Rural tourism in globalizing Beijing: Reproduction of the mountainous suburbs into a new space of leisure consumption

Abstract

Rural tourism is increasingly becoming an important complementary service sector of major Chinese cities operating at their immediate adjacent suburban or rural zones. By promoting a green economy, such zones of rural-urban interface/interactions attract more and more public investments, business investors, and leisure seekers. Taking the Yanqi Nightless Valley of Huairou District, and the Ganyugou Village and Xibailianyu Village of Miyun District of Beijing as case studies, this paper investigates the private entrepreneurship, the local peasants' business drive, and the role of the local governments in integrating the mountainous "backwater" into Beijing's globalizing economy. Their joint efforts in reconstructing and branding rural tourism resorts, and the ways in which the rural socioeconomic setting was transformed into a post-productive, consumption-dominated, and creative-cum-quality service center is analyzed. The paper analyzes the success and failure of Beijing's rural tourism business operations, and links their marketing with the capital city's ambition to brand itself into a globalizing city. Results show that success is highly dependent on physical connectivity. Those seated at the "semi-periphery" with highways or other access corridors are capable of attracting large city clientele. Remote sites, on the contrary, can hardly benefit from the trickle-down process. Hence, a more integrative framework in favor of a more balanced development is finally addressed.