This study takes the central urban area of Zhengzhou City as its research object, integrating remote sensing imagery, POI data, and OSM road network data. It employs kernel density functions and precise identification rules to accurately classify land use functional types, combining various spatial statistical methods and location entropy analysis to explore the aggregation and diffusion characteristics of urban functional land use and the patterns of functional succession from 2012 to 2022. The research findings indicate: 1) The evolution of land use types exhibits significant differentiation and hybridization characteristics. 2) There is a lack of synchrony between functional spatial expansion and construction land expansion. 3) The restructuring of functional spaces exhibits differentiated patterns of aggregation and dispersion. 4) The evolution of dominant functions reflects a parallel trend toward specialization and diversification.
Scientific and technological innovation plays a leading and supportive role in the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI). However, institutional and cultural differences among participating countries may exert potential impacts on their knowledge collaboration. This study employs social network analysis and exponential random graph model to investigate the structural dynamics of transnational knowledge collaboration networks across 65 BRI countries from 2016 to 2021, with particular focus on the mechanisms through which institutional and cultural factors operate. The results indicate: 1) The intensity and scale of knowledge cooperation among BRI countries have continuously increased, forming a "core-semi-periphery-periphery" structure and differentiating into two stable communities: a Central Asia-Eastern Europe cluster and a Southeast Asia-West Asia cluster. 2) The network demonstrates clustering tendencies and self-organizing characteristics, significantly influenced by institutional and cultural environments. 3) In terms of institutional proximity, countries sharing similar economic, political, and legal systems are more likely to collaborate. Regarding cultural proximity, a shared language fosters cooperation, with the influence of an official language exceeding that of a spoken language.
In the digital era, videogame has been further globalized through Internet and network facilities. Different from the globalization of other cultural products, videogames no longer follow the linear conduction of traditional international trade, but form a non-linear product life cycle that relies on the cooperation of developers, publishers/distributors, and consumers from different regions all around the world. Based on the perspective of the pop culture industry, which is the point of economic geography and cultural geography, the study combines methods of following the digital and visual methodology in the field of human geography, taking the Dutch indie game--Rusty Lake as an example that originates from a two-people game studios but has gone global nowadays, tracking and analyzing its globalization process, drawing the following conclusions: 1) The production of Rusty Lake cannot be realized without the acceptance and encouragement of indie games in Europe, as well as the international and globalized digital platforms, reflecting the significance of globalized production environment and producers' creativity and independence. 2) In the aspect of cultural representations, Rusty Lake's borrowing from mainstream culture and the nature of its counterculture exemplifies the inclusiveness of videogames, showing the possibility of multicultural coexistence and cultural diffusion, no matter it is intentional or not. 3) In the process of global circulation, the rise of virtual platform provides a convenient way for the distribution of indie games and breaks the boundaries of space. 4) Video gamers' behaviors of playing videogames indicate their dual identities as consumers and producers.
As a significant manifestation of flexible employment, urban street vending poses complex challenges for spatial governance, requiring a delicate balance between livelihood needs and urban management objectives. In the context of the national strategic emphasis on standardizing and developing flexible employment, there is a growing need to explore the regulatory mechanisms of vending spaces in highly populated and institutionally complex urban villages. Based on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), this study adopts qualitative research methods to examine the vendor space on Xiajiao South Road in Guangzhou as a representative case of an urban village vending zone. Through in-depth interviews and non-participant observation, the research deciphers the game relationships and interactions among multiple stakeholders in the process of vending space formation, thereby revealing the underlying mechanisms of such spaces in an urban village context. The findings indicate that: 1) Both human and non-human actors play crucial roles in shaping the vending landscape. 2) The successful formation and sustained development of the vending space on Xiajiao South Road are largely attributable to its embeddedness within local community interests. 3) Key factors contributing to the healthy and orderly development of the vending space include appropriate decentralization of governance power, active public participation, and multi-stakeholder collaborative governance.
Spatial justice is of great significance to maintain and protect the interests of each community tourism participants. Taking Baixiangju community in Chongqing as a case, this paper discusses the processes and mechanisms of community tourism participation in the game and negotiation based on different dimensions of spatial justice. The results show that the game and negotiation between residents and tourists in the dimension of spatial production justice is the boundary game between natural living space and tourism consumption space; Under the dimension of spatial allocation and spatial value justice, the game and negotiation between "participation-benefit" residents and "resistance-rights protection" residents revolve around the heterogeneity of economic benefit distribution and the value difference of community function positioning; Under the dimension of spatial power and spatial procedural justice, residents and governments have realized an ethical shift from resistance to collaboration based on the reconstruction of governance power and the reconstruction of procedural legitimacy; The whole game and consultation process presents a triple logical evolution of the transformation of "social living space" and "spatial social structure", the transformation of tourism activities into tourism formats, and the evolution of residential communities into tourism communities.
Promoting the coordinated development of manufacturing intelligentization and greenization is an important approach to achieve high-quality development of the manufacturing sector. Based on the establishment of the coordinated development between manufacturing intelligentization and greenization, this paper uses the coupling coordination degree model to measure the coordinated development of manufacturing intelligentization and greenization in China from 2010 to 2021, and explores the source and driving factors of the spatial differentiation of coordinated development with the help of Dagum Gini coefficient and geographical detector. The results show that: 1) From the perspective of measurement results, during the observation period, the level of coordinated development between manufacturing intelligentization and greenization in China has generally continued to rise, undergoing an evolution from a stage of mild imbalance to a stage of primary coordination. 2) From the perspective of spatial differentiation and origin, the coordinated development between manufacturing intelligentization and greenization showed an unbalanced pattern of "eastern leading and central and western catching up'' and the overall difference eased over time. The inter-regional difference is the primary source of the overall difference, especially between the eastern and central regions. 3) From the perspective of driving factors, the spatial differentiation of the coupled and coordinated development between intelligentization and greenification in China's manufacturing industry is influenced by various factors.
The symbiotic relationship between tourism development of provincial capitals and surrounding cities is a noteworthy issue in tourism geography. Is there a phenomenon of "dark under the light" or "bright under the light" between the two? By using the methods of primacy ratio, symbiosis theory, and optimal parameter geographic detector, this paper verifies this phenomenon based on related data of tourism economy from 2000 to 2022. The results indicate that there is a generally phenomenon of "dark under the light" in the tourism development of provincial capitals and surrounding cities, and this phenomenon has a strengthening trend. Generally speaking, the phenomenon of "dark under the light" about tourism economy in Northeast China is most severe, while is relatively weak in the Middle China; on the contrary, there is a phenomenon of "bright under the light". The mechanism analysis shows that there are two symbiotic modes between Chinese provincial capitals and surrounding areas: "positive asymmetric reciprocal relationship"and"parasitic relationship", with"positive asymmetric reciprocal relationship"being the main mode. The"positive reciprocal relationship"indicates that the tourism development of the provincial capitals and surrounding cities generally constitutes a benign system, which is beneficial to both parties; while"asymmetric"indicates that this relationship benefits one party more than the other, and benefits the tourism development of provincial capitals more than the surrounding cities.
Transnational railways are vital instruments for enhancing infrastructure connectivity under the Belt and Road Initiative, contributing significantly to cross-border supply chain integration and economic development in countries along the corridors. This study examines the China–Indochina Peninsula transnational railway from three dimensions—transport efficiency, cost, and reliability—highlighting the evolving trade relations among participating countries. Based on the GTAP model, it simulates the economic impacts of the railway in three stages: partial connectivity, full operation, and network integration. Results show that the central corridor (China–Laos–Thailand) demonstrates superior performance in transport time and cost. The western corridor (China–Myanmar–Indian Ocean) offers strategic value by bypassing the Strait of Malacca. In terms of stability, the Laos–Thailand section outperforms others, while the eastern line (Vietnam) is hindered by limited political trust and weak people-to-people ties, and the western line faces significant disruption due to Myanmar's political instability. GTAP simulations suggest that railway development enhances GDP, social welfare, and terms of trade in countries along the route, while producing mixed spillover effects on non-participating economies. Furthermore, it facilitates industrial upgrading in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, enabling a shift from primary resource-based sectors toward processing and manufacturing industries. The study provides valuable policy implications for promoting the domestic–international dual circulation development pattern and advancing the opening-up of China's western border regions through transnational railway integration.
Based on the China Family Panel Studies (2012—2020), this study analyzes spatiotemporal patterns and determinants of household transport consumption inequality using an integrated "expenditure-burden-poverty" framework. Key findings indicate: 1) Between 2012 and 2020, urban and rural households exhibited marked increases in transport expenditure, burden rates, and poverty rates. While transport expenditure equity improved, transport burden inequity intensified, with rural households showing significantly higher burden and poverty rates. 2) Low-income families exhibited a"low expenditure–high burden"paradox, as transport poverty shifted toward disadvantaged groups. 3) Spatially, transport expenditure, burden, and poverty rates followed a distinct "western high-eastern low" pattern. Western regions consistently showed higher values, with rural transport poverty exceeding 20% in the southwest. 4) Household income, age structure and railway density were critical determinants. Low-income and younger families, as well as those in rail-scarce areas, faced heavier burdens. Railway infrastructure demonstrated significant burden-reduction effects in western regions.
Regional digital-green synergy development represents a crucial pathway for cultivating new quality productivity. Systematically revealing the spatio-temporal evolution and driving mechanisms of this dual-transformation synergy provides a vital breakthrough for discovering regional high-quality development paths. Based on panel data from 278 cities, this study constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for digital-green synergy. Employing analytical methods including coupling models, Markov chains, Dagum-Gini coefficients, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we systematically analyze the spatial differentiation patterns, dynamic evolution trends, and multidimensional driving mechanisms of regional digital-green synergy in China from 2012 to 2022. The findings reveal that China's regional digital-green synergy development exhibits an unbalanced spatial distribution with higher levels in eastern and western regions compared to central regions, demonstrating significant spatial clustering characteristics. Through configuration analysis, three distinct development pathways are identified: financial and innovation with green energy efficiency leapfrogging, financial and innovation integrated with digital-industrial infrastructure, and financial and innovation driven by digital-industrial convergence incentives. The study confirms that while differentiated pathways exist for achieving high-level digital-green synergy, financial support and digital-green innovation emerge as common critical drivers. This research provides theoretical foundations and policy recommendations for optimizing regional digital-green synergy policy frameworks.
The tourism competitiveness of cities along the Grand Canal is one of the core indicators for measuring their potential for sustainable development. Grounded in amenity theory, this article constructed an evaluation system of culture, recreation space, environmental quality, reception services, transport accessibility and social life to evaluate the tourism competitiveness of 36 cities along the Grand Canal from 2012 to 2021. Then we explored its spatial-temporal evolution and regional differentiation with the methods of linear weighting, kernel density estimation, spatial pattern analysis, and the Theil index from the perspectives of municipal regions and cultural zones. Research has found that: 1) The tourism competitiveness of the Grand Canal has steadily improved in temporal evolution, but the overall level remains relatively low (0.2—0.4). The differences among six cultural zones are obvious. 2) The spatial pattern of tourism competitiveness exhibits a characteristic of "high in the north and south, low in the middle". Only node cities such as Langfang and Jiaxing show heterogeneous agglomeration characteristics in cultural zones. 3) The overall regional differentiation has narrowed, with the source of differentiation shifting to intra-regional contributions after 2018. Among these, the internal differences within the Beijing-Tianjin, Yan-Zhao, and Central Plains cultural zones are greater than those within the other three cultural zones.
The restorative function of ecotourism in providing restorative experiences for tourists has been widely recognized in academic literature. A critical research gap persists regarding the precise mechanism through which ecotourism's distinctive restorative experiences influence behavior by enhancing emotional connections between tourists and natural environments. This study takes Qingxiu Mountain in Nanning City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as the case study site. Grounded in the Cognition-Affection-Conation theory, we develop a comprehensive model examining how tourists' perceived restorativeness influences environmentally responsible behavior. Four principal findings emerge from the analysis: 1) Perceived restorativeness demonstrates a significant positive direct effect on environmentally responsible behavior. 2) Both environmental self-identity and environmental empathy function as independent mediators in the relationship between perceived restorativeness and environmentally responsible behavior. 3) These two mediators form a sequential mediation chain linking perceived restorativeness to environmentally responsible behavior. 4) Ecological value exhibits differential moderating effects.
The basic attributes of river basin are strongly compatible with the development trend of tourist destinations. Therefore, River basin thinking has an important guiding significance for the development of tourism destinations. Based on the concept and characteristics of river basin, this study extracts river basin thinking, combines its core ideas to construct the cognitive structure of tourism destinations, and forms the cognitive path of tourism destinations under the river basin thinking. The results show that: 1) River basin thinking is a thinking mode with core elements dominating, space-time integration and compound ecosystem as the core viewpoints. 2) Under the river basin thinking, tourist destinations take the theme as the core and the time and space as the perspective, presenting serialized organizational structure, spatial structure with integrity and extensibility, and complex ecosystem structure. 3) The cognitive path of tourism destinations under the river basin thinking is formed by three parts: comprehensive utilization of themes, integration of spatio-temporal scale and ecological regulation within system. This study innovatively puts forward the river basin thinking, in order to provide new ideas and new perspectives for the development of tourist destinations, and promote the transformation, upgrading and renewal of tourism destination research and practice.
Amid growing interest in the psychological benefits of tourism, this study explores how red tourism serves as a cultural healing mechanism that fosters individual self-transcendence. Drawing on tourism therapy theory and employing grounded theory methodology, we conducted in-depth interviews with 21 participants who recently engaged in red tourism and experienced personal distress. Through a three-stage psychological transformation: "vexed mind–healed mind–recovered mind", the study uncovers how red tourism facilitates the emotional and cognitive shift from life frustration to personal growth. Findings indicate that red tourism activates a multidimensional awe experience, which includes shock and solemnity, admiration and reverence, as well as reflection and introspection. This experience emerges through the combined influence of three key scene elements: the physical environment, the cultural atmosphere, and social interaction. Awe serves as a core emotional mediator that connects scene stimuli with cognitive restructuring and prosocial behavioral intentions, ultimately leading to self-transcendence. This emotional journey is not a passive reaction but a dynamic process in which individuals reconstruct meaning, reaffirm their values, and develop a renewed sense of purpose in life. The study builds a theoretical model of "Perceived Dilemmas–Scene Activation–Self-Transcendence, " highlighting the mediating role of awe in the transformation from self-centeredness to collective orientation. Practically, the study proposes strategies at macro (target market positioning), meso (scene design), and micro (emotional-behavioral intervention) levels to support red tourism's shift from ideological education to deep emotional healing. These insights offer both theoretical advancement and practical pathways for designing transformative tourism experiences.
Revealing the experience mechanism and meaning writing of primary and secondary school students on red study tours can provide theoretical references for the internal optimization of red study tour experiences.The research, which is based on the theory of "Rite of Passage" and takes "Go on a study tour with‐Chairman Mao" as a care study, dissects the process of primary and secondary school students' red study tours through qualitative research.The results show that: 1) The red study tours for primary and secondary school students are essentially composed of a process of deconstructing the daily state through rituals, generating experiences beyond the threshold of daily life, and writing multiple meanings that return to daily life. 2) In the separation stage, driven by motivations such as a break from routine and the acquisition of cultural knowledge, students embark on the study tour. 3) The liminal stage include situation reversal, connection between people and the place, and integration of study tours. 4) The aggregation stage is manifested as the writing of multiple meanings after returning to daily life.
Geotourism has been increasingly recognized as a vehicle for sustainable development, yet little is known about how visitors' experiences transform into active behavioral support for sustainable practices, especially in the context of UNESCO Global Geoparks. This study investigates the formation path of visitors' behavioral support intention for destination sustainable practices, conceptualized as action-oriented willingness to participate in protection, advocate responsible practices, and engage in planning. Drawing on Pine and Gilmore's 4Es framework, this study construct and test a model linking geotourism experiences (education, esthetics, entertainment, escapism) to support intention for destination sustainable practices through pride, place attachment and subsequent engagement.The data were collected from 590 visitors to a UNESCO Global Geopark located in Henan Province, China, through a random intercept survey method. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized relationships, and independent sample t-tests were used to examine differences between respondents aware and unaware of the site's UNESCO designation. The results indicate that all four experiential dimensions significantly enhance visitors' pride, place attachment, and engagement. Moreover, respondents aware of the UNESCO certification reported significantly higher levels of experience quality, emotional connection, engagement, and behavioral support intention than those unaware.The study contributes to the literature in three ways. Conceptually, it introduces and operationalizes support intention for destination sustainable practices as a distinct construct, extending prior work that focused primarily on passive compliance intentions.
The activation and utilization of cultural heritage are crucial components of the revitalization of Chinese culture and integral elements of tourism landscapes. Using national key cultural heritage sites in the northwest region of China as a case study, this research employs spatial analysis methods such as kernel density estimation and standard deviation ellipses, combined with qualitative approaches derived from landscape genetics, to identify and analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of cultural heritage tourism landscapes in the northwest region. The results indicate that cultural heritage exhibits an overall spatial distribution pattern characterized by "dense in the east and sparse in the west, " oscillating along a northwest-southeast axis, with its center of gravity shifting in relation to social evolution. Based on the biological DNA analogy, the constructed framework of cultural heritage tourism landscapes includes four core genes: historical transitions, core areas and diversification, temporality and continuity, and expansion and aggregation, forming a dynamic spatiotemporal genetic map. This study provides theoretical support and practical pathways for graded protection of cultural heritage, integrated cultural-tourism development, and regional collaborative governance, thereby advancing systematic recognition and efficient transformation of heritage values. Meanwhile, this study offers a new paradigmatic reference for geographical inquiries into related cultural heritage.
