Research on the City Network of Guangdong, Hongkong and Macao from the Perspective of Information Flow: Analysis based on Baidu Index

In the context of the rapid development of informatization and globalization, the theoretical methods of urban scholars have shifted from a ‘space of places’ appraoch, which looks at geographical areas, to a ‘space of flows’ approach, which is based on flows of people, goods, capital, and information between cities. The rapid development of the Internet makes the connections between cities more dynamic than ever before. The subject of this study are cities in three provincial administrative units in Southern China: Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The development of the Internet provides an opportunity to analyse the relationships between the cities in this region from the viewpoint of information flow. Using the area distribution model in Baidu Index (a website of the Baidu company), this study recorded the web search volume, simulated the information flows, and analysed the network correlation degrees between the cities in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. The conclusions are: (1) from the perspective of information flow, the city network in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has a clear ‘core-periphery’ structure, which amplifies the difference in urban hierarchy between big and small cities; (2) the cities in the traditional Pearl River Delta core region have a stronger ability to aggregate information flows and geographical proximity reflects information flow; (3) information flows between the cities in Guangdong and Hong Kong and Macao are not smooth, and thus needs to be improved.