The New Transportation And The Transformation Of Tourism In Circum-bohai Region(1861-1937)

Tourism refers to the activity in which people move from one place to another,and transportation connects tourists with their destinations.The range and efficiency of transportation not only restrict people's traveling space but also their ways of traveling.Transportation is the dominant factor which determines the traffic.The transformation of tourism,characterised by the progress from natural force such as manpower and animal power to machines,enabled people to get beyond the natural limit of traffic capacity.Since then,it has been possible for people to massively move from one place to another,which greatly changed people's lifestyles.The mechanization of transportation,or in other words,the modernization of transportation is a requirement for the transformation of tourism.The innovations in transportation are not only significant technologically,but also socially,because they had a great influence on people's lifestyles,patterns of behaviour and social mobility.Tourism has been progressing from ancient times to modern times.Before modern times,tourism was merely a personal activity,while in modern times,tourism became a social activity.In the 1860 s,the three ports in Circum-Bohai Region opened for trade,and new transportation represented by ships and railways began to be introduced into this region,which not only brought revolutionary improvement to people's trevel life,but also provided an important opportunity for the reform of various elements of the tourism industry.This dissertation concerns the influence of the rise of modern railways and ships on the transformation of the tourism in modern Circum-Bohai Region.It is arranged in five parts.The first part is the background of the transformation of tourism in Circum-Bohai Region.In the middle of the 19 th century,three cities in Circum-Bohai Region,Tianjin,Yantai,and Yingkou,opened their ports for trade and started the process of modernization passively.The three ports in Circum-Bohai Region began to trade with western countries.The closed and conservative natural economy in China was disintegrating gradually.Capitalistic industry and commerce began to develop.A new transportaion system consisting of ships and railways was initially established in the region.Stimulated by the changes of economic and trade structure,traffic conditions,mining and other specific factors,the degree of urbanization in Circum-Bohai Region has been further improved.In the process of social transformation,new social strata such as new bourgeoisie and new intellectual groups gradually came into being in this region.The system of working hours derived from the modern industrial society separated the urban population's working time from leisure time.Under the impact of this trend,people's life of leisure travel has taken on a new look.The second part focuses on the research about the shipping and the expansion of tourism space,that is,the beginning of tourism reform in North China.At the end of the 19 th century and the beginning of the 20 th century,coastal areas such as Tsingtao,Dalian and Weihai in Bohai Bay opened their ports one after another.To satisfy the demands of foreigners living in China,the function of summer resort of these coastal cities was explored.Systemic transportation networks of shipping lines connected northern China with southern regions and even the whole world.For westerners,cities in Circum-Bohai Region became an ideal summer vacation “enclave”.The international air lines made it more convenient for more westerners to come to China to survey,take vacations,do business and preach.Meanwhile,more and more Chinese started to learn western culture,and to view the whole world with an open mind.The opening of shipping directly promoted the development of modern inbound and outbound tourism.The third part illustrates that the development of railway service system made more tourist destinations available to visitors.The railway,which connects the scattered landscapes along the route and constructs a linear landscape corridor for tourists,made the traditional tourist destinations located in the linear corridor more attractive.While the traditional tourism space is constantly changing,the railway also drives the growth of new tourism space.At the end of the 19 th century,when the westerners were building roads,Beidaihe,a well-known summer resort,was identified by the Qing Government as “the summer resort for people all over the world”.In 1917,in order to facilitate the communication between Chinese and western people while avoiding the summer heat,the Beining Railway Bureau added seaside branch roads,vigorously promoted Beidaihe's railway tourism,and participated in the construction ofBeidaihe's seaside,which gradually transformed Beidaihe from unknown geographical space into a famous summer resort at home and abroad.In the 1930 s,Beining Railway,motivated by profit,devoted itself to developing new tourist space along the line such as Xingcheng Hot Spring and Ningyuan.During the period of the Republic of China,all railways issued travel guides as the media of publicity,which reflected the changing law of the spatial structure of tourist destinations,that is,the spatial sequence of tourist destinations developed from linearity to reticular,and the tourist space showed a trend of transferring from inland areas to coastal areas.The fourth part states the popularization of tourism caused by the new transportation.The new transportation is advanced in the technical level,which has promoted people's consciousness to germinate gradually.The government officials regarded tourism as a significant method to develop passenger transport,and adopted a variety of measures to popularize tourism,making more and more ordinary people,especially the new intellectual groups,start to travel around during vacations.Many typical travel modes,such as academic travel,honeymoon travel and conference travel emerged.It is worthy to be mentioned that academic travel has become an important new method of education.Honey moon also symbolizes a modern lifestyle for new intellectual groups.And sightseeing has become an important part of annual meetings of academic groups.And modern trasportation departments provided great support for these new tourism activities.The last part holds that the establishment of China Tourism Service symbolized the formation of new modes of transportation and tourism.The new modes of transportation,especially the railways,had such an essential impact on tourism that they had given birth to the modern tourism.Modern tourism driven by new transportation and relevant departments was oriented by the market and people's demands.Compared with inns in the traditional era,these inns had a leap of "quality" in both hardware facilities and management.Railway administrations paid great attention to the popularization of travel by railway.They issued advertisements via social media such as newspapers and magazines.Besides,they had organized several railway exhibitions.The China Tourism Service,which was affiliated to the railway administrations and provided professional service to visitors,marks the formation of tourism industry in China.Before the establishment of China Tourism Service,the railway administration played the role of organizing and developing tourism.