The farthest areas from coastal port cities in China are Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Tibet and the western Sichuan Plateau in Sichuan. However, these areas have long had trade ties with foreign countries through coastal ports such as Tianjin and Shanghai. According to textual research, by the 1980s of 19, rhubarb, a Chinese herbal medicine from Gansu and Qinghai, had been exported abroad through Tianjin, and livestock products such as skin, hair, intestines and bones exported from Tianjin also increased year by year. At this time, British Lide Foreign Firm has set up wool purchasing stations in Archery Furnace and Songpan, and transported wool to the United States through Shanghai, which has become the main source of wool export at Shanghai Port. By the 1920s, nearly 70% of the wool production in Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang, and about 40% of the milk production and leather production were sold to foreign and domestic coastal markets. Since the most remote western regions are mainly connected with the world market through coastal port cities, it can be inferred that the same is true for most parts of China. That is to say, since 1840, most areas of China, even those far away from the coast, have had different degrees of trade with foreign countries through coastal ports, and have more or less entered the process of modernization.
This area, which provides export materials for the port and consumes import materials for the port, is geographically called the hinterland of the port. In fact, the economic ties between trading ports and their hinterland are not limited to trade and logistics, but also include personnel exchange, capital flow, industrial transfer and technology and information dissemination. The progress of port cities promotes the development of hinterland economy, and the development of hinterland promotes the progress of port cities. The size of hinterland and the speed of economic development also affect the development of port cities, and there is a two-way economic interaction between the two sides. Various regions in China began to form an export-oriented economic system with major trading port cities as the leader, relying on its hinterland, and domestic agricultural and livestock products, handicraft products and foreign industrial products as the main trade contents, which directly promoted the process of economic modernization in various regions.
Under the direct influence of this port-hinterland model, a new model has emerged in China's traffic pattern and the direction of business contacts across the country.
Modern transportation in China, such as railways, highways and ship shipping, not only appeared in the east at the earliest, but also had the highest density and extremely uneven spatial distribution in the east. Shipping depends on water transport conditions, and the water transport conditions in the east are better than those in other regions, which should be the main reason for the development of shipping industry. Railways and highways are located in the east, but they cannot be explained by natural conditions. In terms of railway layout, in addition to the dense population and developed economy in the east, connecting port cities with their hinterland is undoubtedly an important factor for railway construction to start in the east and focus on the east. As long as we analyze the distribution map of China railway at that time, we can clearly see that one end of the railway will inevitably lead to coastal or port cities along the river, regardless of the east-west direction or the north-south direction. Not only railways, but also with the development of export-oriented economy and the expansion of port-hinterland, China's transportation system, old or new, has been incorporated into or connected to the port-hinterland transportation system. In short, the transportation system centered on the capital and provincial capital before modern times has gradually changed into a new pattern centered on port cities or provincial capitals in modern times.
The pioneering development of trading port cities and the great changes in the national traffic pattern will inevitably lead to major changes in the transportation and marketing of goods, the flow of people and even the flow of funds. Across the country, the logistics, people flow and capital flow between Shanghai and other places have replaced the original flow between the capital and other places and become the primary flow direction. In provincial or sub-provincial administrative regions, the flow of logistics, people flow and capital flow between port cities and places has also replaced the two-way flow between administrative centers and places, becoming the main flow direction of logistics and people flow in the region. Only if the regional administrative center itself is also a trading port and maintains a certain development speed, or if it is not a port but has a solid historical foundation and occupies a certain position in the modern transportation system, it is possible to continue to become the main flow direction of logistics and personnel flow in the region. In this case, the central position of trading ports in regional logistics and personnel flow will be relegated to a secondary position.