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| CORRIDOR HERITAGE: CONCEPT, THEORETICAL ORIGINS AND VALUE APPRAISAL |
| LI Fei1,2, SONG Jin-ping1,2 |
1. School of Geography and Remote Sensing Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
2. Research Center for Beijing Tourism Development, Beijing 100024, China |
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Abstract The corridor heritage plays an important role in cultural renaissance in China. The increasing concern of corridor heritage from the 21st century in China reflects the awareness of heritage tourism and cultural heritage protection. This paper aims to investigate the driving force of this phenomenon and the value appraisal of the corridor heritage. Heritage corridor, which combined recreation and tourism development with ecological restoration and cultural conservation, has come into being in the United States since the 1980s. A European cultural route is a title awarded to cultural routes recognized as significant throughout Europe by the concie of Europe. The authors develop the traditional theory of American heritage corridor and European cultural route and apply a new concept, corridor heritage, in Chinese context. Corridor heritage, in which many cultural, natural and intangible heritages distributed, could be waterway or land way with the shape of line or net. Based on the cultural features and natural resources, the author makes comparison between corridor heritage and the theoretical origins, emphasizes the necessity of research on the new concept, corridor heritage, and analyzes its meaning, value and functions. Corridor heritage can be the icons of cultural or national identity, so it can affect the forming of national spirit and the establishment of ideology. Geographically, it can extend across a great distance getting through regions and countries. It is not only an individual heritage, but also a heritage system with many cultural, natural and intangible heritages. Furthermore, the authors point out that we can appraise the value of Corridor Heritage from four aspects including cultural, political, economic and educational functions of it. Also, the four functions will promote the development of corridor heritage and help to take advantage of the great heritages. The research provides a new way to protect and develop the historical and cultural heritages in China. Finally, the authorsemphasizes that different from American green way, heritage corridor and European culture route, corridor heritage includes much more content. They also suggest that the further research should be done on corridor heritage studies.
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Received: 02 November 2008
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2010, Vol. 25 
