Gateways to globalisation : Asias international trading and finance centres Asia’s trading and financial hubs have become global cities which frequently have more in common and closer linkages with each other than with their corresponding hinterlands. As this book expounds these global cities illustrate to what extent world trends deeply penetrate and permeate the national territorial interiors and processes that were otherwise presumed to be controlled by the State. Gateways to Globalisation is soundly based on accurate and extensive research (including perspectives from historians economists geographers and sociologists) from China Japan Singapore and Hong Kong in order to grasp the regional character of trade and finance beyond national borders and traditional academic frameworks. The book documents that today major urban centres such as Tokyo Beijing Singapore Hong Kong and Shanghai situated on the periphery of the maritime corridor of East Asia form a system characterised by the intensity of their economic linkages and integration into the world economy. Since the mid 1980s these major Asian cities have become the worldwide oriented centres for production trade finance and research. This collective effort offers in addition to its regional framework up to date information that strengthens an original trans disciplinary analysis of a region and its economic characteristics which will be of interest to readers within academia and beyond.