Study On Tour In Song Dynasty

Tour is the summation of the traveling of non-settlers and phenomenon or relationshipcaused by temporary settlement. In China, tourist activities have a long history, eachexperiencing formation and development. It has gradually become an important part ofsocial life, especially in social economic life. The Song Dynasty is a very important period offeudal economic development in China when commodity economy had achieved a certainhigh level. The Song Dynasty tour come also on to flourish in the base of the developingSocial economy.As one of the important elements in tourist economic activities, tourist has a great impacton tourist economic activities. The component of tourists in the Song Dynasty wascomplicated and of different levels. It covered all classes and ranks of society, of whichscholar-bureaucrats played a major part because they had a strong desire for travel and hadmore money and more free time.Tourist resources are the objects of tourist activities, attracting tourists to visit, relax andexplore. According to character, tourist resource can be divided into two types: natural andhuman. Natural resources mainly consist of mountains, rivers, caves and lakes. Humanresources have a wide range covering temples, cities, gardens, flower shows, historic sites andetc. Both of them were attractive to tourists in the Song Dynasty. However, the touristdestinations varied due to the tourists' different economic powers, social positions, educationand residence, etc. Scholar-bureaucrats preferred pastoral views and temples while touristsfrom countryside were charmed by views in cities. The exploitation of tourist resources in theSong Dynasty had accomplished a remarkable achievement, with governments, individualsand temples as the major forces. The basic forms of exploitation were individual developmentand collaborative development.There were many characteristics of hotels in the Song Dynasty, such as wide distribution,various types, different scales, diverse investors, and manifold managements. In addition, theseparation between ownership and management arose. Restaurants in Song Dynasty hadshown the following main characteristics: large amount, wide distribution, various types, niceservice, diverse sales. Though transportation in the Song Dynasty had much the same as thatin the Tang Dynasty with boats, carriages, sedan chairs, horses, and donkeys as the vehicles,the Song Dynasty exceeded the Tang Dynasty enormously in transportation. Rented vehiclesin tourist spots, especially boats in West Lake and some other places appeared then, showingexuberant vitality. Furthermore, the word "tour guide" came into being, indicating that tourguide had become an economic and social phenomenon reflecting the prosperity of tourism inthe Song Dynasty.Tourist had a great impact on society and economy in the Song Dynasty. Tourist hadaffected the governmental income and expenditure. On one hand, those tourist activities werebeneficial to government finance. On the other hand, it had also brought burden ongovernment finance. Tourist played an important role in the civic production and lives. It hadbecome a major source of income because of the long chain of labour-intensive industry, byproviding employment for some residents both in countryside and in cities. Tourist alsoinfluenced the rising and falling of temples and palaces, etc.Tourist in the Song Dynasty originated in the era, and characterized by the era. However,it is a pity in the quite prosperous tourist economy of the Song Dynasty that tourist enterprisessuch as travel agency had not appeared at that time.