Expectation and satisfaction of rural tourism:a case study of Hainan,China

This study uses the rural tourist motivation scale to measure the motivations, expectations, and satisfaction of nearly 200 rural tourists in five areas of Hainan, China by importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) and factor analysis. The results show that the main motivation for participating in rural tourism is to be close to nature, improve family rela-tionship and relaxation. Tourists are highly satisfied with the landscape and pastoral views as well as the friendliness of the local people and hotels. The results also show that the sample people most care about easy parking and reasonable prices, and they expect ethnic festivals and farm life experiences. Besides the environment, facilities, recreational activities and psychological experience of rural tourism, the overall satisfaction is high. The results of this study can be used by local government leaders as well as the tourism industry to devise ways to promote and improve rural tourism.

The Evaluation and Optimization of Satisfaction with the Rural Living Environment in the Southern Terraced Area:A Case Study of the Ziquejie Terrace in Hunan Province

Rural living environment is an important part of the habitat environment science, but there is the serious phenomenon of "favoring city" in current researches on the habitat environment. There is not enough attention paid to the deteriorating rural environment. Taking the case of Ziquejie, coupled with the heritage-abased community characteristics of the rural living environment, we establish the evaluation indicator system of satisfaction with the quality of rural living environment, and use fuzzy analysis method to analyze and process the data obtained from the questionnaire survey, to initially derive the development status and general law of evolution of the rural living environment in Ziquejie. Based on these, we put forth the relevant recommendations for promoting the sustainable development of the rural living environment in Ziquejie.

Environmental change since mid-Pleistocene recorded in Shangshan achaeological site of Zhejiang

At about 173 ka BP of the late period of mid-Pleistocene, the second terrace of the river had been formed as a result of uplift happening in Shangshan area because of the climate, sea level change and tectonic action. Between 173-75 ka BP, aeolian deposited on the terrace, a layer of reticulate red clayey soil about 80-100 cm thick deposited and developed under the warmer and higher temperature. In the last glacial period, the drop of the temperature and the decrease of the precipitation induced the dust-storms increased, A layer of Xiashu loess about 1.0-1.5 m thick accumulated on Shangshan terrace in the last glacial, which has the reticulate red clayey soil buried. At the beginning of the Holocene （11500 a BP-）, temperature went higher gradually and precipitation got more, the pre-persons moved on the Shangshan terrace （11,400-8600 a BP）, which is one of the most important archaeological sites, and can connect the paleolithic culture with Neolithic culture. It could be assumed from the results that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are the home of rice cultivation, too. The lower place to the west of the Shangshan site experienced the two cycles process of the fluvial facies and the lacustrine facies, indicating that the water source of the pre-historical Shangshan is the river water or lake water. Two AMS 14C age proved the water source disappeared more than 1000 years ago.

A new geographical language： A perspective of GIS

Language plays a vital role in the communication, sharing and transmission of in- formation among human beings. Geographical languages are essential for understanding, investigating, representing and propagating geo-spatial information. Geographical languages have developed and evolved gradually with improvements in science, technology and cogni- tive levels. Concerning the theoretical progress from geographical information ontology, epistemology and linguistic theory, this paper firstly puts forward the concept of a GIS lan- guage and discusses its basic characteristics according to changes in the structures, func- tions and characteristics of geographical languages. This GIS language can be regarded as a system of synthetic digital symbols. It is a comprehensive representation of geographical objects, phenomena and their spatial distributions and dynamic processes. This representa- tion helps us generate a universal perception of geographical space using geographical scenarios or symbols with geometry, statuses, processes, spatio-temporal relationships, semantics and attributes. Furthermore, this paper states that the GIS language represents a new generation of geographical language due to its intrinsic characteristics, structures, func- tions and systematic content. Based on the aforementioned theoretical foundation, this paper illustrates the pivotal status and contributions of the GIS language from the perspective of geographical researchers. The language of GIS is a new geographical language designed for the current era, with features including spatio-temporal multi-dimension representation, in- teractive visualization, virtual geographical scenarios, multi-sensor perception and expedient broadcasting via the web. The GIS language is the highest-level geographical language developed to date, integrat- ing semantic definitions, feature extraction, geographical dynamic representation and spa- tio-temporal factors and unifying the computation of geographical phenomena and objects. The GIS language possesses five important characteristics： abstraction, systematicness, strictness, precision and hierarchy. In summary, the GIS language provides a new means for people to recognize, understand and simulate entire geo-environments. Therefore, explora- tion of the GIS language＇s functions in contemporary geographical developments is becoming increasingly important. Similarly, construction of the conceptual model and scientific systems of the GIS language will promote the development of the disciplines of geography and geo- graphical information sciences. Therefore, this paper investigates the prospects of the GIS language from the perspectives of digital technology, geographical norms, geographical modeling and the disciplinary development of geography.