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Ancient city walls are typical linear space elements of Beijing that represent the transformation of urban form over the past 800 years and have greatly influenced the memory of the entire city. However, recently, most of the walls have been torn down in the process of fast urbanization and old city renewal. The purpose of this paper is to focus on people’s cognition and evaluation of urban memory during this pull-down-and-preserve process.

A sample of 380 participants was investigated on a number of issues using questionnaires, including memory case reminders (stability, variability, temporality), emotional bonding with memory case (identity, dependence, authenticity), and socio-demographic variables (age, education, life experience, length of residence). The urban memory cognition model and attitude evaluation value model which were based on Likert scale were used to process the collected data.

In the three aspects of memory case reminders, stability and temporary elements can be most cognized, whereas variability elements are more difficult due to their change over time. As for emotional bonding with memory case, people show a high level of identification with the walls; the walls’ memory being passed down could enhance people’s memory when mentioning Beijing. Further, higher education groups consider the walls’ authenticity to be most important and are unwilling to accept the outcome of walls-ruins parks; older adults have tolerant attitudes to the ruins parks.

This study could not only contribute to the excavation of urban memory, but also strengthen citizens’ sense of identity and cohesiveness, thus shaping the spirit and culture of the city. Some findings could provide applicable guidelines for urban heritage protection and contribute a new perspective on the interrelationship between people and their physical surroundings.

City wall is an important symbol of ancient Chinese cities with unique geographical and cultural characteristics. Thus, the preservation of this historic landmark is considered significantly important. However, numerous residential construction activities and changes in ecological environment have destructed a great portion of the city walls in recent years. This study looks into the preservation of the ancient city walls from the systematic perspective and in line with the actual characteristics of Longdong Region to provide guideline measures for the protection and restoration of such landmark. Cognition and preservation are adopted extensively to investigate the specific situation of and the factors that influence the ancient city walls in this region. Preservation strategies for the city walls, including the “Axis-Point” system, planning control, and authenticity readability, are presented. The ancient city walls in Longdong Region can be preserved by protecting the entire region, the city, and the main wall body. The systematic method and preservation strategies at the “macro perspective,” “medium perspective” and “micro perspective” levels can solve the preservation problems of the ancient city walls in Longdong Region effectively.

Tourists’ destination image is crucial for visiting intentions. An ancient capital with diverse characteristics is an important component of China’s urban tourism. The purpose of this paper is to address the following questions: what are the differences and commonalities of the perceived destination image of ancient capitals? What makes the difference of the perceived destination image in these cities? Aside from the exterior factors, are there internal factors of cities that influence tourists’ cognition and perception of destination image?

The comment text data of Baidu tourism website were used to determine the differences in the destination images of China’s four great ancient capitals: Beijing, Xi’an, Nanjing and Luoyang. ROST content mining and semantic network analysis were for differences and commonalities of the perceived destination image, and correlation analysis was used to explore the internal factors of cities that influence tourists’ cognition and perception of destination image.

Though the same as ancient capital, the four ancient capitals’ images are far apart; historical interests are the core of tourism experience in ancient capital city; image perception is from physical carrier, history and culture, and human cognition; tourist’ destination affect of ancient capital is most from its history and culture; protecting identity and maintaining daily life are crucial for ancient city tourism.

Previous studies on ancient capitals have focused on the invariable identity of ancient capitals’ destination images, and left a gap on determining from where the invariable identity comes in general and how much it influences destination image. This gap was addressed in this study, by analyzing the destination images of four ancient capitals in China as cases. In this way, this study provided reference to the other ancient cities worldwide.

The former residences of historical figures are typical landscape elements of historic districts, which are characterised by the styles of these residences and spiritual historical figures cultures. The purpose of this paper is to determine how the former residences respond once the historical figures living there have passed.

The history of human culture and progression of urban construction – which are submerged in societal transformation – is recorded for old Beijing city. Narrative space theory is used and methods such as a content analysis, map overlay and the Geographic Information System are employed to analyse the selected 300 former residences of historical figures in old Beijing city.

The results are as follows: the political setting played a key role in the evolution process, three political narrative areas in the inner city and one cultural narrative area in the outer city form the narrative spatial structure of the former residences of historical figures, “government construction” and “resident construction” are the main reasons for the loss and destruction of narrative spaces and ordinary life is an important channel for showcasing the history of former residences. The narrative spaces of these residences carry double histories, namely, the development of human history and of city construction.

Different from former studies that focus on the preservation of the single historical building, this study explores the integral logic of historic buildings in the whole city through narrative space theory to get a combination of culture and space.

Most of the native citizens in the UAE live in public or private single-family houses. Given the tremendous cost of developing this type of housing and the inability of providing single-family houses to cover all the current and future needs for public housing, high-rise residential buildings seem to offer an alternative. But the question is; does this type of housing suit the local communities in the UAE, especially in light of the failure of the previous western experiences?. Through addressing this question, the research proposes an approach towards a community-oriented design for high-rise residential buildings in the UAE.

The research first investigated the reasons behind the community-relevant shortcomings of the traditional high-rise residential developments in the West. Afterwards, it briefly reviewed the status quo of the community-relevant considerations in the design of the recently built high-rise residential buildings in the UAE, where it has been found that little concern has been devoted to the community needs. In an effort to find an answer to this problem, the research examined four recent design experiences as examples for the current universal efforts to design community-responsive high-rise residential developments. Some conceptual approaches were derived from these experiences that are envisaged to help reach an approach for the case of the UAE. Nonetheless, because of the unique social and cultural traits of the UAE native society one cannot rely on these global conceptual approaches alone. Instead, the research proposes an approach that, while benefiting from the relevant global experiences, is chiefly pivoted on the vertical reconfiguration of the idea of the ‘fareej’ as the smallest unit in the residential urban context both traditionally and in the future official urban plans in the UAE.

Beijing is becoming one of the top global destinations but the number of international tourists to the city has been declining recently. By analyzing inbound tourists experience in Beijing and identifying the relationship between the destination attributes and satisfaction, the purpose of this paper is to provide important insights into city tourism research and city destination development.

This study used an online deductive approach and collected 1,254 reviews on TripAdvisor referencing major attractions in Beijing. This study used the Leximancer software to analyze the content of the reviews and to identify the underlying relationships.

The results showed that international tourists’ experience in Beijing can be reflected via five aspects: attractions, city, transportation, service and people. The results further indicated that the major concern of international tourists visiting Beijing related to the service quality on site.

This study explored inbound tourists experience in Beijing using an online deductive approach. Practical implications were provided with respect to improving international tourists experience in Beijing and enhancing their satisfaction and revisiting intentions.

China is among one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The massive land mass of China also means that the Chinese people are subject to weather extremes as well as topographical variety in a country which cuts across alpine heights, treacherous deserts, lush valleys, dusty plains and lengthy rivers. With these weather extremes as the backdrop, it is crucial for the Chinese people to develop appropriate environmental control techniques for their dwellings as well as to ensure the structural integrity of their buildings. This paper discusses the protection, heating, anti‐seismic and dampness techniques developed and implemented in ancient China. It also documents the measures taken by the ancient Chinese to ensure the structural integrity of their buildings. The examples highlighted in this paper suggest that the building science principles adopted in ancient China remain relevant in the construction industry today.

The war in Iraq, the threat of terrorism and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic have made international business activities increasingly difficult and risky. The worldwide economic downturn and slow growth in domestic markets are forcing companies to depend more than ever on overseas trade. SARS emerged in China in November 2002 and has spread to 26 countries. The SARS epidemic has caused the most severe economic crisis in Southeast Asia since the wave of bank failures and currency devaluations that swept the region five years ago. The SARS epidemic has prompted health officials to implement travel advisories and restrictions, in order to defer nonessential travel to regions of Asia with large numbers of SARS cases. They are enforcing quarantine and isolation measures in major cities to try and limit the spread of SARS. The President of the United States has signed an executive order adding SARS to the list of communicable diseases that can be quarantined. A major disruption in China could paralyze just‐in‐time supply chains and cause an economic crisis for retailers and other businesses worldwide. The SARS epidemic has caused many economists to drastically reduce their economic‐growth forecasts for Asia. New infectious diseases, such as SARS, can emerge and easily travel around the globe, infecting less‐resilient hosts and mutating because of the influence of viruses and bacteria in their new environment. Health officials are even more concerned about the pandemic disaster that hasn’t happened, but may still. However, the SARS epidemic has created positive economic benefits for some companies.

The purpose of this paper is to identify dominant scams against domestic tourists in popular tourism cities in China. There are two questions of concern: what types of scams do domestic tourists experience and are the patterns of scams different between the capital and regional cities? The social situation framework was employed to interpret the outcomes.

A content analysis facilitated by Leximancer software was applied to 102 Chinese travel blogs reporting experiences of being scammed in Beijing, Hangzhou, Xi’an, Sanya and Guilin. Clear themes and concepts emerged from the analysis of these travel reviews and differences in scamming patterns between Beijing and regional cities were identified.

The most frequently reported scams in the capital Beijing were linked to the chaotic environment at tourist attractions and the misbehaviours of tour agents. By way of contrast scams involving manipulating the weight and quality of products purchased were more common in regional cities. The differences between Beijing and other locations may lie in the greater monitoring of fraudulent practices in the capital. Additionally, the role of shills (confederates of the scammer) was highlighted in many of the scams studied.

Scams include a slightly less serious but still troublesome set of problems accompanying major crimes and assaults. Rare research specifically focussed on tourist scams despite substantive work discussing crimes against tourists as general. Implications of the present study lie in enriching the literature on scams against tourists. The analysis of scams as a special type of social situation proved to be insightful in directing attention to facets of the interaction thus providing connections to previous work and directions for further study. It is also promising to be developed to inform strategic approaches to creating a safer tourism environment in cities.

To establish a stimulating traffic model of ring road systems and study the traffic effects of ring road in the center of a large city, including the influence in vehicle's travel time and distance.

Different from the ring road systems in the west, Beijing and other big cities in China build ring roads in city center. However, it seems that those systems do not work because the traffic problem still exists when the number of cars in the city increased quickly in past five years. According to the real geographic topology network structure around Er Huan road in Beijing city center, a simplified simulated traffic model was built. Then, two indices of traffic effects, average travel time and path length were studied by comparing the two models with or without ring road.

According to the simulation, although a high‐speed ring road shortens the travel time, it isolates the nature road network system and increases travel distance in the city center. Furthermore, it is uneconomic building a ring road to relieve traffic jams.

Only Er Huan road in Beijing traffic system was simulated in the model. A more complicated ring road system needs to be developed.

A useful model for optimizing traffic system with ring roads, and providing a support for doubting the strategy of developing ring road in city center district in many cities of China.

This is a new way by establishing the simulation model to analyze the scheme of ring road traffic systems. Furthermore, advice for current situation are concluded and it is useful for optimizing current traffic system.