A Study On Tourism Development And Protection Of Rural Landscapes In Guangzhou's Hilly Areas

With the acceleration of urbanization,urban citizens have increasing demands for visiting outskirts and rural landscapes.To meet such demands,many tourist spots featuring rural landscapes have been launched.However,due to lack of an in-depth and systematic research of rural landscape resources,many rural tourist spots refer to and imitate general tourist spots for their construction and operation,thus failing to highlight their landscape characteristics.Such rural landscape visiting experiences are not in the real sense but just entertainment in the rural scope from the perspective of administrative division.Concerning the above development status of rural tourist spots,this paper chooses several representative rural tourist spots in hilly areas of Guangzhou as research objects,and conducts a systematic research of their rural landscapes.Types and characteristics of local rural landscapes as well as characteristics of their compo nents are summarized.The landscape utilization and construction situations of nine rural tourist spots in hilly areas of Guangzhou are surveyed,with their merits and demerits in rural landscape construction being pointed out.A questionnaire survey is co nducted among local residents and tourists to find out their preferences and appeals about village landscapes.The protection scope and principles of rural landscapes of rural tourist spots in hilly areas of Guangzhou as well as strategies and modes to pro tect and build rural landscapes are explored.Based on the above analysis and discussion,this paper comes to the following conclusions:(1)Major rural landscape types of rural tourist spots in Guangzhou's hilly areas include natural landscape,agricultural landscape and settlement landscape.Characteristics of the local rural landscape components include:(1)The large overhanging distance of traditional residences acts to keep rain from coming in and to create the effect of “deserted alleyways”.The outer wall is mainly made up of adobe and supplemented by green bricks.The work ear gables are indigenous.The lane door features the gate bucket t ype.The main entrance of residences features the door frame type.The traditional buildings are characterized by the straight lattice windows and supplemented by the leakage windows.(2)Streets and alleys are of different sizes and made up of local materials,chiefly stone tablets and pebbles.(3)The water system is complete,and the channels of all different sizes.(4)In terms of production landscapes,fruit-bearing forests,bamboo forests,vegetables and paddy rice dominate;in terms of handicraft landscapes,bamboo handicrafts and dried agricultural products dominate.(5)The artistic building decorations include paintings,gray plastics,potteries,etc.(2)Major achievements of Guangzhou's hilly areas in protecting and building rural tourist spots include: having developed tourism with local landscape characteristics and established fame preliminarily;having promoted sustainable development of agriculture relying on local rural tourism;and having protected unique landscape resources by developing local rural tourism.(3)Existing problems of rural landscape protection and construction: Traditional rural settlements are disappearing;labor forces are losing and village hollowing is worsening;inadequate utilization of rural landscape resources and lack of tourist product diversification.(4)Preferences of tourists about the local rural landscape resources are natural landscape,agricultural landscape,traditional building landscape,folk custom landscape,cultural and entertainment activity landscape in a descending order.However,tourists' wish intensity of developing the local rural landscapes can be ranked as cultural and entertainment activity landscape,agricultural landscape,traditional building landscape and natural landscape in a descending order.Tourists hope that they can obtain more comprehensive rural travel experiences.(5)Residents' preferences for rural landscapes can be ranked as ancestral halls,historical buildings,streets and lanes,ponds,ancient dwellings,agricultural fields,ancient wells and trees,traditional stores and pubs,other landscapes in a descending order.The urgency of protecting rura l landscape resources in the opinion of residents is ranked as ancestral halls,historical buildings,streets and lanes,traditional buildings,ancient trees,ponds,farmlands,ancient wells,sunvalley fields,stages,stores and pubs,and other landscapes in a descending order.(6)Protection scope of local rural landscapes include overall environmental layout,village layout model,traditional building landscape,traditional streets and lanes,agricultural landscape,traditional public spaces,structures and accessorial buildings,folk customs,etc.(7)Protection and construction principles of local rural landscapes include protection based on value judgment,domination of localism and supplementation of diversity,participation of the local people,and reflection of the popular will.Strategies to protect and utilize local rural landscapes include protecting rural localism,protecting rural naturalness,protecting rural traditions,protecting folk customs,and innovating rural development.Modes to protect and utilize local rural landscapes include enlivening traditional building landscape,organically updating village settlement and diversifying tourist products.