Quality rating system will help preserve culture at tourist sites

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism was established in 2018 to better plan and regulate the country's cultural and tourism development. However, culture and tourism have been tandem concepts long before they were brought together in governmental structure.

After all, without its unique culture and history, why would tourists come?

However, many Chinese people once complained that some tourist areas that are supposed to represent the nation's diverse cultures in different regions look too similar.

Every place, every city, has its own cultural characteristics that have been shaped by history, based on how local people have lived alongside specific geographic conditions, resources and other elements.

If these characteristics are mimicked or even duplicated in other places merely to boost tourism, they cease to be unique.

In the upcoming quality rating system of (national-level and provincial-level) leisure street blocks for tourism, which is set by the ministry, several points deserve our particular attention.

Managers of tourism in these street blocks are urged to explore cultural characteristics and integrate them into different tourism experiences. Specific symbols should be displayed on each of these streets to showcase their unique cultural landscape.

Exhibitions of intangible cultural heritages－including local festivals as well as performances, foods and products that depict a city's traditional lifestyle and folklore－are also required in the rating system.

The impending implementation of the system reflects the trend in recent years of highlighting cultural heritages. We have seen a systematic plan to enhance their importance in the country's overall development, particularly after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Archaeologists, historians and cultural heritage experts now have more say in the planning of tourism areas, which used to be dominated by architects, artists and urban planners.

A project developing a historical neighborhood into a tourism area should be complex and requires interdisciplinary research instead of fully relying on opinions from one field. It cannot be treated as a pure business.

Consequently, in many recent projects for tourism development, a principle of minimum intervention was the standard during renovations of old structures. With stronger support from national policies, many of our once "impractical ideas" can now be realized.

The basic ideas are to provide strong protection of an original culture and improve a tourist area's environment and service facilities, not to create a new look that follows certain popular elements in traditional culture.

Suzhou in Jiangsu province is a good example. The ancient gardens, which are UNESCO World Heritage sites, are not the only reason tourists go there. When you wander around the ancient streets, you can see they are renovated, but the old look of the bricks and tiles remain. Furthermore, you can see the local people's traditional lifestyle in the communities.

Authenticity is the key. When real history is there, tourists will naturally come.

If culture is the soul, tourism is the body. We don't want a body without a soul, nor a soul without a body. How to revitalize traditional Chinese culture through tourism is a focus for us researchers and conservators of the heritages.

Apart from tourism spots in cities, such as the leisure streets in historical neighborhoods, the next step is to focus on how to turn rich cultures in rural areas into popular destinations.

In the past, developing tourism in villages was often left to real estate developers or tourism companies. When villagers moved to new residential communities, certain aspects were duplicated in each place.

But going forward, I think scholars of history from colleges and research institutes will participate more often in such development and scientifically draft their tailored plans to respect local culture. Current emphasis on rural vitalization in our country gives many opportunities for exploration.

He Yun'ao is a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a professor at the School of History of Nanjing University.

Wang Kaihao contributed to this story.