Characteristic block in big cities is a new urban spatial pattern and block economy model. Studying the evolution and driving mechanism of land use spatial pattern of characteristic blocks has important guiding significance to the optimization of urban spatial structure. This paper takes Chu River Han Street, Wuhan as an example, applies land use change index model and GIS analysis technology to examine its land use evolution process since its opening in 2011. This study also tries to reveal the mechanism. The results show that: (1) From 2011 to 2021, the change and transformation of land use in Chu River Han Street showed “rapid-to-stable” development. The land use for commercial services, transportation, tourism, and water area continued to expand. The land use for green space and other land continued to shrink. A road layout of “4 horizontals and 4 verticals”, a water area layout of “2 lakes and 1 river”, and a tourism land use pattern of “4 districts and 1 axis” were formed. (2) The functional pattern of Chu River Han Street has transformed from residential function to comprehensive service function including shopping, catering, leisure and entertainment, cultural experience, and senior living space, forming a spatial layout model with cultural tourism area as the core and public service area as the periphery. (3) As a typical landscape remodeled block, the evolution of land use spatial pattern of Chu River Han Street is the result of the interaction between human and land under the background of the optimization of the functional structure of big cities. Driven by internal and external factors such as resource endowment, location advantage, tourism market demand, and government policy guidance, it has become an urban tourism complex with industrial agglomeration and radiation effect. (4) Compared with traditional preserved historical blocks, landscape remodeled blocks have strong effects on promoting the surrounding areas, reflect more urban characteristics for viewing, and the evolution of land pattern is less affected by the historical environment. The development of the two types of blocks cannot be separated from the spatial carrier (land) and spatial pattern.

The cultural value of the scene has the function of gathering creative people and promoting the transformation of space under the shift of consumption pattern. Identifying the cultural value of scenes in historic blocks is conducive to promoting the spatial vitality as well as urban renewal development. Based on the theory of scenes and grounded theory, this paper identified the culture value of scenes on Pingjiang Road through empirical analysis. Then, it constructed a method of cultural value identification of scenes that is applicable to historic blocks. The results indicate that: (1) The charisma and traditionalism of Pingjiang Road are highlighted, forming a glamourous localized and experiential space. (2) The cultural value of scenes in historic blocks can be identified by 25 indicators in three dimensions, including legitimacy, theatricality, and authenticity. (3) Amenities in historic blocks cover three categories: natural landscape, culture, and consumer entertainment facilities. Amenities and environmental atmosphere constitute the “form” and “rhythm” of the scene respectively. Then, they are converted into “sense” through perception/cognition, consumption, and personal information processing, namely, individual emotional memory, and thus we can identify the cultural value of the scene. This paper expands the application of scene theory in historic blocks through the identification of scenes’ cultural values. It is also useful for measuring the differences between scene characteristics and planning orientation in Pingjiang historic block.

Based on tourism area life cycle theory, this study takes 9 historical streets in different tourism life cycles in Wuhan as the study areas, and explores the impact of residents’ identity in those areas on their tourism development intention through qualitative data analysis, and makes a comparative analysis of the streets in different life cycles. The results show that residents’ identity mainly influences their tourism development intention from the aspects of emotional factors, economic factors, social environmental factors, tourism development factors and cultural factors. With the combination between the identity strength (weak or strong) and the attitudinal intention (positive or negative) of tourism development, residents can be divided into four types of identity-intention types: “active advocates”, “traditional adherents”, “economic elites” and “non-participants”. In different historical streets with different stages of tourism area life cycle, the impact of residents’ identity on their tourism development intention is different. In the streets at participation and consolidation stage, “traditional adherents” are the majority; in the streets at development stage, “active advocates” are dominant; at the consolidation stage, there are both “active advocates” and “non-participants”, and the conflict between them is particularly intensive. Finally, according to the types and characteristics of residents at different stages of tourism area life cycle, some suggestions on promoting the development and protection of community tourism are put forward.

Historic districts preserve diverse urban cultures with the key material representation of cultural landscapes. Over the past 40 years, historic districts have undergone a large-scale regeneration and utilization for the rapid urbanization and industrialization. When historical districts turn into tourism attractions, symbolization has become the dominant logic of tourism development and space reconstruction. Adopting the semiotics and grounded theory, this study aims to analyze the expression of symbolic meaning and to delineate the symbol construction and its interpretation system in Qianmen Street with photographic data from Mafengwo, one of the main online tourist communities in China. The result shows that: various types of symbols represent Qianmen Street, including index symbols, architectural symbols, street symbols, and commercial symbols. The functional diversification and transformation of urban position serve as the specific scenario for symbol construction and interpretation, which involved multiple stakeholder groups and differ in ways of construction with different values of the symbols. Symbol interpretation requires tourist participation physically. The research indicates that the meaning has been accepted and interpreted correctly when tourists’ symbols match stakeholders’ symbols.

Visitor experience and experience value are the key areas for the development and research of historical and cultural districts. The Xiaohongshu App’s photographs of the Xinanli historical and cultural district were used as research data in this article. Qualitative research method was used to extract the value elements implied by the photos, and to construct the value-added path of tourists’ experience value with the gaze mental activity analysis framework. The research concluded three main findings. Firstly, tourists’ experience value of Xinanli historical and cultural district is reflected in three levels of functional value, hedonic value and symbolic value. The functional value is based on the six elements of tourism, and the hedonic value has the greatest potential in the value appreciation of the block. The long-term value addition of symbolic value is limited. Secondly, hedonic value and symbolic value can be added through touring experiences and visual choices in historic and cultural districts, which in turn indirectly enhance their functional value. These two paths are based on the analysis of the two paradigms of gaze: gaze-cueing paradigm and gaze-attention paradigm. Finally, the participating level of festivals, cultural performing activities and entertainment experiences is directly related to the hedonic value, while the symbolic value enhances the social prestige value mainly through behaviors such as visiting places and tasting stores. The visual symbolic image of a destination that is selected by visitors overshadows its historical symbolic image. Therefore, the research puts forward generalized practices from three perspectives, the functional value, the hedonic value and the symbolic value.

Historical and cultural blocks are not only important landmarks of urban culture, but also important resources for tourism development. They become important practical scenario for the integration of culture and tourism in the new era. Tunxi Old Street and Liyang Street are selected as representatives of traditional and reconstructed historical and cultural blocks, which are both located in Tunxi District, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, and adjacent to each other. From the perspective of semiotics, this paper constructs a theoretical framework for the integration of culture and tourism in historical and cultural blocks. Empirical analysis shows that both the traditional and reconstructed historical and cultural blocks have formed cultural and tourism symbols in six aspects: thematic position, culture and tourism value, spatial layout, physical carriers, business types and tourism service. The former is dominated by traditional cultural symbols, while the latter is dominated by modern tourism symbols; obvious differences exist between two types of historical and cultural blocks in their uniqueness, prominence, integration and adaptability of cultural and tourism symbols. The uniqueness of local culture and the adaptability to tourism development are the specific features respectively of the former and the latter blocks. This paper, thus, puts forward tourism-oriented paths in traditional historical and cultural blocks and culture-oriented paths in the reconstructed historical and cultural blocks. These two types of blocks should strengthen the symbolization of cultural resources, diversification of resource functions, integration of symbol space and presentation of cultural symbols, which consequently promotes the value of cultural products and the quality of tourism services, so as to achieve the sustainable development of historical and cultural blocks.

The characteristics of business formats in historical and cultural blocks are the embodiment of market law. Based on the survey data of Taiping District in Changsha, supplemented by relevant data of internet platform, this paper classifies commercial types of Taiping District in Changsha, analyzes the characteristics of the business formats from multiple perspectives, and discusses the influencing factors of those formats by using disordered multi-classification logistic regression. The results of this study are revealed as follows: (1) The business types of shops in historical and cultural blocks can be optimized into five categories: catering, shopping, accommodation, sightseeing and entertainment, and others, which contains fifteen sub-categories. (2) The horizontal spatial distribution of formats shows a phenomenon of flower arrangement distribution pattern in the scale of shops, and the diversification characteristics of pairwise combination of business formats. The vertical spatial distribution shows that the number of shops and types of business formats decrease from low level to high level, while the scale of shops increases from low level to high level. As the floors increase, the diversity of formats weakens whilst the centralization of formats intensifies. (3) The spatial agglomeration of formats shows the vertical distribution clustering phenomenon at the entrance and the end of streets, and the “agglomeration-differentiation” phenomenon of the scale of shops. (4) The scale of shop, the type of street and the representative level of collective memory have a significant effect on the types of the formats, the layout of beverage shops, snack shops, clothing shops, specialty shops and accommodation shops is significantly correlated with the type of street; the layout of specialty shops, jewelry shops and accommodation shops is significantly correlated with the scale of shop; the layout of clothing shops and entertainment shops is significantly correlated with the representation level of collective memory.

Daily leisure activities are the indispensable part of a healthy and happy life of the elderly. Taking Wuling District of Changde City as an example, this paper reveals the spatial and temporal law of the city elderly in accordance with the geospatial analysis method of demand, behavior and facilities. The analysis found that: (1) Puzzle and health activities are the main types of leisure activities for the urban elderly, and there are significant differences in the time allocation of leisure activities. The average time of puzzle activities is the longest, followed by health activities, and the average time of public welfare leisure activities is the shortest. (2) Outdoor leisure activities of the elderly are mainly concentrated in three time periods: 10:00, 15:00 and 19:00. The corresponding activity space is mainly concentrated in residential areas, nearby streets, urban squares, parks, etc. There is a significant type difference in the radius of the activity space. (3) The demands for leisure activities of the elderly and leisure behaviors based on the demand for leisure activities are highly correlated with the overall urban leisure facilities supply, among them, the matching degree between leisure activities and leisure facilities is the highest, followed by cultural activities, and finally physical fitness activities. Therefore, it is recommended that small and medium-sized cities should put more emphasis on the correlation among the demand, behavior and supply of facilities for daily leisure activities of the elderly, thus enhancing the construction of elderly-friendly cities and communities.