Digital platforms are reshaping urban consumption spaces and altering the trajectory of commercial gentrification. However, research on how physical and virtual factors jointly shape commercial gentrification at the city scale remains limited. Taking the main urban area of Nanjing as a case, this study integrates platform and spatial data and applies machine learning methods to identify patterns of commercial gentrification and examine the roles of physical and virtual factors across different spatial types. The results show that: (1) typical commercial gentrification spaces in Nanjing exhibit a clear core-oriented pattern, concentrated in the traditional urban center and a limited number of emerging districts; (2) virtual factors become significantly more important as commercial gentrification intensifies, with online interaction intensity emerging as the most influential factor overall, while sentiment evaluation, influencer presence and proximity to platform hotspots play stronger roles in specific spatial types; and (3) physical and virtual factors have differentiated effects, combining in different ways to produce four distinct spatial patterns of commercial gentrification. This study reveals the differentiated roles of virtual and physical factors in shaping commercial gentrification at the city scale and enriches current understanding of urban commercial restructuring in the platform era.

Amid the accelerating agenda of Chinese-style modernization, China’s territorial spatial planning is undergoing a major transition and facing mounting challenges, while the theoretical foundations that support this transition remain at an early stage and require further integration. Drawing on holism, this paper operationalizes a cognition–relation–testing governance chain and develops an analytical framework to explain the institutional evolution and governance performance of China’s territorial spatial planning. Using clause- and paragraph-level evidence units from policy and planning texts, the study reviews and compares five historical stages of China’s territorial spatial planning, emphasizing simultaneous consistency across the three levels and a replicable diagnostic procedure. Building on this analysis, the paper proposes a holistic coordination pathway oriented toward modernization governance: it anchors implementation in auditable trade-off rules and executable boundary instruments, strengthens collaboration and conflict-adjudication procedures, and embeds a closed loop of “evaluation–adjustment–accountability” across the full planning life cycle, thereby providing an analytical approach and indicator toolkit for assessing the degree of governance closure in planning practice.