ABSTRACT
This book is about tourism in China and the context within which Chinese tourism develops—a context that is formed by a wish to lift many millions out of poverty, a need for economic growth, a political system that is in transition with a dismantling of statism to form a socialist market system with a Chinese perspective, and a culture still imbued with Confucian values yet influenced by Buddhism, Taoism and Maoism. To concentrate upon the purely touristic without reference to these wider frameworks would lead to an incomplete understanding of tourism development in China today. Such developments are seen ‘on the ground’, and thus this book concentrates upon destination developments and policies with reference to tourism.
