Research Of Social Space Change Of Ancient Town Zhouzhuang Under The Background Of Tourism Development

Tourism is a complicated social phenomenon involving economic, social cultural andenvironment. It gets more and more attention with the expansion of the scale of globaltourism since WWII. The Research of tourism impact began in the1960s at Englishcountries, with three areas of economy, social culture and environment, gradually becomethe core content and hot issues in tourism geography research. Social-cultural impact oftourist refers to value system, custom, individual behavior, family relationships, lifestyle,security level, moral guidance, communication, traditional etiquette, social structure changein tourism destination.There are vast, intact, rich traditional culture connotation and historical and culturalinformation China’s ancient town, ancient town tourism has become of great significancetourism type. Along with the development of the tourism industry, social space of ancienttown changes greatly with increasing employment opportunities, improve livingenvironment and massive influx of floating population who travel, work and live in ancienttown, influencing man-earth relationship, social cultural change and sustainabledevelopment of tourism industryThis study choose Zhouzhuang a typical Jiangnan water town as a case, fromperspective of tourism geography, social geography, using new theory of social space, andmethod of geography, sociology and anthropology, analysis population flow and the changeof social structure, change process of residential, commercial and recreational space,explore body type of social space and social relations, interaction mechanism of socialrelations and social space, reveal the general rule of time-space transformation of socialrelations and social space.Based on this, the research content follows: the first chapter is an introduction, mainlyexplains the research background, questions, content, framework and methods, puts forwardthe characteristics and innovation in this study. The second chapter population flow andsocial structure change, analysis changing process of residents, floating population and thetourists, contrasts social structure changes since tourism development. The third chapter the changes of residential, commercial and recreational space, understand land use inside andoutside the ancient town and the building, analysis the history change of living, business andrecreation space, concludes new type of social space since tourism development. The fourchapter interaction of social relations and social space, explores body type of social spaceand social relations since tourism development, describes the interaction of the socialrelations and social space, namely the spatial dependence of the social relations and therelationship habit of social space. The five chapter time-space transformation of socialrelations and social space, analysis four types of time-space transformation of social spaceand social relations deeply. The sixth chapter is the conclusion of this study, refines theconclusions of this study, discuss the core problem and the development direction, pointesout the deficiencies of this study at the same time.The basic conclusions of this research:(1) immigration flow into Zhouzhuang ancienttown has experienced three stages: scattered coming early, mid-continue to increase, andthe recent relatively stable, visitors rose up year by year, due to SARS hit2003, tourism wassuppressed, and recovery rapidly in2004, rising steadily, local residents quantity is stable.Social structure show that younger population structure and ease of aging degree, Familyintergenerational structure present a tendency of simplification, solitary family and thesecond generation have increased, three generations and four generation mixed family havedecreased. Occupational structure is varied, family income comes from the tourism industrymore than half, most of income level concentrated in between1001-5000Yuan.(2)Characteristics, type and function of buildings in Zhouzhuang have changed. Modernhouses increased gradually from internal to the periphery, recreation spaces developed fast,scope of reserve expanded in historical town, recreation place increased. New social spacehas formed as tourists, foreign and local residents exchanged, worked and lived together,they are divided into seven types: virtual space, sacred space, historical cultural space, folkculture space, culture creative space, recreational space, daily life space and so on, each typehas its own atmosphere, main body and social relations.(3) There are government,developers, tourists, local residents and immigrants, artists, etc, different space body playsdifferent role, exert influence social space differently. There are many social relationships:master-guest relationship, guest-guest relations, traditional kinship, neighborhood relations,friendship, marriage, etc., and employment relationship of boss presence or absence,teacher-pupil relationship, family relationship, homeplace-baced employment orcooperation relationships and organization relationship caused by tourism industry. Different types of social spaces has different social relations, spatial dependence of the social relationsand the relationship habit of social space, and there are different dominant form, such ascapital, power, and technology, knowledge, stories and art, beliefs, customs and life.(4)Interacts between social relations and social space produce time-space transformation whichcan be divided into four types. Type I, the same body produces different social relations indifferent social space with the passage of time. Type II, the same body uses time to realizethe transformation of social relations flexible in the same social space. Type III, partitionand reasonable organization in the same social space produce more kind of space and formdiverse social relations. Type IV, different body and its relationship lead to transformation ofthe same social space.This study provides a new perspective and methods to reveal the mechanism of tourismsocial and cultural impact, which expands the theories and methods system of tourismgeography and deepen the breadth and depth of the research content, promotes integrationof tourism geography and the related subjects such as sociology, cultural science andanthropology. It also provides scientific guidance in Chinese traditional ancient towntourism destination development and planning, protection and inheritance of culturalheritage in practice, so the harmonious man-earth relationship in ancient town will beguided, controlled and created, and promote the sustainable development in the ancienttowns.