Abstract
Researchers in several disciplines and fields agree that the image establishing has both perceptual and affective evaluations. The paper comparatively analyzes the image of landscapes in ancient water towns held by 1619 tourists after the investigations of Zhouzhuang and Tongli of Jiangsu Province. Based on the elements of the image of urban landscapes, the perceptual/cognitive image of tourist landscapes in water towns is developed including path, node, landmark, important courtyard, district and edge. Particularly the important courtyard plays the great role on the perceptive image of tourists, however, the perceptual/cognitive images of the district and the edge are obviously weak. Meanwhile, the finding showed that the affective images of tourist landscapes in Zhouzhuang differ with those of Tongli by the method of paired comparison. The main reason is that the affective images are influenced by the impressive scenery spots. Furthermore, the commercialization of streets and pollution of rivers are easy to be functioned negatively.
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Foundation item: Under the auspices of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40371030), Research Project of Ministry of Construction (No. 20031018)
Biography: LI Yabing (1973–), male, a native of Zhuanglang of Gansu Province, Ph.D., specialized in tourism geography.
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Li, Y., Zhang, J. & Chen, Y. Image of landscapes in ancient water towns—Case study on Zhouzhuang and Tongli of Jiangsu Province. Chin. Geograph.Sc. 16, 371–377 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-006-0371-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-006-0371-0