Sense of Place of Heritage Conservation Districts under the Tourist Gaze—Case of the Shichahai Heritage Conservation District

Abstract

The tourists gaze can deeply trigger the most real thoughts and feelings in tourists’ hearts. The sense of place of Heritage Conservation Districts (HCDs) under the tourist gaze takes a mental perception of tourists’ feeling and is an important factor in the connection between values protection and development. Famous heritage districts function as important signs, causing the formation of mental images and an emotional sense of belonging to the place in tourists. The present research aims to determine a suitable methodology for recognizing the sense of place of HCDs under the tourist gaze. This study used image-based interviews through the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) and examined sense of place factors in the Shichahai HCD of Beijing. The result shows that the sense of place in the Shichahai HCD consists of three important factors, the physical environment, immaterial environment, and activity experience. We tested these factors as determinants in a sense of place model of tourist selection and emotional state during travel, exhibiting substantial explanatory potential. This study supports the idea that the sense of place of the Shichahai HCD under the tourist gaze can be re-made, and provides novel methods for evaluating the value of HCDs.

1. Introduction

Behind the tangible material space of a city lies the cultural laws that affect its composition [1]. Their historical and cultural connotations and characteristic spaces can be gazed at, created, or reshaped in different forms. In the process of traveling, tourists look for characteristics that differentiate a place from other regions, and have a certain special fascination with tourist destinations and the material environments, immaterial environments, and experience activities that are different from their living environment. Emotional connection arises from such interactions. The tourist field is the specific situation and environment in which tourists have a tourist experience, which has a major impact on the generation, intensity, and structural characteristics of tourists’ sense of place [2].

As parts of the most attractive places in the city, Heritage Conservation Districts (HCDs) are gradually formed after a long historical period, including both the remains of historical objects and the continuation of the lives of residents in the area. Therefore, HCDs are an important part of urban historical and cultural resources, have outstanding group value, and are the main intermediary of local cultural heritage [3]. In China, HCDs are important components of sustainable heritage tourism [4] and have an extremely large tourism market. In 2018, the Regulation on the Protection of Famous Historical and Cultural Cities, Towns, and Villages (2018) specified that HCDs should have a certain scale, and described these districts as areas with ‘‘abundant cultural relics, the concentration of built heritage where can reflect the traditional pattern historical-style more completely and truly’’ [5]. Previous study of HCDs has identified the complex problem of how to balance the relationship between historic preservation and urban revitalization [6,7].

Naoi et al. (2011) asserted that HCDs are a comprehensive form of historical attraction with diverse features that visitors can gaze on, bringing tourists a unique tourism experience and tremendous economic value [8]. A substantial body of interdisciplinary academic literature has emphasized that sense of place can create local values that lead to place imageability and promote tourism development [9,10]. Sense of place is not only the embodiment of local value, i.e., a place is attributed with meaning and identity by growing a sense of place within the accumulation of history and culture [11], it is the motivation or experience of tourists to visit a specific place [12]. Therefore, the sense of place becomes a significant determinant of tourism demand which promotes the use of HCDs as a form of branding that may strengthen tourist satisfaction or encourage repeat visits [13]. Tourists experience the physical space through vision, and perceive the unique character or historical association of HCDs [14]. HCDs can be reinterpreted and given new meanings under the gaze of tourists, which can form a new sense of local place [15]. In the process of tourism, the higher the experience satisfaction provided by the tourist destination to tourists, the greater the potential to attract and retain tourists [16]. To analyze the sense of place in HCDs, the relationship between tourists and the place must be understood comprehensively [12]. However, most studies pay attention to the place, i.e., historical heritages in the HCDs [17], and only a few studies are concerned about the importance of tourist experience [12].

As Wei et al. (2019) and Bian et al. (2019) explained, accurate cognition of the sense of place of HCDs under the gaze of tourists helps to grasp the authenticity of HCDs and excavate the unique place value and significance of HCDs [17,18]. Thus, planners need to understand what tourists want to see during their travels, the meaning they assign to their photos, and the experiences they care about when reminiscing about a place and reshaping the sense of place [19]. Creating a sense of place in an HCD can ensure the sustainable development of this area [20]. While many studies have examined residents’ sense of place in relation to HDCs [21,22,23], few studies have explored sense of place from the perspective of tourists. This study attempts to analyze the sense of place of HCDs through a “tourist–place relationship” analysis. The research focuses on Shichahai HCD in the northern part of Beijing’s old city, which is the largest HCD in the inner city [24] (Figure 1). Before outlining the research methodology, we begin with a note on the tourist gaze and sense of place and introduce the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) to analyze the sense of place in the Shichahai HCD under the tourist gaze. The research findings in this paper could help planners to improve urban cultural heritage conservation.

2. Literature Review and Study Area

2.1. Tourist Gaze

Gaze is a visual-centered kind of gaze projection [25]. It is a socially constructed way of seeing or “inspecting” through cognitive activity [19]. People leave their domiciles and travel to different places from time to time to obtain pleasure, nostalgia, satisfaction, and stimulation by gazing at things and landscapes entirely different from their daily life [25]. The tourist gaze is the integration process of tourist appeals, motivations, and behaviors [26]. It is a conception that Urry draws from Foucault’s concept of gaze in the context of medicine. The concept of the “tourist gaze” can be used to analyze the experiences and perceptions of tourists during tourism [19] and reveal the conceptualization of the relationship between different places [27]. Similarly, photography is the materialized embodiment of the tourist gaze. Photos can convey tourists’ observations and attention, and is a vital way for tourists to record their personal experiences, retain personal memories, and reshape the destination scene [25,26].

2.2. Sense of Place

Sense of place is a basic concept in tourism research, although its definitions vary [12]. A fundamental point of discussion in the literature on sense of place concerns ways of connection and proximity between people and places [28]. For some researchers, the sense of place is a collection of meanings and emotions people assign to a particular environment. It changes over time due to historical contingency and the interaction of social, political, cultural, economic, environmental, and other processes [29], which is considered as the sense of belonging or attachment to a particular place [30]. For other researchers, the sense of place refers to the insides of places perceived by visitors [31]. Tourists can reshape the sense of place of attractions by taking photos and communicating with others during their visit to the destination [32]. The sense of place is the experience produced by tourists interacting with the tourist destination environment in this study. In general, cognition, emotion, and meaning are given to the tourist destination at that time or later [2]. Researchers have long theorized about the emotional connection between people and places, while recent studies have attempted to quantify its meaning [33].

This study explores the “tourist–place” model based on sense of place in HCDs. In studies about sense of place elements, despite the diverse definitions of the sense of place model, the core understanding is that sense of place expresses people’s sensational or emotional response to a space [34]. Several researchers have defined the sense of place model as a multidimensional construct comprised of place elements, place attachment, place identity, and place satisfaction [13]. Jepson, D. and Sharpley, R. (2015) proposed a three-dimensional model incorporating physical environment, socially constructed meanings of place, and people’s experiences or behavior at the place [13]. The study is conducted from two aspects, namely, place elements and place attachment [35]. Place elements refer to the physical environment, immaterial environment, and people’s behavior, while place attachment includes place identity, meaning, and satisfaction. In HDCs, the physical environment, immaterial environment, and people’s behavior which make up the sense of place affects tourists’ cognition of the place and results in the corresponding place identity and place meaning, which can affect the place satisfaction of tourists [35].

2.3. The Consensus Map

The consensus map aims to understand the sense of place in Shichahai by revealing how historic tourism attributes afford tourists’ experiences and values in a hierarchical value map using the theoretical model provided by means–end chain (MEC) theory. The MEC theory has been used to investigate what attributes of the targeted tourism objects are most suitable for tourists, how tourists’ motivations/feelings are related to each other, and what personal values tourists aim to achieve behind their superficial motivations [36]. Specifically, the MEC theory depicts a tourist’s innermost thinking toward an attraction by representing the essential meanings that individuals assign to the attraction via cognitive schema [36]. Such schema are built upon the associations among the tourist attraction’s attributes, their related consequences/feelings after participation, and the personal values achieved [36]. MEC is based on the taxonomy of tourist attraction knowledge, involving three key concepts: A(attribute)–C(consequence)–V(value) [37]. Data were collected to develop a series of associated matrices analyzed by the association pattern technique designed in [38].

The attribute is concrete and observable [36], which refers to the basic element or carrier of the interviewee when they talk about their sense of the Shichahai HCD. It can be defined that the attribute is the environment of the Shichahai HCD, such as Hutongs, Yandaixie street, Siheyuan, etc. The consequence is relatively abstract and represents the feelings (positive or negative) associated with specific attributes [36], such as the historical culture and folk customs of the Shichahai HCD when tourists visit. For example, “If you walk into Hutong, you can see residents basking in the sun, and you can feel the lively atmosphere.” Among them, “folk custom” is a consequence-level construct. Value is abstract and refers to the desired end state individuals aim to achieve after consumption [38]. It reflects the emotional state of tourists, such as “traditional architectural and cultural elements” combined with modernity, and the environment is harmonious and makes people feel “interesting”, with “interesting” being the concept of value.

2.4. Study Area

The Shichahai HCD has been the commercial area of Beijing since the capital was rebuilt in the Yuan Dynasty [39]. It combines traditional residences, scenic tourism, and local commercial activities, and has both distinctive features of Beijing folk custom and unique natural landscapes [18,40]. It covers an area of 323 hectares, with a core protection area of 162 hectares, a water area of 34.1 hectares, and 22 communities under its jurisdiction [24].

The physical environment is the most easily perceived image; the external appearance of the characteristics in HCDs along with their preservation state directly determines whether they can realize the dual sustainable development of the cultural and physical environment. The Shichahai HCD is a famous scenic area in Beijing which includes three lakes (Qianhai, meaning Front Sea, Houhai, meaning Back Sea, and Xihai, meaning West Sea), many historical interests, Hutongs, and a lot of Siheyuan, according to Shichahai Local Chronicles (Figure 2). There are 42 cultural relic protection units, including eight nation-grade units, twelve Beijing-grade units, and twenty-two Xicheng district-grade units. In Beijing, Hutongs are alleys formed by the shapes of Siheyuan, a traditional type of alley with significant historical and cultural value [24]. Most Siheyuans are one to two stories high, and the facades and roofs of the buildings are mainly gray, except for individual landmark buildings and important cultural relics such as palaces. These buildings have maintained their original appearance through the historical evolution process [24].

The immaterial environment, including residents’ social life, customs, culture, art, etc., reflects the cultural and traditional characteristics of the residents. Intangible cultural heritage reflects the folk customs of the Shichahai HCD and carries the rich and colorful features of Beijing’s history, religion, folk culture, creative culture, and commercial culture. The well-preserved Siheyuan serves as a cultural symbol of Beijing and a window into its old ways of life. The time-honored brand (Figure 3) is a title that existed before 1956 in China, sells products, techniques, or services passed down through generations, has distinct Chinese cultural characteristics, and is widely recognized by society [41]. In Shichahai HCD, many time-honored brands exist, such as Kaorouji and Huguosi snacks. Folk custom activities such as teahouses, Beijing rhyme, ice-skating areas, and lotus viewing still exist. Intangible cultural heritage such as traditional handicraft workshops involving traditional skills, traditional sports (Figure 4), entertainment and acrobatics, traditional art, traditional medicine, folk literature, traditional drama, traditional music, etc., including three national units, three Beijing units, and twenty Xicheng district units.

3. Methodology

3.1. Overall Research Framework

This article examines the usefulness of the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) for exploring the sense of place in the historic district under the tourist gaze. ZMET was developed to determine tourists’ mental models for historic districts [42]. Mental models are used by tourists to make sense of historic districts, and emerge from shared experiences during travel [43]. Researchers can question interviewees’ tourism experiences using their photographs to project the participants’ deep motivations, attitudes, and emotions [44].

The overall research framework is shown in Figure 5. The four-stage method adopted in this study includes collecting interviews, involvement analysis, ZMET analysis, and drawing conclusions. In the first stage, the interview collection was conducted through snowball sampling. Then, the personal involvement inventory (PII) questionnaire was distributed to the interviewees, and a formal interview was obtained by an involvement analysis of the interviewees. The third step was to conduct the in-depth interviews through ZMET. The theme of the interviews was the tourists’ sense of place in the Shichahai HCD. The final part provides the conclusion and discussion.

3.2. Snowball Sampling

ZMET was used to make a reasonable explanation of the research content; as there is no requirement for external validity, it usually starts with a small number of initial contacts who fit the research criteria and are used for purposeful sampling [45]. Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling method and is generally seen as a highly effective sampling technique for studying the tourist gaze. We introduced two criteria to select the qualified participants. First, participants needed to have visited the Shichahai HCD at least once in the past year, stayed there for more than two hours, and have in-depth knowledge of the area. Second, they were asked to take photographs while traveling in the Shichahai HCD. The interviews were conducted from March to April 2019. Primary data were collected through interviews with twenty interviewees selected by the snowball method.

3.3. Involvement Analysis

The tourists are not only driven by emotions; they actively and extensively search for information to make travel routes. Zaichkowsky (1985) proposed that this attitude can be described as high or as low involvement consumer behavior, which can be differentiated, for example, by the degree to which consumers actively and extensively search for information [46]. The information provided by high-involvement tourists has strong representativeness and can improve the credibility of the results [47]. Thus, this study used an involvement analysis of twenty interviews collected by the snowball method. High-involvement interviewees were selected as the final research object of this study.

In addition, Zaichkowsky (1994) developed a bipolar adjective scale to measure the concept of personal involvement inventory (PII) to calculate consumer engagement, a 10-item scale that measures the motivational state of involvement that can capture emotional and cognitive types of involvement [48]. This paper extends the construct validation of the PII to involve the tourist gaze. Using to the basic characteristics of a Likert scale, each question was ranked on a point scale [44], for a total score ranging from 10 to 70, with the score representing a higher degree of involvement in the topic. Zaichkowsky (1994) points out that the personal involvement score of high-involvement persons should be between 51 and 70 points [48].

Through the PII, it was found that among the twenty pre-interviews, eighteen interviewees had personal involvement scale scores above 51. This shows that there were eighteen interviewees who were high involvement persons in the Shichahai HDC, and these were selected as objects of the interview. Interviewees are represented by numbers P1 to P18. There were eleven females and seven males, with ages ranging from 20 to 60 years, and five were foreigners (

Table 1. Profile of interviewees.

Interviewees No	Gender	Gender	Country	RPII Score
P1	Woman	20–29	South Korea	63
P2	Woman	20–29	China	58
P3	Woman	20–29	China	66
P4	Woman	30–39	China	62
P5	Woman	30–39	China	54
P6	Man	20–29	China	58
P7	Man	20–29	China	60
P8	Man	40–49	South Korea	59
P9	Woman	20–29	China	53
P10	Man	30–39	China	58
P11	Woman	20–29	China	58
P12	Woman	50–59	South Korea	60
P13	Woman	20–29	China	61
P14	Man	30–39	South Korea	68
P15	Man	20–29	China	61
P16	Woman	30–39	China	57
P17	Woman	30–39	China	68
P18	Man	30–39	South Korea	68

). The interviews were mainly conducted in Mandarin, as all interviewees were able to speak Mandarin; a few unclear contents expressed in Mandarin were supplemented in Korean for the five foreigners.

3.4. ZMET Analysis

3.4.1. Interview Preparation

The interviewees were required to choose photos because these visual symbols have a strong metaphorical ability which can induce deep thoughts and feelings in tourists’ minds [44]. The interviewees received an invitation letter and then signed a participation letter. They were told to prepare about 10–12 collected images that represented their thoughts and feelings about the Shichahai HCD two weeks before the interviews. When informants selected images, they were informed to focus on the sense of place in the Shichahai HCD, such as attractions, traditional culture, experience activities, and their emotions when visiting the Shichahai HCD. The interviewees were told that the images should be taken by themselves. If they did not have enough photos, online images were acceptable; they had to provide the URLs of the images. All interviewees were required to send the images to the researcher before the interviews started.

3.4.2. ZMET Interview

Interviews were conducted one-on-one and face-to-face (Figure 6). During the interview, the researcher questioned the interviewees about their cognitive views, emotions, and feelings about each photo, and tried to discover how their thoughts influenced the Shichahai HCD’s sense of place. Interviews were conducted in Mandarin Chinese. The conversations with the interviewees took between 90 and 120 min, and the whole interview content was recorded. Eight ZMET interview steps were followed during the interviews:

Storytelling: The interviewees described the images they brought, named each image, and described the reasons why these images were taken and chosen [49].

Missed images: The interviewees described the images they could not or did not find [49].

Sorting: The interviewees classified the images and described the meanings of the groups, creating their main categories [42].

Construct elicitation: The researchers selected three images at random and asked interviewees to explain the similarities and differences among the images, including how one image differed from the rest [42,49].

Most representative image: The interviewees were requested to select the image most representative of their thoughts and feelings about their sense of place in the Shichahai HCD [42].

Least representative image: The interviewees were requested to select the least representative image of their thoughts and feelings about their sense of place in the Shichahai HCD [42].

Sensory images: The interviewees elicited images that described their senses, such as smell, sound, color, taste, and touch [42,49].

Summary image and essay: The interviewees created a summary image and an essay using all the images they brought that reviewed their thoughts about the sense of place in the Shichahai HCD [42].

3.4.3. ZMET Interview Analysis

Inductive analysis is mainly divided into four aspects. ROST CM6.0 software was used to perform a preliminary word frequency analysis on the draft text [50]. This software can be used for a range of textual analyses, such as microblog analysis, chat analysis, etcetera [50]. First, we analyzed the sense of place of the Shichahai HCD according to high-frequency constructs. Second, after gathering the keywords, we built a consensus map including originator constructs, connector constructs, and destination constructs [51]. There were two principles to be followed in the drawing of the consensus map. The first principle was to extract common constructs produced by collecting one-third of the interviewees’ mentioned constructs, and the other was to collect consensus constructs mentioned by one-quarter of the interviewees [51].

4. Results

4.1. Sense of Place in the Shichahai HCD

The study collected 209 images from eighteen interviews. To improve the accuracy of the analysis and the representativeness of the results, before conducting ROST CM 6.0 software analysis on the interview content we classified and merged those constructs with the same or similar attributes. For example, the description of the specific attributes of the Shichahai HCD’s physical environment by respondents includes “roads and street”, which are unified as “street”, etc.; the emotional categories of the interviews, such as “cozy and comfortable”, are further integrated into “comfortable”, etc. The high-frequency constructs can be obtained from the perception of tourists of the Shichahai HCD. Usually, the concepts mentioned more by tourists reflect the more prominent elements of the sense of place that tourists perceive in the Shichahai HCD, and they leave a deep impression in the minds of tourists. 1007 keywords were concluded in the research through the interview content analysis.

According to the results of construct frequency analysis, this study defined high frequency that constructs appear more than ten times [52]. Except for tourists, residents, Beijingers, friends, rickshaw masters, foreigners, young people, and other subjects about seasons and time, 66 high-frequency feature constructs describing the sense of place in the Shichahai HCD were obtained (

Table 2. Main category of the high-frequency constructs in the Shichahai HCD.

Main Category	High-Frequency Constructs
Physical environment (26)	- HCD, Siheyuan, Walls, roofs, windows, extensions, Hutong, commercial streets, bar streets, lights, signs, pavilions, open space, park, lake view, cruise ship, white marble railing, waterfront, seats - Prince Gong’s Mansion, Yinding Bridge, Yandai Street, Huguoshi Street, Xihai Lake, Qianhai Lake, Wanghai Tower
Immaterial environment (5)	Stories, rickshaws, tea houses, haircuts, time-honored brands
Activity experience (9)	rest, bike ride, walk, sit, swim, visit, play, chat
Place attachment (26)	Enjoyable, pleasant, lively, cluttered, crowded, noisy, harmonious, style, history culture, old Beijing, folk custom, traditional culture, rich, charming, famous, discordant, dilapidated, narrow, ruined, insufficient, interesting, good, impressive, poor

). Through the analysis results of high-frequency constructs, it can be seen that tourists mainly focus on the physical environment. Relatively little attention is paid to immaterial environments. The place attachment to the Shichahai HCD of the tourists shows that the Shichahai HCD has a strong attraction to tourists. The physical environment and activity experience of the Shichahai HCD are most prominent in tourists’ perception of Shichahai’s sense of place.

4.2. The Consensus Map of the Shichahai HCD

Additionally, constructs mentioned by five interviewees were used as the consensus constructs. The study includes 34 constructs in the final consensus map. Figure 7 shows that the attribute level includes nineteen constructs, sixteen constructs from the consequence aspect, and four constructs from the value aspect. The consensus map reveals the correspondence between the physical environment, immaterial environment, the experience activities that constitute the sense of the Shichahai and the identity and value of each visitor’s place, and explores the sense of the Shichahai HCD as perceived by tourists.

4.3. Elements of Sense of Place

4.3.1. Sense of Place in the Physical Environment

“Prince Gong’s Mansion”(A06) and “Yandai Street”(A06), which are preferred by tourists, produce “history culture”(C04) are described as “interesting”(V01), and leave tourists “impressed”(V03).

“Prince Gong’s Mansion should be a must-visit place for tourists. I feel that this is the place that reflects Beijing’s history, culture, and traditional culture mostly, and the whole tour is also very interesting (P03).”

“The Siheyuan on both sides of Yandaixie street reflects the old Beijing, history culture, and traditional culture of Beijing. These distinctive cultures are very interesting to me (P01).”

“Siheyuan”(A01) and “Hutong”(A02) provide “Old Beijing”(C02), “history culture”(C03), and “traditional culture”(C04) feelings to tourists and leave them “interesting”(V01) and “impressed”(V03).

“There are a large number of Siheyuans in the Shichahai HCD. The most impressive are the roof tiles of the Siheyuan, the big red gate, the wall, and the stone pier in front of the gate. These architectural elements are a way of continuing history and culture (P04).”

“In the evening, when the lights of the Shichahai HCD Bar Street come on, it is more charming. Sitting on the bar street and watching the night view of the Shichahai HCD makes me feel much pleasure (P11).”

The lake landscape of “Shichahai”(A14) and the landscape view of “Finding Bridge”(A17) are the most popular areas because these attributes can offer a “beautiful”(C01) and “famous”(C07) cultural heritage site and result in “pleasure”(V02).

“The most beautiful season in the Shichahai DCD is summer. Standing on the Yinding Bridge and looking at the beautiful lake view makes me feel inner peace and happiness (P15).”

4.3.2. Sense of Place in an Immaterial Environment

The “time-honored brands”(A09) and “tea house” are preferred by tourists because these attributes can offer them “traditional culture”(C04) and are “interesting”(V01).

“When traveling, I like to experience the snacks of a place. The Shichahai DCD has a lot of Beijing’s time-honored brand snacks, such as Kaoruji, Huguoshi snacks, and so on. Through these time-honored snacks, you can feel the charm of Beijing food culture, and it is also one of the main pleasures you feel in the Shichahai DCD (P04).”

“The Shichahai DCD is a very suitable place to drink tea. Along with the tea shops along the lake, tourists who come here can not only enjoy the beauty of the Shichahai DCD but also experience Beijing’s tea culture. I find it very interesting(P08).”

4.3.3. Sense of Place in Experience Activities

The “haircut”(A11) and “swim”(A18) categories attracted the attention of tourists because these attributes can offer them a feeling of the “folk custom”(C05) of Beijing and result in “pleased”(V02), and “impressed”(V03) feelings.

“The sight of outdoor haircuts in the Hutong can feel the lively atmosphere of the Shichahai HCD. I was impressed because it is rare in other cities (P03).”

“When you walk in the Shichahai HCD in summer, you can see many elderly people swimming in the lake. The strong folk custom makes me feel pleasure (P07).”

“Boat”(A12) and “rickshaw”(A13) activities provided by the Shichahai HCD are popular because they offer “charm”(C01) to tourists and further help them achieve “pleasure” (V02).

“I want to experience sitting on a boat to enjoy the lake view here. Especially at night, sitting on a wooden boat with red lanterns and enjoying the lake, it feels good to drink tea (P04).”

“Every time I bring friends to the Shichahai HCD, I will take them to the Shichahai HCD by rickshaw. Because the Shichahai HCD is relatively large, you can visit the Shichahai HCD in a short time. And when we take the rickshaw, the story about the Shichahai HCD told by the rickshaw driver can make us deeply feel the charm of the Shichahai HCD and make us feel happy (P12).”

The “story”(A15) told by the rickshaw driver is popular because it conveys the “history culture”(C01) of the Shichahai HCD to tourists and is considered “interesting”(V01).

“Sitting in a rickshaw to play the Shichahai HCD, you can admire the Shichahai HCD Hutong and courtyards while listening to the rickshaw driver tell some stories about the Shichahai HCD. The stories aren’t necessarily true, but they are interesting (P18).”

“Snack”(A15), “rest”(A16), and “walk”(A16) are the favorite activities of tourists that offer them “lively (C08)” feeling and result in their being “impressed”(V03).

“In addition to playing in the Shichahai HCD, because there are commercial streets and lakes, a lot of activities here. You can see some people eating snacks, some people walking, some people resting, all kinds of people make the atmosphere of the Shichahai HCD lively, which also left a deep impression on me (P15).”

4.3.4. Negative Sense of Place

“Commercial Street”(A03), “Bar street”(A04), and “Yandaixie Street”(A08) are must-sees for tourists in the Shichahai HCD; because of the crowd and the narrow road, this leads to “crowded”(C10) feelings among tourists, and results in their “discomfort”(V04).

“As the main commercial street in the Shichahai HCD, Yandaixie Street attracts a lot of people with various shops. Especially during holidays, it feels very crowded, so the experience is discomfort (P10).”

“At night, the sound of music on the bar street and drinking crowds are relatively noisy and can make people feel uncomfortable (P02).”

Although “rickshaw”(A13), and “cycling”(A19) are popular activities in the Shichahai HCD, due to their high speed and the narrowness the Hutongs offer a “crowded”(C10) consequence to tourists and result in “discomfort”(V04).

“When walking in the Hutong, the passing rickshaws and bicycles not only make the traffic order in the Hutong chaotic but also make us feel unsafe (P11).”

“Prince Gong’s Mansion is a must-see attraction in the Shichahai HCD. There are many rickshaws and shared bicycles in Prince Gong’s Mansion, so it is chaotic and noisy. The overall experience is poor and makes people feel uncomfortable (P13).”

The above findings could draw tourists to visit the Shichahai HCD; the promotion should be on the Hutong and activity attributes (i.e., A03, A04, A08, A13, and A19), which can help tourists achieve a “sense of belonging” and “enjoyment of the Shichahai HCD”.

4.4. Structural Models of Sense of Place

The sense of place in the Shichahai HCD is produced by three aspects from the perspective of the tourist gaze: the material environment, immaterial environment, and activity experience. Tourists have conscious perception with full awareness of the characteristics of the material environment of the Shichahai HCD, mainly attained at attractions such as “Prince Gong’s Mansion”, “Yandai street”, and “Bar Street.” There are not only abundant historical relics of the Shichahai HCDs, they are distinctive historical-cultural activities. The activities of tourists relying on the physical space of the Shichahai HCD are mainly “rickshaws”, reflecting the need of tourists for a local lifestyle experience. These elements that make up the sense of place affect tourists’ recognition of the Shichahai HCD.

Figure 8 shows that in the Shichahai HCD the abundant material environment has laid the foundation for the formation of the sense of place, reflecting the preservation of the traditional way of life of the residents in the “living atmosphere” area of old Beijing and inheriting the regional memory, while experience activities such as “rickshaw” and “boat” promote the interaction and connection of residents and make the sense of place more perceptible. Protection of HCDs can be carried out according to the elements and emotional manifestations that make up the sense of place under the tourist gaze. For example, to enhance tourists’ understanding of historical buildings and the satisfaction of tourists’ experience, digital media facilities can be combined with the historical buildings where tourists mainly play and stay. Based on this, tourists’ perception of the significance and value of the Shichahai HCD can be deepened by providing a more plentiful and interesting experience.

5. Conclusions and Discussion

5.1. Conclusions

This research has investigated component factors and structures forming characteristics of the sense of place from the perspective of tourists in China’s capital, specifically, Beijing’s HCDs. Data were collected from eighteen interviewees using a ZEMT interview. Then, the study built a consensus map to show the sense of place based on MEC. The results show that the sense of place of Shichahai HCD can be divided into four parts: the physical environment, including regions, buildings, streets, nodes, landmarks, the natural environment, etc.; the immaterial environment, including traditional customs and time-honored brands; the activity experience, including economic and recreational activities; and place attachment, including place identity, place meaning, and place emotion. The sense of place was found to be stronger in areas with more historical culture and folk custom atmosphere features. It can be concluded that the underlying sense of place of the HCD under the tourist gaze is its potential for exploring the quality of HCD branding, which must be more fully explored. Physical environments are mentioned by tourists more frequently compared to immaterial environments and activity experiences. That is to say, the insufficient protection of the immaterial environment in Shichahai HCD leads to an insufficient impression of the immaterial environment by tourists. In addition to the physical environment, the immaterial environment and activity experience are an important planning consideration when improving the inherent cultural, heritage, and historical tourism destination features in Shichahai HCD.

This study puts forward several suggestions based on the above analysis. First, physical environment improvement should be carried out to build more recognizable places and enhance the imageability of tourists. For example, planners can restore iconic landscape structures and create signs and virtual images to show those historical structures that have been damaged. Second, more effort should be made to optimize existing immaterial environments. For instance, a well-designed intangible cultural heritage store in a historic building with local characteristics can meet the tourists’ and residents’ spiritual needs. Third, the local government should make more efforts to provide more cultural event experience facilities to enrich the tourist experience in the HDCs. The local government can display the traditional culture of Shichahai HCD by organizing folk activities such as skating, tea tasting, and lake viewing. Through the physical environment and intangible cultural efforts, the sense of place in Shichahai HCD could be significantly enhanced.

5.2. Discussion

The sense of place of HCDs reflects both the sense of place elements and the desire to revisit the HCD, which is significant for the sustainable development of HCDs. In the past, however, most the sense of place concepts focused on the one-dimensional relationship between people and HCDs from the residents’ perspective. This study first puts forward the concept of HCD based on humanistic geography to discover the logic of the tourist and HCD relationship in the construction of the HCD from the tourist perspective. Second, this study uses ZMET analysis and consensus maps to explore the impact of the HCD environment on tourists’ emotions. The results of the analysis confirm that tourists develop place attachment to the physical environment, immaterial environment, and activity experience. The results of this study can provide a reference for planners and governments to create more attractive HCDs for tourists, thereby promoting sustainable local economic development. Our study reveals diversity in the factors associated with an increased sense of place in HCD, making it difficult to construct a single narrative about the sense of place in HCDs. Physical environments and activity experiences are the most frequently significant elements under the tourist gaze; in other words, most of their emotional connections come from activity experiences in physical environments. The immaterial environment is less significantly associated with the sense of place of HCDs. Overall, in the process of traveling, tourists have a certain fascination with the physical environment, immaterial environment, and activity experience that are different from their living environment, and have an emotional connection with the environment of the HCD.

Due to the in-depth interview content in this study, the sample of interviewees is limited. In the future, we intend to further explore interview methods suitable for large-capacity samples, build a more comprehensive sense of place structure, and improve the research conclusions.