# Promotion Effects of High-Speed Rail on Urban Development: Evidence from Three Lines in China
## 1 Introduction
Based on nighttime light data, [PERSON] et al. (2021) took the Shanghai-Kunming HSR as an empirical research object to explore the impact of HSR opening and operation on the economic activities of surrounding towns. They found that the opening and operation of the HSR generally have a positive effect on the population density indicators of towns along the line [5,6]. However, upon closer observation, the performance varies across different regions and cities [7,8]. For most cities, the HSR may promote population agglomeration, but for some cities, the HSR may cause a'siphon effect' in a certain period, leading to population loss [9]. [PERSON] et al. (2021) found that during the four to five years following the opening of China's HSR, it promoted population return to shrinking cities to some extent but did not have sustained stability. It did not effectively drive labor force agglomeration in shrinking cities but instead caused the diffusion of capital elements to some extent [10]. [PERSON] (2021) also found that for small and medium-sized cities, the HSR opening somewhat suppressed the speed of population outflow but did not change the tendency of population agglomeration towards central cities [11]. Research on Japan's HSR has reached similar conclusions. [PERSON] et al. (2024) found that the HSR promoted population growth in urban areas while causing population decline in rural areas, and this imbalance continues to have an impact [12]. Some scholars have conducted empirical research from the perspective of entrepreneurship and found that the opening of a HSR has a significant promoting effect on entrepreneurial activities, with the effect being more pronounced in relatively developed cities [13]. HSR also has a significant promoting effect on urban economic development. Research by [PERSON] et al. (2020) on Guangdong Province [14] and [PERSON] et al. (2018) on Hunan Province [15] both confirm that HSR can generally play a significant positive role in promoting urban economic growth, facilitating the integration and coordinated development of urban economies, and optimizing the spatial layout of the economy. The opening of HSR can also significantly promote the transformation and upgrading of urban industrial structures, particularly enhancing the coordinated development of the tertiary sector [16]. Research by [PERSON] et al. (2019) on cities along the Beijing-Shanghai HSR line indicates that industries significantly affected by HSR are mainly concentrated in the tertiary sector [17]. [PERSON] (2020) found from the study of the Harbin-Dalian HSR and the Zhengzhou-Xi'an HSR that the Zhengzhou-Xi'an HSR significantly promoted economic growth and industrial structure changes in the cities with stations, while the Harbin-Dalian HSR had a less noticeable effect on economic growth but did promote the development of tourism, potentially increasing the proportion of the tertiary sector [18]. For general cities, since HSR significantly enhances the accessibility of cities, the tourism industry is the most likely to benefit in the short term [19; 20; 21]. For industries related to technological innovation, the promoting effect of HSR mainly appears in cities with relatively larger scales and better-developed industrial foundations [22]. The \"heterogeneity\" in the promoting effect has also been confirmed by other scholars [23]. [PERSON] (2019) found in research on China's prefecture-level cities that the effect of HSR opening on the industrial structure transformation and upgrading of central cities, as well as the coupling coordination between employment and output, is significantly higher than that of peripheral cities [16]. The opening of HSR is conducive to promoting the transformation of urban economic structure from production-oriented to consumption-oriented [24]. Additionally, some scholars have confirmed that HSR can improve the economic risk resistance capacity of cities along the rail line [25].