takes the GBA as an example to analyze the scalar traps faced by regional coordinated development, such as the scalar range of functional positioning of the region, the choice of its own scale form, and the scalar politics among various actors. This article holds that the coordinated development of the GBA involves functional positioning at different scales, complex scale forms, and interest gaming at multiple scales, and the process of regional coordinated development and the omnipresence of many contradictions must be fully taken into consideration in empirical analysis and policy design. By comparing the results of multi-scale empirical analysis and scheme design, we can avoid the trap of scalar mismatch and scalar politics by promoting active and effective innovation in the institutional system and the development model. This article contributes to the literature by enhancing the theoretical discussions of regional coordinated development and enriching the application of the theory of scalar traps in regional studies.
Coordinated development of basic public services and the economy is an important part of inclusive growth. Based on entropy method, coupled coordination degree model and Kernel density estimation method, this paper studies the spatio-temporal characteristics of coupling coordination between basic public services and economic development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area from 2009 to 2019. The results show that: 1) The comprehensive level of basic public services and economic development shows an upward trend of fluctuation, but with obvious stage characteristics, and the development of the two is not completely synchronous. 2) Basic public services and economic development have a strong coupling effect, and their coordination is gradually improved. However, there is no transition in the level of coupling coordination, which is always a kind of forced coupling coordination, forming a spatial pattern of low peripheral and high center. 3) The oupling coordination subtype heterogeneity of 11 cities is obvious, and the peripheral Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing all belong to the lagging type of economic development. From a regional point of view, the lag of economic development is mainly distributed in the West, while the lag of basic public services is mainly concentrated in the East and the Middle. 4) The coupling coordination degree of the low value area shows an upward trend, the difference between the cities in the high value area is gradually narrowing, and the polarization phenomenon is formed between the cities in the high value area and the low value area. The results can provide a theoretical basis for relevant departments to coordinate policies for economic and basic public services in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
This study explored the spatial distribution characteristics and regional development effects of science and technology infrastructure in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Taking 688 science and technology infrastructures as the research objects and 56 counties as the basic spatial units, it analyzed the spatial agglomeration and spatial differentiation patterns of science and technology infrastructures in 2020 in the GBA using the average nearest neighbor analysis method. This study combined the Geodetector output to illustrate the regional development effects of science and technology infrastructures in the GBA from four aspects: economic development level, residents' income, housing price, and population educational structure. The evaluation indicators for the four aspects are GDP per capita, per capita disposable income of urban residents, average housing price, and the number of university-educated persons per 100000 people respectively. The results indicate that: 1) The science and technology infrastructures show a remarkable spatial clustering distribution, mainly concentrated in the core area of Guangzhou, Nanshan District of Shenzhen, and the southern area of Hong Kong, with significant spatial differentiation and polarization at the county scale. 2) The science and technology infrastructure distribution in the GBA has a significant positive impact on the spatial patterns of population educational structure, economic development level, and housing price, showing a regional development effect. 3) The regional development effects of different science and technology infrastructures vary. The basic research science and technology infrastructures have the highest impact on the educational structure of the population, and the applied science and technology infrastructures have the most obvious impact on the economic development level. This study provides an additional case for academic research on the innovation geography of the GBA and decision support for the optimal layout and allocation of science and technology infrastructures in the GBA, which has both scientific and practical values.
The spatial distribution of scientific and technological innovation talents (STIT) reflects the scientific research strength, technology distribution, and development potential. It is important to examine the distribution patterns of STIT, in order to formulate talent development strategy, provide decision-making references for innovation to drive high-quality development, and construct talent hub. In this study, the spatial scale, density, agglomeration index, and spatial autocorrelation of STIT of 11 cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Great Bay Area (GBA) from 2010 to 2020 were analyzed. The results are as follows: 1) From the 11th Five-Year Plan to the 13th Five-Year Plan of China, the scale of STIT in the GBA had developed rapidly, from about 430 thousand to more than 1.14 million, while the spatial distribution was uneven. 2) The density of STIT in Shenzhen City ranked first among the 11 cities in the GBA. The talent density per unit population of Shenzhen was seven times as much as the minimum city, while talent density per unit area of Shenzhen was 190 times as much as the minimum city. The densities of STIT in Jiangmen and Zhaoqing Cities were relatively low. 3) The attraction of Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Guangzhou Cities for STIT was strong, while that of Huizhou, Jiangmen, and Zhaoqing was weak. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the attraction of Shenzhen, Dongguan, Hong Kong, and Zhuhai increased, and the attraction of Macao, Zhongshan, Guangzhou, and Foshan for STIT decreased. 4) There was no significant correlation between location and the spatial distribution characteristics of STIT in the GBA cities. The cities of the GBA had not effectively linked to form a joint force to construct talent hub. 5) The basic security for city living, as well as the improvement of the environment and investment for innovation, had a significant positive impact on the work of STIT in the GBA, which affected the distribution characteristics of STIT. Therefore, considering the advanced ideas and practices, countermeasures and recommendations for optimizing the distribution of STIT and building the high-caliber talent centers of the GBA were put forward.
Taking the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an example, this study examined the development of cross-border educational infrastructure in China and its spatial effects. Based on the observation of multiple cases in the bay area, this study found that the impact of cross-border educational infrastructure on urban space is mainly reflected in three dimensions: Material, symbolic, and contextual. Among them, the material spatial fix is manifested in the reshaping of the urban physical spaces and network textures by the cross-border educational infrastructure. The study found that the cross-border higher education institutions in the bay area can only be regarded as an educational enclave, whose material impact on urban space is merely reflected in the improvement of urban infrastructure as well as the gentrification of surrounding communities, but lacks substantial help to citywide development pattern and texture reconstruction. Compared with the material spatial fix of the city, these cross-border educational institutions have a clear symbolic spatial fix effect on urban space, which is mainly reflected in their obvious role in urban brand building, urban development vision supporting, and urban cultural soft power improving. From the contextual lens, except for providing a unique overseas learning experience at the campus scale, the cross-border educational infrastructure is severely lacking contextual communication with both the place where these institutions moved from and where they moved to at the city and community scales. This study provides some reflections on the (urban) spatial effects of cross-border educational infrastructure in the non-neoliberal social contexts that can be read as a dialogue with existing theoretical and conceptual frameworks for analyzing this emerging phenomenon. It also provides some non-pedagogical reflections on cross-border higher education institution operation and related policy making from the perspective of geography, and to some extent, has reference value for education-oriented regional and urban development decisions.
The insurance industry is playing an increasingly important role in China's economic development, transformation and industrial upgrading. Based on the city panel data of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) from 2006 to 2019 and using entropy weights, kernel density estimation, and spatial econometric methods, this study examined the spatial-temporal characteristics of the development level of the insurance industry in the area and its impact on economic growth. The findings are as follows: 1) The comprehensive index of insurance industry development level increased with fluctuation. The insurance industry development level in 11 cities of the GBA showed the characteristics of Hong Kong, Macao, and Guangzhou leading in the eastern, central, and western regions, and Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai leading in the three economic circles of Guangzhou-Foshan-Zhaoqing, Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou, and Zhuhai-Zhongshan-Jiangmen. 2) The development level of the insurance industry in the 11 cities is polarized, but the absolute difference between high-value and low-value regions tends to decrease, and the gap between low-value areas tends to widen. 3) The development of the insurance industry has a significant positive impact on regional economic growth. If other influencing factors remain unchanged, each 1% increase in the development level of the insurance industry will result in a regional economic growth of 0.0538%. The development of the insurance industry has negative spillover effect, but it does not pass the significance test. The research results provide a theoretical basis for relevant departments in the Greater Bay Area to formulate industrial policies that promote the insurance industry and economic development mutually.
Urban spaces encapsulate the characteristics, dynamics, and effects of urbanization. However, urban ecological spaces have received relatively inadequate academic attention in urban political research as they were traditionally considered dominated and controlled by humans under a binary ontology of social-natural dichotomization. Using the waterscape of Shenzhen City as an example, this study adopted an urban political ecology perspective to illustrate how Shenzhen's waterscape has evolved in the past four decades and how the underlying power structure has (re)produced such waterscape changes. We argue that water is an integral part of power and the shaping of changing waterscape intrinsically situates within various ontologies of water. Based on the approach of process tracing, this study identified three main time periods, during which urban waterscape in Shenzhen demonstrated distinctive features. In the first stage (1979-2005), the state relaxed the control of water and enabled the establishment of market instruments. The deployment of various power strategies, including discursive framings of water knowledge (for example, economic value of water and technocratic solutions to natural water scarcity), neoliberal reform in the water supply sector, and capital-intensive urban spatial configuration have jointly facilitated the commodification, transportation, and exploitation of water, resulting in ecological degradation and social inequalities. In the second stage (2006-2015), the shift from public-private-partnership (PPP) to the full nationalization in the water industries indicated that the state was not "hollowing out" despite the neoliberal reform in Shenzhen's urban development. Rather, it re-intervened in the provision of ecological services and, to a great extent, de-commodified water for sustainable economic development. In the third stage (2016-present), the socialist ecological civilization (SEC) paradigm has become the guiding principle which further justified the state's effort to reduce hydrosocial inequalities and empower the nature. The construction of "blue belts" that gives the public access to all urbanites and the discursive reframing of water that restructures the city's political and economic agenda have re-commodified water in a way that may boost Shenzhen's long-term economic development and competitiveness. The transformation of Shenzhen's waterscape has demonstrated a process of Chinese environmental governance innovation. It shows that although Shenzhen's neoliberal reform has resulted in ecological degradation and over-exploitation of water as witnessed in most cities in the world, the restructuring of state-market relations and the reproduction of waterscape have created a new path. The presence of state power and its delicate symbiosis with market tools might alleviate salient problems of capitalism such as inequalities and dispossession. These novel practices associated with Shenzhen's waterscape and spatial transformation could offer new insights into, and understanding of the Chinese model of sustainable, equal, and just urbanization.
The urban integration level of migrant workers has an significant impact on the sustainable development of destination cities. Non-cognitive ability is an important human capital of migrant workers. Few existing studies have analyzed the impact of non-cognitive ability on migrant workers' urban integration. By dividing non-cognitive ability into five dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability, this study systematically examined the relationship between non-cognitive ability and urban integration, identified the role of place attachment in the relationship between them, and explored the mechanism of influence of non-cognitive ability and place attachment on urban integration. The results indicate that: 1) Openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness in non-cognitive ability have significant positive effects on the integration of migrant workers into cities; openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability have significant positive effects on place attachment, and place attachment has significant positive effects on the urban integration of migrant workers. 2) Place attachment plays a partial mediating role between openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness and the urban integration of migrant workers, and a complete mediating role between extraversion and emotional stability and urban integration. Improving the non-cognitive ability of migrant workers and their place attachment is an effective way to promote the integration of migrant workers into cities.
