Hub airport play a critical role in air transportation network, because they are responsible for delivering passengers and cargos from a spoke to another spoke airport as well as network efficiency．Moreover, they are regarded as the major part of transport infrastructure in regional planning, as they support socio-economic development. This paper proposes a k-Core network model to describe the hub airport network system so that we can quantify the evolutionary configuration of hub airport network in China from 1990 to 2015．We find that the maximum k-core tends to increase further and the threshold of hub airports enlarged. The numbers of hub airport went up from 26 to 36 in China in the period studied, while that in European and American aviation network remained．Two variations have been captured in structural characteristics. First, the connectivity ratio grew from 7.1 to 15.4，which indicates an allometric growth. Second, the average path length decreased from 1.32 to 1.12, which indicates that the network presented a small-world phenomenon with high network efficiency. The passenger volume and cargo throughput are highly concentrated and delivered via hub airports．In 2015, 86.7 percent of passenger volume and 95.1 percent of cargo throughput were delivered via hub airports．But the high concentration tends to decline in recent 10 years. With hub airports delimitated by k-core model, this paper investigates air transportation network from an aspect of network structure rather than network scales or airport attributes. Therefore, this paper reveals planning strategies which embed ideas of scale preference and regional equilibrium．These findings may be useful for airport system planning．
The second home can be further classified into dichotomous categories, according to the geographic distribution. That is: suburban and vacation-oriented homes. The second type literally is either located in a tourist area or, more or less, able to seduce tourists as homeowners to regularly dwell there for holidays, despite its remote location. There are many factors affecting (Chinese) tourists’ practices of purchasing second homes, yet the pleasant climate, which arguably possesses winter and summer comfortable climates, has been considered to be the most prominent one. However，insofar sparse, if any，academic interest has been cast on the extent to which different types of comfortable climates could possibly influence the demand for vacation-oriented second homes．Therefore, the focus of this research is to examine the impact mechanism of climate on sale of and demand for vacation-oriented second homes. Based on the comparative study of the tourism-driven real estate development at dichotomous cities in southwest China，namely, Jinghong city of Xishuangbanna and Tengchong city，this paper first unpacks that the second home demand in Xishuangbanna is greater than that in Tengchong．Through carrying out qualitative empirical researches，this study goes on to explore and investigate the reasons behind the scenes. The research results manifest that the pleasant climate is the most important driver for vacation-oriented second home development in the two targeted cities. The geographical distribution of different type of comfortable climate resource principally affects the sale of and demand for vacation-oriented second homes for the following reasons. First, pleasant climate is indeed attractive to second home owners in view of its therapeutic effects. And it is conducive to outdoor activities. Nevertheless, different type of comfortable climate resource is essentially immobile and chiefly featured in a particular area，so people often have to travel across a long distance to some places to enjoy favorable climate. It is the characteristics of climate resources that have stimulated the demand for long-distance home ownership. Regarding the circumstances in China，the winter comfortable climate is，overall，more competitive than its summer counterpart，because the former one is a scarce resource in this nation，whereas，the latter is widely distributed and relatively replaceable because people are able to create microclimate to the compensate heat through environmental design. This paper pays attention to the attraction of climate to long-distance tourists, highlights the impact of climate on the demand for vacation-oriented second homes, and explores the relationship between the geographical distribution of different climate types and the demands for second homes. It provides a new perspective for the study of the spatial distribution characteristics of second homes. Furthermore, the authors point out that the superiority of climate resource lies not only in the degree of comfort, but also in relation to the type of comfortable climate, which provides strong suggestions on the exploitation of comfortable climatic resources in favour of developing vacation-oriented second homes．
With the rapid development of society and economy, urban public memorial space plays an important role in the development of city and citizens’ leisure life. Since the 19th century, academic literature in western countries has paid close attention to the public memorial space that is formed for historical event or battle, and mainly has focused on the memorial function of commemorative space and management function of public space. While in China, the related research was later than foreign, and increasingly drew attention to the conservation and utilization of public memorial space, and mostly, focused on how to design the commemorative space with humanity. The paper chooses the Guangzhou Insurrectional Martyr Cemetery Park as the research case, applies the production of space theory and qualitative research method like literature review, observation and interview to explore how the Guangzhou Insurrectional Martyr Cemetery Park changes its function to meet the diverse demands of different objects with the development of society, and how social objects promote the transformation of its space and what the production mechanism is. The research findings are as follows: First, the Guangzhou Insurrectional Martyr Cemetery Park experienced two transformation of space. One was the space production of heroes’ graves from 1954 to 1978; the other was the space production of public memorial and leisure space from 1978 to now. Second, the leading role of government and the leisure demand of citizens are main driving force that promotes the production of martyr’s cemetery park. The Guangzhou Insurrectional Martyr Cemetery Park has been regarded as the special place that contains the memory of history, the production space is commanded by government all the time. To some extent, citizens’ leisure demand propels the speed of space production of public memorial and leisure space. Third, the participation of government and inhabitants form diverse spaces. As the objects of martyr cemetery park’s space production, Government and inhabitants affect its’ development for their own benefits. For government, no matter the planning of natural space or the construction of symbolic space, they are all to strengthen the commemorative space, leisure space is just a complement. For inhabitants, leisure occupies a more important occasion in daily life, thus forms a mixture of public leisure space and memorial space.
Since reform and opening up, with foreign capital pouring in south-east China and the hukou (registered permanent residence) system enforced by government, a working group floating among countryside and city has come to public. Labor literature, written by the working group, is a supplementary way to explore their lives. It not only reflects the way where they contemplate the city, but also uncover the hidden discipline to laborers from various aspects. In this article, we analyze three sets of novels and poems that are written by migrant workers to find out their living situation in cities. Guided by Soja’s Thirdspace theory, we explore the spatial experience of laborers from three scales: body, factory and dormitory, city. Results show that the living space of laborers is constructed under the discourse of capital and power, triggering the ambiguous experience of self-others, oppressive-resistant and central-marginal, which is a practical explanation of Soja’s Thirdspace. Firstly, through the transformation to their bodies, such as make-up and dressing up, migrant workers make a negotiation between their self-image and the citizens’ expectation in order to pander to the urban taste. Secondly, the dormitories and factories, where migrant workers spent most in their everyday life, serve as a conflicting space where oppression and resistance happens mostly. For one thing, it is in factories that managers and leaders use various methods like the assembly line and working regulations to control and monitor their employees. For another, dormitories are the cradles of resistance because they bring workers together, and it is the places where workers can form a strong group fighting against the unreasonable rules and payment. Thirdly, in most labor literature, cities are demonstrated as a central-marginal spaces where migrant workers feel both inside and outside. They are the constructors and builders of the cities, but they feel isolated and discriminated in megacities. Overall, such experience fosters the formation of laborers’ subjectivity, which is constructed actively in the everyday routine of migrant workers. This feeling of subjectivity not only helps to construct a sense of common identity, but also keeps migrant workers standing at the margin, which is necessary if they want to make a change. This article provides empirical support for study on labor literature and floating population. Meanwhile, it uncovers hidden life of migrant worker, which can be useful second-hand materials for policy makers.
Based on Composite Plus Scale method, a temperature series with 100-year resolution in South China has been reconditioned by using 5 long term temperature proxy series selected from recent publications. The proxy records include pollens, lake-sediments, sea-sediments and so on. The result suggests that on a millennial scale temperature changes in the region could be divided into three stages. Stage one：11 500-9 500 a B.P. was early Holocene with relatively low temperature. Stage two: 9 500-4 000 a B.P. was mega thermal period during the Holocene. Stage three：4 000-2 500 a B.P. was the beginning of relatively low temperature period. The accumulated anomaly analysis results show that the temperature series could be divided into two cooling stages and one warming stage during the study period. 11 500-9 500 a B.P. and 4 000-2 500 a B.P. belong to the cooling phase; and 9 500-4 000 a B.P. belongs to the warming phase. The results of the MK mutation test show that the UF and UB statistics intersect at 11.3 ka B.P. and 2.7 ka B.P. passed the 95% confidence level to indicate that a mutation had occurred. Power spectrum analysis shows that the climate change has a period of 8.5 ka, 3.9 ka, 1.3-1.4 ka and 0.65 ka. Since the entire study period is 9 ka, the period of 8.5 ka does not make any sense. In addition, since the integrated reconstruction of this study has a resolution of 100 years, the 0.65 ka period may not be reliable. At the same time as the 2.5 ka period does not exceed 95% confidence level, the periods of 3.9 ka and 1.3-1.4 ka should be the main cycle. Wavelet analysis shows that the climate of North tropical of South China had multi-period, multi-scale warming and cooling cycle characteristics. On the millennium scale, 1.3 ka and 3.3-3.9 ka were the main periods of their variation of climate. A series of climatic events can be identified in the sequence, such as 8.2 ka, 7.9 ka, 7.1 ka and 4.1 ka climatic events. The cross wavelet analysis shows that the wavelet coefficients of exceeding 1 were in the period from 2.5 ka B.P. to 7 ka B.P., and the influence of ENSO on the temperature in the North tropical of South China had a significant impact，especially since 7 ka B.P.. The wavelet coherence analysis also shows that the correlation coefficient between the reconstruction sequence of this paper and the ENSO event sequence after 7 ka B.P. is above 0.6 at the scale of 1.6-2.5 ka. Comparisons with temperature sequences reconstructed by different methods in the Northern Hemisphere and other parts of China finds that the temperature changes in the North tropical of South China are in good agreement with those in other places, indicating that environmental changes in this region response to global changes. Nevertheless, there are also some differences, which show that to a certain degree climate change has regional differences in response.
In order to discuss the change of stable isotopic in extreme weather precipitation, the stable isotope data of Taipei (TP), Wenling (WL), Haining (HN) and Nantong(NT) in the eastern coastal cities of China were applied during the impact of typhoon Chan-hom in 2015, analyzing the spatiotemporal changes of stable isotopes in precipitation. This study reveals characteristics of precipitation isotopes composition at the four sites during typhoon. The average value of δ18O in the “CHAN-HOM” precipitation at TP was -4.40‰, which was the highest value. The lowest value of δ18O precipitation was -9.80‰ at WL. The average values of δ18O precipitation at HN and NT were -8.83‰ and -7.88‰, respectively, which were between those of TP and WL. The pattern of precipitation δ18O at the four sites expressed negative and gradually stable. The rainout effect of precipitation δ18O was obvious. Isotope ratios reveal that the precipitation δ18O decreased inward typhoon’s center and d-excess values increased. The water vapor sources were primarily from moist maritime air mass. At stage one of TP precipitation the δ18O was relatively heavy, the water vapor mixed local evaporation water vapor and was influenced by external circulation of the typhoon. The TP precipitation at stage two and WL precipitation were affected by the single water vapor mass and δ18O value gradually decreased. The distance between HN and the typhoon center was similar to that between NT and typhoon center, and the two cities had the same water vapor source, so that their precipitation δ18O fluctuations were close to each other.
Based on the monthly wind speed data of 128 meteorological stations during 1960-2015 in the Yangtze River Basin, and five divided sub-regions according to the terrain, the temporal and spatial characteristics of wind speed variation in the Basin are analyzed by using the linear regression estimation, correlation analysis and modified Mann-Kendall (MMK) trend test. The results are as follows: 1) There is a significant weakening trend over the Yangtze River Basin with the average decreasing rate of -0.006 5 m/s·a in annual mean wind speed. The highest annual mean wind speed over the Basin is 2.17 m/s which occurred in 1969, and the least is 1.63 m/s which occurred in 2002. For the five sub-regions, the most significant downward trend occurs in sub-region R1 (hilly and plain areas in the middle and lower reaches), followed by R5 (Qinghai-Tibet Plateau areas in the upper reaches), and the last one is R3 (the basin areas in the upper reaches). 2) Seasonally, in the whole basin, the most significant weakening is found in spring and the least in summer. The trends in the sub-regions are also found that the most weakening is in spring and the least is in summer except for R1 where the most weakening occurs in winter. Furthermore, the non-significantly slightly increasing trends in summer are found in the sub-regions R2 and R3. Monthly, in the Yangtze River Basin, the most significant weakening of wind speed occurs in March, while the most non-significant one is in August. The most significant weakening monthly is also in March in all sub-regions. 3) Spatially, the annual wind speed and its decreasing trend exhibit similar spatial patterns with being the largest in the eastern basin, larger in the western and the smallest in the central, which means that those stations with higher average annual wind speed in Yangtze River Basin also have larger declining rate of wind speed. There are 50% of stations showing the most significant decline that are located in the east of the basin, especially in R1. In addition, there is a similar spatial distribution in trends with respect to seasonal and annual wind speeds. 4) The decrease of mean annual, spring and winter wind speed over the Yangtze River Basin and its sub-regions R1 and R2 is related to the increase of Arctic Oscillation (AO). Over the whole basin and its sub-regions R1 and R2, the correlation coefficients between annual mean wind speed and AO are -0.25, -0.30 and -0.27, respectively, the correlation coefficients between spring wind speed and AO are -0.28, -0.27 and -0.30, respectively, and the correlation coefficients between winter wind speed and AO are -0.29, -0.30 and -0.25, respectively. Besides, the decrease of pressure gradient force in coastal areas may play a role in the decline of winter wind speed in R1. The non-significantly slightly increasing trend in summer in sub-region R3 is possibly caused by an almost unchanged long-term temperature in this area. Moreover, the regional climate warming and urbanization acceleration have also impacts on the decrease of wind speed in the basin
The dynamic change of soil organic carbon storage has a significant influence on the regional and even global carbon balance. In the rapidly urbanized area, the rapid social and economic development has made the land use/cover change intensely, and the change of soil organic carbon storage in plough layer of this area has attracted much attention. The core area of the Pearl River Delta is selected as the research area. Based on the data of soil organic carbon content of plough layer in 1980 and 2015, this paper calculates the reserves of the soil organic carbon pool of the plough layer in different time, analyzes the spatio-temporal variation characteristics of the soil organic carbon storage by the towns, and uses the geographic detector to measure the contribution of different influence factors, identifies the dominant factors affecting the spatio-temporal variation of soil organic carbon storage at the township scale. The results show that: 1) during the period from 1980 to 2015, the reserves loss of soil organic carbon pool in the core area of the Pearl River Delta was 5.91Tg, and the loss rate was 67.16%. The spatial change had the direction of the typical urban cluster, that is, the closer to the urban cluster the area is, the greater the degree of loss will be. Around the “Guangzhou-Foshan-Dongguan” town cluster, the irregular circle of soil organic carbon storage decreased significantly. 2) The spatio-temporal heterogeneity of soil organic carbon storage in the core area of the Pearl River Delta is influenced by various factors such as climate change, topography, hydrological environment, social and economic development, land use change and farmland landscape change, and the influence has great difference, and the contribution of each factor (q Statistics) ranged from 0.004 to 0.256. 3) The change of farmland landscape, pressure stress from the growth of the secondary and tertiary industries, water network density and land structure change are the dominant factors affecting the spatial and temporal changes of soil plough organic carbon storage in the core area of the Pearl River Delta. Under the interference of high intensity artificial activities such as irrigation, fertilization and artificial soil improvement, climate change and topographic conditions have no significant influence on the spatial and temporal changes of soil plough organic carbon storage at the township scale in the core area of the Pearl River Delta. The water network density determines the water environment of the farmland, which affects the soil organic carbon density of plough layer and land use/cover change, and has the most significant influence among the factors that belong to the natural geographical environment. At the same time, as the rapidly urbanized area, there was a huge benefit gap between agricultural production and non-agricultural economy in the core area of the Pearl River Delta from 1980 to 2015, which led to the sharp change in the land use/cover change and the serious fragmentation of the farmland landscape, which caused the severe changes of the soil organic carbon pool of plough layer at the township scale.
The ecological environment of coastal sand is more fragile due to the dual influences of sea level rise and human activities. To reveal the characteristics of dynamic changes and its driving mechanism of the coastal sand of islands, is of great scientific and practical significance for formulating island development plans scientifically, protecting the island's natural environment as well as ensuring the healthy and sustainable development of economic society. By taking the Dongshan Island as the study area, which is a typical distribution area of island sand of South China coastal zone, the dynamic changes and its driving factors of the island coastal sand from 1994 to 2014 were analyzed based on five times monitoring data by the methods of land transfer matrix, land-use comprehensive index and land use dynamical change models and so on. The results indicated that: 1) The area of coastal sand in the Dongshan Island reduced at an ever-increasingly faster speed in the past 20 years. The area reduction decelerated slowly in 1994-1999 and in 2004-2009. The reduction speed of sandy land area in 1999-2004 was basically the same as that in the whole monitoring period and was the fastest in 2009-2014. The development degree and intensive level of coastal sand resources were far higher than the national average, and the speed and degree of sandy land utilization increased obviously. The structure and using types of coastal sand changed apparently. Meanwhile, the comprehensive index and dynamic degree of sandy land use increased constantly and the overall stability of sandy land significantly decreased. 2) The conversion types of coastal sand in the past 20 years were mainly those of outward. The area of mobile sandy land continued to decrease, mainly shifting to fixed and non sandy land. The area of semi-fixed sandy land decreased sharply in 1994-1999, and mainly changed into fixed sandy land. After that, it fluctuated slightly. The area of fixed sandy land showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing. The main types of roll-out of fixed sandy land were non sandy land and sandy farmland, and the main type of roll-in was semi-fixed sand. 3) A significant adjustment was made in the utilization structure of coastal sand in the past 20 years. The unused land reduced rapidly, the area of woodland and sandy land was relatively stable, and construction land began to appear in 1994-1999. The area of unused land and cultivated land reduced greatly, the area of forest land remained relatively stable and the area of construction land increased substantially in 1999-2004. The area of forest land decreased significantly, the area of cultivated land increased and the area of construction land decreased rapidly in 2004-2009. Forest land and cultivated land reduced greatly, and the area of construction land increased rapidly in 2009-2014. 4) The main driving forces influencing the dynamic change of the Dongshan island coastal sand included natural geographical factors, policy and regulation factors and social and economic factors. The long-term trend of sea level rise and short-term sudden typhoon storm surge caused by climate change and coastline erosion were the important natural reasons for the decrease of coastal sand. The implementation of land compensated use system and urban development planning led to the conversion of woodland and cultivated land into construction land. The policy of returning farmland to forests and the policy of developing agriculture were the important policy drivers for the conversion of woodland and cultivated land. The rapid development of the tourism industry, the acceleration of industrialization process and urbanization, greatly promoted the evolution of the sandy land use pattern in the past 20 years, which were also the main driving factors of the dynamic change of the sandy land use.
At present，most research about urban expansion patterns focus on the identification of urban expansion types and the analysis of the urban expansion process and laws in a single city. It is lack of the study about the comparative analysis of urban expansion types at cities with different stages of development. Based on the Landscape Expansion Index (LEI)，which obtains the information about the spatio-temporal dynamic changes of land patterns, In this paper, the newly added construction land expansion types are divided into three types: outlying, edge-expansion, and infilling, other extension types can be considered as combinations or variants of the three basic extension types. This study quantitatively identifies the expansion types of 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province from 2009 to 2014 by LEI, compares and analyzes the expansion types combinations and differences in cities at different stages of development，and reveals the spatial differentiation of cities on provincial scale. In addition, the stepwise regression model is used to explore the driving mechanism of different expansion types．The results are summarized as follows：1）The newly added construction land expansion types of 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province from 2009 to 2014 are mainly of edge-expansion type，followed by infilling type and outlying type, the ratio of three expansion types is: 68:18:14. It is clearly that the proportion of outlying type and infilling type was inversely proportional, the cities with a high expansion type ratio of the outlying, the proportion of the infilling type is lower; on the contrary, the city with a higher proportion of the infilling type has a lower expansion type ratio of the outlying. 2）There is an agglomeration effect in cities with a higher outlying and infilling type ratio of newly construction land. In addition to Shantou City, the city with a large proportion of infilling type are concentrated in the Pearl River estuary area，which showed a 'small triangle' shape，while the cities with high proportion of outlying type are distributed around cites with a high proportion of the infilling type, forming a ‘big triangle’ shape outside the Pearl River Delta region．And cities with a higher proportion of edge-expansion type have no obvious spatial distribution 3）Three land expansion types have different driving mechanisms. The population density is the main influencing factor of the outlying type, the lower the population density is，the more the new construction land will be in the form of outlying type．The edge-expansion type is affected by the proportion of non-construction land and population density, the city with higher proportion of non-construction land and higher population density has more new construction land with edge-expansion type. The infilling type is affected by land urbanization rate, the new construction land with infilling type is more likely to appear in cities with high urbanization rates.
The rapid progress of urbanization in China and the rapid development of the market economy have led to a shortened cycle of capital, and overexploitation of urban space has provided a place for capital accumulation and capital reproduction. At present, most cities in China are in a period of rapid development, and demand for resources is far away higher than that in the initial period of development. In the period of growth-oriented growth with material construction, capital gains interest through the investment in urban built environment to expand the capital circulation space, triggering the rapid accumulation of urban capital and causing the deterioration of urban-rural relations, reflecting the self-disintegration of urban space and the urban space to the countryside and erosion of space. The severe conflicts between urban and rural space have greatly limited the socio-economic development of cities and rural areas. The transformation of urban and rural areas in China is extremely urgent. In the context of China’s political economy, the process of urbanization in the perspective of capital space production has features of the times. China’s urbanization not only capitalizes on the fixed pattern of Western capital logic, but also moves away from tradition under the strong intervention of the Chinese government. The process of urbanization differs from that in capitalist countries. Taking the new Marxist theory of capital cycle as the starting point, the spatial logic relationship between urban and rural development and capital in China is analyzed in depth. Firstly, in the context of the Chinese system, explore the applicability of the capital cycle theory in the context of China’s urban-rural transformation, use this theory to analyze the mechanism of promoting the transformation of China's urban and rural areas; and then propose the more common spatial contradictions in the current urban-rural transformation in China; Therefore, the proposed response to the crisis is targeted, and as the main body of urban and rural planning, the government, planners, and the public need to change their original positioning and rebuild the interest chain and action network. First of all, the government should play its leading role. In the face of changing capital factors, the government needs to plan the development direction through market assessment, economic measurement and financial analysis; and improve the property rights system to reduce the high cost caused by chaotic transactions; regulate market access system, and implement the real name system of responsibility. Secondly, in the critical period of urban-rural transformation and development, the social responsibility of planners is no longer limited to space practice. It should also cultivate relevant and structural thinking, deeply connect with current social relations, and build a medium for information exchange between government and citizens. In the process of transformation, we strive to induce relevant entities to think about the planning ideas, management methods and systems in the transformation of urban and rural planning, and promote the orderly transformation of urban and rural transformation. Finally, it is proposed that urban and rural development could only build social justice with spatial justice as the core. The value system promotes the relatively fair development of urban and rural social space.
The concession is the legacy of Chinese colonial period，and also a “warning heritage” reflecting the negative social memory of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society．When the concession is endowed with the function of tourism，whether the negativeness of the historical background affect tourism essential of pursuing pleasure or not? What influence it has on tourism emotions? Those issues have not been fully demonstrated till now．To determine the emotional experiences of young Chinese when they visit colonial heritage attractions，Cognitive Appraisal Theory (CAT) and the tool of emotion scale were used．This was the first time to apply these two models together in the Chinese context．Questionnaire was conducted in a field experiment approach with 340 samples in different history background knowledge level in total．Shameen，a 5A tourist attraction in Guangzhou，was selected for analysis because it is the epitome of China’s colonial history and favored by young tourists．The findings showed that，firstly，positive emotions，including joy，love and surprise，were related with pleasantness，goal congruence and novelty/certainty; on the other hand，negative emotions，including angry，fear and sadness were associated with ego-involvement．Secondly，the tourists who learnt about the colonial history background showed more negative emotional experiences and discrepant appraisal than those who did not．Therefore，it seemed that colonial history background can weaken positive emotions by depressing pleasantness and goal congruence．Meanwhile，it can strengthen negative emotions via enhancement of ego-involvement．Thirdly，the change of tourists’ emotional experiences brings about common changes in cognitive appraisal，tourists’ emotional experiences depend on current appraisal and influence the appraisal in the sequence．Nevertheless，according to CAT，whether the background knowledge of colonial history is able to bring a negative impact on tourists’ emotional experiences is largely depends on the individuals’ appraisal．The history background knowledge of a colonial heritage could help tourists enjoy more profound tourism experience without affecting them perusing pleasure in their trips，which is the nature of tourism．Based on CAT，the paper enriched the discussion of the reasons why tourists generated different emotional experiences，extended the application of emotional experience and CAT in Chinese context．Also，this result may be an enlightening view to the representation and management of the colonial heritage tourism，it suggests to emphasize the interpretation of heritage history background，which may inspire tourists’ emotional experience and strengthen heritage value of education．
Shopping malls in a city are broadly conceptualized as placelessness. According to Relph’s definition of placelessness, places with the attribute of placelessness are not supposed to be attractive to tourists. Shopping malls, however, are one of the main tourism attractions, which are appealing to international tourists. This comes to our research question, that is, how do shopping malls attract international tourists? Even though extensive researches have been conducted on how historic sites and natural landscapes attracting western tourists, the studies on shopping malls are limited. This study takes a shopping mall in Ningbo, China, as a case and collects data through questionnaires and interviews. The findings are: 1) even though shopping malls are characterized by placelessness, it is proved that they are one of the major tourist destinations for western tourists. Western tourists go there for the reason that it is a place for quality assurance. The idea of shopping malls is imported from western society and western tourists are familiar with this consumption place and perceive it as quality guarantee for shopping. 2) Shopping malls embody the authenticity of local residents’ consumption behavior. Shopping malls are considered as a daily consumption place for local residents and have become a part of local residents’ daily life. Western tourists are attracted by the local lifestyle, which is embedded in shopping experience. The contemporary lifestyle of local residents is considered as parts of the development history of China and this lifestyle is appealing to western tourists. 3) The rapid development of China is unique around the world. The attribute of high-speed development becomes the attractiveness for western tourists and this attribute is embodied in shopping malls. On one hand, western tourists are impressed by the modern building, atmosphere, environment and brands when they are entering shopping malls. On the other hand, the shopping malls are located near traditional street blocks. The modern shopping malls and traditional street blocks create a unique landscape. From western tourists’ eyes, this landscape is a mixture of the present and the past of the development of China. Western tourists feel like experiencing the past and the present at the same time. This contrast makes shopping malls even attracting.
Place identity, as one of the core concepts in Local Theory, has attracted a great concern of researchers in the field of Environmental Psychology, Tourism Geography, Cultural Geography and Behavioral Science in recent years. However, there are few researches concerned about the university students’ place identity in this microscopic scale. University students' place identity (the following is the same as USPI), not belonging to the rooting place identity (like residents’ place identity to residence), nor the appreciating place identity (like tourists’ place identity to tourist place), nor the recreational place identity (like beguilers’ place identity to bar or cafe), but is a special place identity. It has an essential difference between those place identities. Thus, it is especially urgent to carry out studies on microscopic cultural spaces. The place identity of university students needs to be fully understood. In order to explore the dimensions and structure of USPI, this paper selected Wuhan University as a case to conduct an empirical research from the students’ perspective. Involving theoretical construction and empirical test, the research used grounded theory and exploratory factor analysis method to enrich the theoretical connotation of USPI and provide reference for further research. First-hand data was collected from unstructured interviews. Grounded theory, as an inductive research approach, was taken to find out the dimensions of USPI. Then on this basis, the questionnaire was designed and explored by exploratory factor analysis method to measure USPI. The study found that USPI is comprised by five dimensions-cognition, emotion, behavior, self-efficacy and commitment, which have a close relationship between each other; USPI is relatively high in Wuhan University. As a double top university, it attracts many students all over the country to be here to study. They are influenced by its natural environment, humanistic environment, academic atmosphere, and outstanding alumni, which results in a strong sense of place identity; Admission time, department, native place and college aspiration are the main factors in the formation of USPI. Students' different personal background will lead to the difference of place identity and its various dimensions. With the increase of age, university students’ place identity declines first and then rises. As to faculty, students in faculty of arts and sciences and faculty of communication have higher scores than faculty of medicine. As the college entrance examination voluntary order decreases, university students' place identity also shows a trend of falling first and then rising. Local students have higher scores than students from other provinces. This research is expected to contribute towards studies of microscopic cultural spaces in geography.
