Study On The Historical Geography Of Hot Spring Tourism In China

This article mainly researches on ancient hot spring tourism, using geography theory and method to describe and explain the development and evolution of ancient hot spring tourism and its elements, from a tempo-spatial dimension.Hot spring tourism in ancient times contains sightseeing aesthetics, health-care recuperation and recreation entertainment. Medical recuperation is the most characteristic function of hot spring tourism. Ancient hot spring tourism originated in Qin-han Dynasty and rapidly developed in Weijin and North-South Dynasty, during this period of time, the emperor and royal family were the main visitors which concentrated around the capital cities. Hot spring tourism reached the peak in Tang Dynasty and in Song Dynasty, the main visitors turned to the literati and scholar-bureaucrat, which made hot spring a synthetic action. After Ming Dynasty, hot spring became more and more popular among the nation and common.Hot spring resources are definitely the material foundation for hot spring tourism. China has a long history of using hot spring which could be found2500-3000years ago. The exploitation and utilization has a closely relationship with social development, and medical health care, agricultural and industrial production and tourism are the main ways for hot spring. With the rapid development of society, hot spring became more and more popular. The special development tendency of hot spring resources: from east to north, from central China to other places, more in east-north than west-north. The demand of society and regional development are the main factors which affect temporal-special distribution of hot spring resources.The landscapes of hot spring tourism are the objects of sightseeing for visitors which includehot spring sights and combinations Hot spring sights include source of hot spring, motion state of hot spring water, colors and biology of hot spring, etc. In ancient times, combinations hot spring sights contain hot spring itself, bonsai, plants and buildings. Hot spring also can be parts of the showplaces. There are several significant senses for us to learn from ancient people.Hot spring tourism destination is the special carrier of hot spring tourism. There are two special hot spring types, one for royal family and one for the public, which are totally different from each other on size and level. Hot spring The spatial structure of hot spring tourism destination can be divided into three rings: hot spring source and service facilities, hot spring settlements and the environments. The exploitation model for hot spring runs by government, the development processes contain original stage, primary stage, expanding stage, developing stage, declining stage and resuscitative stage. In space, it’s a process of hot spring tourism facilities and activities diffusing from inner circle layer to outer circle layer, taking hot springs as center. The tempo-spatial evolution of hot spring tourism destinations reflects the spatial diffusion of hot spring tourism activities. The characters of tempo-spatial evolution of hot spring show as: to the east and south, from north to south, closely couples with regional economy development level in space, and close to urban areas. The quality of hot spring resource, regional economy development level and government policies are the main factors that affect the temporal-special distribution of hot spring.Hot spring tourists are the main body of hot spring tourism. The emperor, the literati and scholar-bureaucrat, religionist and common people are four main types of hot spring visitors, from the upper class to the common people. Also, medical recuperation and sightseeing entertainment are main motivations of hot spring tourism. For the weather; autumn and winter are the main seasons for hot spring tourism. Health-care recuperation is the main reason for emperor and royal families that they usually stay longer than others; on the other side, entertainment is the main reason for the literati and scholar-bureaucrat which makes them stays shorter than the emperor; the hot spring tourism of the common is a combination of excursion and amusement of festival customs. Spatial area of ancient hot spring tourists was small scale, the spatial behavior of emperors presented as going to and fro capital city and hot springs, and the literati and scholar-bureaucrat was linear model.