Rural tourism serves as a vital instrument for China's rural revitalization, playing a significant role in diversifying rural economies, promoting urban-rural integration, and achieving sustainable development. Based on the ‘institutional-cultural' coupling perspective and utilizing the CiteSpace bibliometric tool, this study systematically reviewed the literatures on rural tourism development in China from the CNKI and Web of Science (WoS) core databases (2000—2024). It comparatively analyzed the differences and commonalities in research stages, hot topic, and methodologies between domestic (Chinese) and international (English) contexts. The findings reveal that: 1) Research in both Chinese and English contexts shows rising popularity, yet with distinct stage characteristics. Domestic studies are policy-driven, forming a practice-oriented framework around rural revitalization, cultural-tourism integration, and common prosperity; international studies focus more on micro-level issues like sustainability, community empowerment, and rural gentrification, reflecting critical perspectives. 2) The dynamic interplay between institutions and culture constitutes the core logic of rural tourism development. Domestic research emphasizes the enabling role of policy rigidity in cultural capitalization, while international research examines the contest between cultural authenticity and institutional power under globalization. 3) There are significant methodological divergences: Domestic studies prioritize policy validation and quantitative analysis centered on industrial development, whereas international studies predominantly employ qualitative deconstruction, centering on communities and individuals. Key implications suggest that future research should deepen exploration in three critical dimensions: theoretical integration and framework innovation, methodological innovation, and thematic refinement and expansion. Particularly, there is a need for cross-disciplinary approaches that bridge the gap between policy implementation and community-based sustainable development models. Additionally, longitudinal studies tracking the socio-economic impacts of rural tourism could provide valuable insights for both academic and practical purposes.

The rapid development of digital technologies has made digital narrative an emerging and important means for the protection and utilization of cultural heritage. This new form of interpretation not only provides fresh opportunities for the preservation and presentation of heritage resources, but also exerts significant influence on the development of heritage tourism and on tourists’ heritage responsibility behavior. Building on the perspective of digital affordance and the cognitive-affective personality system theory, this study constructs a mechanism model to examine how the affordance of cultural heritage digital narrative affects tourists’ heritage responsibility behavior. To empirically test the model, the research adopts structural equation modeling and combines it with qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews, thereby investigating how different dimensions of cultural heritage digital narrative affordance exert influence through cognitive and emotional pathways. The findings indicate 3 main results. First, under the setting of cultural heritage digital narrative, the digital affordance can be conceptualized as comprising physical and cognitive dimensions, both of which show significant positive impacts on tourists’ heritage responsibility behavior. Second, destination psychological ownership together with destination image serve as mediating variables, jointly transmitting the effects of physical and cognitive affordance on tourists’ heritage responsibility behavior. Third, destination familiarity plays a positive moderating role in this relationship: when tourists possess a higher level of familiarity with the destination, the positive influence of digital affordance is strengthened, while lower familiarity weakens the relationship. In conclusion, this study supplements existing theoretical research by identifying the digital antecedents of tourists’ heritage responsibility behavior and by clarifying how digital affordance functions through emotional and cognitive mechanism. At the same time, it provides practical reference for cultural heritage managers, demonstrating how digital technologies can be effectively applied in heritage protection and in the development of heritage tourism.

There are numerous traditional villages in China. Most of them are concentrated in mountainous and hilly areas, which are the organic integration of agricultural and ecological culture. During the formation and development of village, cherishing water resources has always been the core idea of adapting and changing the environment. Based on the traditional ecological thoughts, spatial planning concepts, and landscape adaptability theories, the water adaptive research framework of spatial morphological characteristics and landscape mode in the mountainous tradintional villages can be constructed by the methods such as spatial analysis, morphological quantification and landscape visualization. Taking Baojing County in Xiangxi as an example, the differences of water adaptability in villages can be sorted out, including spatial distribution, morphological pattern and landscape pattern. The result shows that: 1) Traditional villages are usually located in relatively low altitude river valleys, exhibiting obvious characteristics such as living by water, facing the sun, and building on gentle slopes. They are not only convenient for water use, but also effective in flood control and drainage, water and soil conservation, which reflects the wisdom of site selection for harmonious coexistence between humans and water. 2) Under the influence of complex water environmental factors, traditional villages can be classified into 3 typical spatial forms: belt shaped, cluster shaped, and finger shaped. With the development of the economy and society, the village space structure exhibits distinct differentiation characteristics. For example, the villages of belt shaped are usually crossed by a small river, and the development relies on cultivated land economy. The villages of cluster shaped are usually built in the river bay area, and the development relies on forestry economy. The villages of finger shaped are usually far from the river but adjacent to ponds, and the development relies on terrace economy. 3) Based on typical topography, 3 water adaptive landscape models can be summarized to deal with drought and flood, such as “forest-village-farmland-river” in flat area of mountains, “forest-orchard-village-river” on the hillside, “forest-village-farmland-pond” on the mountain plateau.

Current research on urban networks still has some shortcomings, such as insufficient analysis of industrial chains, neglecting the distinction between local and non-local embedding, and insufficient attention to industrial connections in the digital economy. In view of this, this article attempts to take the Chinese digital game industry as an analytical case. Based on the basic paradigm of urban network research, it starts from the perspective of industrial chain division of labor, focusing on exploring the urban network structure and cooperation models formed by the digital game industry through industrial chain division of labor. It further analyzes the industrial chain position and the evolution of local-global embeddedness of the Chinese digital game industry, thereby promoting the dialogue between urban network research and industrial chain theory and solidifying the analysis of the industrial connection connotation in urban network research. This study selected cooperation data at both the national and global scales from 2013 to 2023, involving 283 cities worldwide. Social network analysis was employed to measure the urban cooperation network structure of China’s digital games, and the internalization link index was used to analyze the differences in local and cross-city connections of game enterprises at different spatial scales. The findings are as follows: 1) The national-level city collaborative network of China’s digital gaming industry has a polycentric structure, reflecting the decentralized characteristics of the digital economy; at the global scale, there exist 3 collaborative models: “Overseas R&D and Publishing-Domestic Operation” (Model 1), “Domestic R&D-Overseas Publishing and Operation” (Model 2), and “Domestic Publishing and Operation-Overseas R&D” (Model 3). Model 1 has the largest network of cities, and Models 2 and 3 are expanding rapidly. 2) Overall, Chinese cities are still in the middle and lower segments of the global digital gaming industry chain, with significant dependence on cities in the United States, Japan, and Europe in the R&D and publishing sectors. However, with the rapid development of Models 2 and 3, cities represented by Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Xiamen are continuously upgrading their positions in the global industry chain. 3) Over the past decade, the local-global connectivity of China’s core gaming cities has undergone significant spatial restructuring, mirroring the global industrial chain reconfiguration. Nationally, most cities have transitioned from localized to cross-city domestic collaborations, aligning with the delocalization trend in digital creative industries. Globally, Chinese cities demonstrate reduced external dependency, shifting from strong international-weak domestic ties to domestic-dominated collaboration patterns, with Shanghai emerging as the sole metropolis sustaining robust dual local-global linkages. These evolving spatial embeddedness patterns reflect the industry’s self-optimization and value chain upgrading trajectory. This study contributes to the dialogue and incorporation between industrial chain and urban network research. Future research needs to analyze in more detail the driving mechanisms, globalization strategies and local embedding patterns of Chinese cities’ participation in the division of labor in the global digital game industry chain through more in-depth enterprise surveys and industry chain analyses.

Ice and snow tourism is an important engine to stimulate the vitality of the ice and snow economy and promote the high-quality economic and social development of ice and snow cities. Previous studies have mostly focused on single factor impact analysis or empirical strategies to explore the tourism development of ice and snow cities, with few exploring the logic and path of ice and snow city tourism development from a systematic perspective of multiple factors. Therefore, based on the TOE (technology-organization-environment) framework, this paper utilizes fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to comprehensively analyze the key influencing factors of the high-quality development of tourism and its grouping paths in 15 key ice and snow cities across the country: Harbin, Zhangjiakou, Shenyang, Jilin, Changchun, Urumqi, Hulunbuir, Mudanjiang, Heihe, Chifeng, Chengde, Yichun, Qiqihar, Fushun, and Beijing. The results show that: 1) The high-quality development of ice and snow city tourism is the result of the linkage of multiple factors. A single factor is not the key factor restricting the high-quality development of ice and snow city tourism, but the complex combination of multiple factors is an effective path for the high-quality development of ice and snow city tourism. To promote the high-quality development of tourism in ice and snow cities, it is necessary to pay attention to the linkage and adaptation of multiple factors at the same time. 2) There are 4 types of driving paths for the high-quality development of ice and snow city tourism, which can be divided into technology-driven, technology-organization dual driven, technology-environment dual driven and technology-organization-environment balanced driving according to the core conditions of each combination path. The combination of different antecedents forms a variety of driving types, indicating that there are diversified combination paths and driving types for the high-quality development of ice and snow city tourism. 3) The technical factors composed of technical infrastructure, smart culture and tourism platform, and ice and snow equipment manufacturing technology are the core factors for the high-quality development of ice and snow city tourism, indicating that technical factors play a relatively common role in promoting the high-quality development of tourism. This study can enrich the theoretical research on the high-quality development of ice and snow economy and tourism to a certain extent, and also provide academic support and decision-making reference for the high-quality development of ice and snow city tourism.

This article investigates the inherent tensions between technology and institutional frameworks in smart city development across the Global South, advocating for a departure from Western-centric paradigms to construct a theoretically robust, locally adaptive, and critically reflective analytical framework. The study identifies two defining characteristics of Southern smart city practices: “technological catch-up”, driven by the imperative to bridge digital divides, enhance urban competitiveness, and respond to rapid demographic change, and “post-colonial critique”, which exposes how historical legacies of colonialism continue to shape contemporary technological adoption and governance structures in subtle yet enduring ways. Theoretical innovation is framed around integrating concepts such as spatial justice—addressing unequal distribution of digital resources across urban spaces—and digital sovereignty—safeguarding Southern nations’ control over data, technological autonomy, and regulatory authority—to redefine the dialectical relationship between technology and society. The research highlights the symbiotic interplay between informal economies (e.g., self-organized community networks, grassroots digital initiatives) and digital technologies, which challenges technological determinism and reveals a resilient development logic rooted in local adaptability and everyday practices. These insights deconstruct the linear narrative of technological progress, proving that Southern countries can balance efficiency with equity while pursuing differentiated urban modernities. By prioritizing context-specific innovations and inclusive governance, the Global South is reshaping the global knowledge production landscape, shifting from a passive “technology testing ground” to an active contributor of alternative urban theories and normative agendas. The study concludes by emphasizing the transformative potential of such frameworks to democratize technology, redirect smart cities toward social equity, and empower Southern nations to reclaim agency in global technological discourse. Through China’s practice of scale-sensitive smart cities and tripartite governance models, the research exemplifies how Southern-led innovations can challenge neoliberal techno-utopianism, alter dominant policy imaginaries, and foster pluralistic urban futures that reflect diverse socio-spatial aspirations.

Lake surface water temperature (LSWT) is a crucial physical parameter in lake ecosystems and an important indicator of climate change. Studying the spatiotemporal variation patterns of LSWT in China over long-term time series and exploring the driving factors behind these changes hold significant scientific importance for understanding the impacts of future climate change on lake ecosystems. Furthermore, such research provides valuable insights for formulating practical and effective lake ecological management measures. This study systematically analyzed2260 Chinese lakes with a surface area exceeding 1 km² to characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of LSWT from 1985 to 2022. Multivariate regression modeling was employed to quantify the relative contributions of climatic drivers (e.g., air temperature, precipitation, etc.) and lake-specific attributes (e.g. area, depth) to the observed variations in LSWT. 1) From 1985 to 2022, the annual mean LSWT in China exhibited a significant upward trend at a rate of (0.126 ± 0.016)℃/10a, with the most pronounced increase observed in the eastern plain lake region [(0.214 ± 0.037)℃/10a] and the slowest in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Lake region [(0.05 ± 0.015)℃/10a]. 2) The annual mean LSWT and its changing trend have significant spatial differences, showing a spatial distribution trend of gradually increasing from northwest to southeast. 3) The LSWT in the eastern plain lake region shows a warming trend in all four seasons, with the fastest warming in spring and the slowest in winter. In contrast, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Lake region showed an insignificant decrease in spring due to the long duration of the lake freezing period but the fastest warming in autumn. The other three lake regions all experienced the fastest warming in autumn. 4) The primary factors influencing LSWT variations in China are latitude, mean air temperature, altitude, and lake area. Among them, latitude, altitude and lake area have a reverse effect on LSWT, while mean air temperature has a positive effect. The five major lake regions are all affected to varying degrees by the above factors as well as wind speed and lake water depth. From 1985 to 2022, the annual LSWT in China and the five major lake regions showed varying degrees of warming trends. On a seasonal scale, except for the insignificant cooling in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Lake Region during spring, LSWT showed warming trends in all other regions and seasons. The main factors affecting the changes in LSWT in China are latitude, average temperature, altitude, and lake area. Among them, latitude, altitude, and lake area have an inverse effect on LSWT, while average temperature has a positive effect. In summary, climatic factors and lake’s own factors are interrelated and interact with each other, jointly influencing the variations in LSWT.

As the world’s longest border road spanning 10 051 km from Xinjiang to Guangxi, China’s G219 Border Road epitomizes a linear tourism destination integrating ecological, cultural, and mobility functions. This study constructs a tourism corridor experience system framework comprising 4 core dimensions: 1) landscape resources, 2) catering and cuisine, 3) hotel accommodation, and 4) self-driving services. Deploying a mixed-method approach combining spatial resource visualization, network spatial structure analysis, and field investigations, we dissect the resource distribution patterns and tourism flow dynamics along the G219 corridor. Our findings reveal three critical insights: Firstly, the G219 manifests as a mobility-dominated linear system characterized by spatial viscosity, flow aggregation, and path radiation. Its structural uniqueness arises from the “node-zone” interaction, where key attractions concentrate tourism flows while roadside service clusters extend spatial stickiness through multi-day stays. Secondly, the network nodes and tourism flow along the route are the core elements that characterize the tourism corridor and its impact. Therefore, there are significant differences in tourism resources, geographical space, and self driving service systems among 4 provinces/regions along the G219 Border Road for self-driving tour. Thirdly, the image of tourism corridors is the driving force that attracts the flow, process, and velocity of self-driving tourists during their travels. We argue that optimizing the G219 requires differentiated spatial governance: 1) Node enhancement, upgrading gateway facilities to anchor tourist flows; 2) Zone integration: weaving greenways, ethnic villages, and cultural assets into thematic itineraries; 3) Cross-regional coordination: standardizing self-driving services while preserving segment uniqueness. This study contributes to linear tourism theory by validating the “corridor-system” framework in border road and offers actionable models for trans-provincial tourism planning. Future research should quantify flow-service mismatches and assess socioecological impacts of corridor-driven development.

At present, resilience research is a hot area of sustainability science research, and livelihood resilience analysis is an effective analytical tool to solve the impact of regional or individual household livelihoods. Based on the systematic review of the research literature on livelihood resilience at home and abroad, this study combs the concept connotation, analysis framework and evaluation method of livelihood resilience. The study found that: 1) Livelihood resilience is a key support for people and their initiative to resist disturbances and achieve recovery and sustainable development when dealing with the impact of livelihood systems. Its conceptual connotation can be divided based on 4 perspectives: process, capability, strategy and transformation. 2) The theme of livelihood resilience research presents a ‘progressive’ development, from external climate change to the awareness of natural disaster response, and then to human disturbance factors and emphasizing human subjective initiative; the scale shows a global and multi-scale trend, and the construction of the index system of research content tends to be more subjective and objective. However, there are still limitations such as conceptual generalization, ignoring the transformation of livelihood strategies and long-term changes in livelihoods. 3) According to the dominant interference factors and the evolution of research topics, the analytical framework and evaluation models in the field of livelihood resilience research can be divided into 3 types: ‘climate change type’ ‘natural disaster type’ and ‘human disturbance type’. Climate change type livelihood resilience connects climate adaptation and livelihood security, and serves long-term climate adaptation policies; quantitative assessment of emergency response and short-term recovery capability of natural disaster-type focus on sudden disasters; the human disturbance type focuses on the interaction between human initiative and social structure, and the subdivision dimensions such as resource utilization and knowledge learning are more suitable for the social and economic scene. In the future, we should gradually build a systematic category-based livelihood resilience analysis framework, strengthen the comparative analysis of research objects and multi-case application research, pay attention to the multi-scale trade-off and spatio-temporal dynamics of livelihood resilience assessment, and explore the long-term dynamic characteristics of livelihood and livelihood strategies.

The Qijia Culture, which flourished from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age in the Gansu-Qinghai Region, represents one of the earliest archaeological cultures in China influenced by trans-Eurasian cultural exchanges. However, research into the formation and development of the Qijia Culture has been limited due to the lack of systematic synthesis and critical evaluation of published radiocarbon dating data. This paper compiles and organizes radiocarbon data from 137 samples of 37 archaeological sites associated with the Qijia Culture in northwestern China in the literature. To enhance chronological precision, we selected 71 reliable dates short-lived botanical remains (charred crop seeds) and animal bones, which are considered reliable indicators of contemporaneous human activity. These dates were calibrated using the IntCal20 calibration curve and analyzed within a Bayesian statistical framework implemented in OxCal v.4.4 to construct a chronological model. The modeling results indicate that the Qijia Culture emerged between 4200—3400 cal a B.P., which is later than previously estimated. Furthermore, the analysis confirmed a 200-300 year of ‘old-wood effect' in charcoal-based radiocarbon dates. Spatial-temporal patterns suggest that the earliest phase of the Qijia Culture originated in the upper reaches of the Jinghe and Weihe River basin in eastern Gansu, followed by a westward expansion into the western Loess Plateau, the northeastern margins of the Tibetan Plateau, and the eastern section of the Hexi Corridor. The cultural focus contracted to the Hehuang Valley and Taohe River Basin on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau after 3800 cal a B.P., The internal differentiation and transformation of the Qijia Culture is hypothesized to have influenced the later contraction of the Qijia Culture into the Hehuang Valley and the Taohe River Basin, where the Qijia Culture persisted into its later stages. The construction of a robust Bayesian chronological framework based on high-quality radiocarbon evidence not only refines our understanding of the emergence, expansion, and decline of the Qijia Culture, but also contributes to broader discussions of early cultural transmission and interaction across prehistoric Eurasia.

Exploring the causal relationships among various elements in surface processes and quantifying their causal effects are crucial for understanding the laws of surface changes. In recent years, the rapid development of remote sensing technology and causal inference research has provided opportunities and possibilities for revealing the interaction patterns in multi-scale surface processes based on remote sensing observation data. However, research on causal relationships, causal effects, and causal inference in the field of geoscience is still in its infancy, and the study of the causal mechanisms and laws of multi-scale surface processes still faces many challenges. This article first reviewed the research progress of the theoretical framework and methods of causal inference. Then, we explored the possibility of temporal causal inference methods in attributing surface vegetation changes through experiments. Finally, we summarized the opportunities and challenges faced by causal inference in the study of surface processes. The research results showed that: 1) Causal relationship discovery and causal effect assessment are urgent needs and frontier hotspots in the current research and development of surface processes. However, they still face many challenges, such as overly strong causal assumptions, difficulties in identifying false causal relationships, and a lack of verification datasets. 2) Experimental results based on the spatiotemporal change process of surface vegetation in Yunnan Province from 2001 to 2020 showed that the temporal causal inference methods had a significant effect in discovering the causal relationship and assessing the causal effect of surface vegetation cover changes. Experimental results showed significant causal relationships and lag effects between vegetation and climate factors. Among these factors, temperature and surface temperature are the primary influences on surface vegetation changes in Yunnan Province. At the same time, vegetation has obvious feedback effects on climate factors. 3) In the context of big geographical data and large geoscience models, the construction of datasets to support the verification of causal inference of surface processes, causal inference of spatiotemporal coupling and the interpretable machine learning approaches will be the future development direction.

The geographical attribution of the Chaka Basin remains ambiguous, as it is variably attributed to either the Qaidam Basin or the Gonghe Basin due to divergent academic criteria or insufficient scientific understanding between scholarly literature and the general public. Additionally, the potential mechanisms for salt formation in Chaka Salt Lake, which likely occurred only at the end of the late Pleistocene, remain unclear. For this reason, the evolution, saltation of the Chaka Basin and the spatial division of geographic units are discussed in terms of tectonic, topographic and geomorphic features, in order to form a scientific understanding, standardize the scientific expression and popularize the public. The results show that, as early as 10 Ma in the early Late Miocene, the uplifted Elashan had already divided the Chaka-Gonghe-Qinghai Lake regions from the Qaidam Basin. The Chaka Basin and the Shajuyu inland water system in the Gonghe depression are only divided by a Quaternary sedimentary beam less than 20 m above the surface of the modern lake, which is much lower than the lowest point of the Elashan watershed in the west side. The Chaka Basin belongs to the Gonghe Basin from the topographical point of view, and its area is about 3100 km² (calculated with the east diversion beam as the boundary). The motive force for the transformation of the Chaka Basin into an endorheic water system may be the result of the synergistic action of the Chabcha (Gonghe) movement and the Quaternary sedimentary process (the eastern watershed beam connected by the flood fan), but the exact time needs to be further confirmed. Salt formation in the Chaka Salt Lake occurred in the Younger Dryas or early Holocene geological period, and there is no simple correspondence between salt formation and the evolution of the basin's closed water system, as the conditions of the salt lake basin are satisfied while also depending on climatic constraints. This study investigates why the Chaka Salt Lake formed only after the Late Pleistocene, based on regional tectonics, geomorphological characteristics, and the evolutionary history of the lake basin. By using mountain landforms, key topographic elevation points, and watershed divides as defining markers for basin boundaries, it clarifies the geographic extent of the Chaka Basin and explores its spatial relationship with the Qaidam Basin and the Gonghe Basin. These findings provide valuable insights into the salt formation processes of Chaka Salt Lake as constrained by geomorphic evolution.

The pervasive influence of digitalization is profoundly reshaping global production networks and international trade dynamics, elevating the strategic importance of ports as critical nodes in digitally integrated supply chains. Consequently, the synergy between the digital economy and geography has become a crucial nexus of study. This study addresses the significant challenges hindering the digitalization of Chinese ports, including ill-defined strategic roadmaps, a lack of effective multi-scale coordination among stakeholders, and the underutilization of advanced technologies in practical operational scenarios. Compounding this, the existing academic literature has yet to provide a comprehensive framework to guide these transitions. To fill this gap, we investigate the core issues of the coupled development between ports and digitalization. Through a comparative case study of leading international ports, we identify and categorize 3 distinct digitalization pathways: 1) Innovation-driven, which is propelled by internal R&D and technological breakthroughs; 2) Scenario-integrated, which focuses on applying digital solutions to specific, practical operational contexts; and 3) Ecosystem-collaborative, which is driven by synergistic partnerships among a wide array of port-city stakeholders. Building upon the theory of post-generational evolution, we propose a holistic coupling model conceptualized as the SUSTAINS framework: Space (the integration of physical and virtual port realms) + Union (fostering deep collaboration and data-sharing alliances) + Scale (harmonizing governance and operations across local, regional, and global levels) + Transformation (managing the organizational and technological shift) = Sustainability (achieving long-term economic, environmental, and social viability). This model provides a novel theoretical lens and a practical roadmap, aiming to advance the discourse in digital economic geography and empower policymakers to build the resilient, intelligent, and sustainable ports of the future.

Destination image constitutes a vital component of a region's overall competitive strength. Building on the model of narrative comprehension and engagement and persuasion theory, this study examines the impact of internal and external realism in intangible cultural heritage bearers' media narratives on destination image, as well as the mediating role of media character identification. External realism refers to the extent to which the story aligns with the real world (regardless of whether the story is fictional). Internal realism refers to the coherence within the story itself in terms of logic, character motivations, and the continuity of events. Media character identification includes three dimensions: the audience's emotional resonance with the media character, perspective-taking, and motivation internalisation. In addition, destination brand awareness is introduced as a moderating variable in the research model. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to validate the net effects of antecedent variables on destination image. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is employed to explore the configurational pathways leading to positive destination image evaluations. The results show that: 1) Internal realism has a significantly positive direct effect on destination image, whereas the direct effect of external realism on destination image is not significant; 2) Both internal and external realism positively influence destination image through the mediating effect of motivation internalisation, while the mediating effects of perspective-taking and emotional resonance are not significant; 3) Destination brand awareness moderates the relationship between internal realism and destination image; 4) Destination image is the outcome of multiple interacting factors, with four types of condition configurations having high explanatory power for the formation of a favourable destination image evaluation. This study proposes a “Narrative-Character-Destination Image” framework, offering implications for destination image construction.

This paper delves into the theoretical frameworks and practical strategies for coordinated county-town-village development, unveiling its scientific essence and mechanisms. It establishes a conceptual framework for achieving coordinated development and propose implementation pathways toward urban-rural integration. The main conclusions include 3 aspects. First, as a novel model for urban-rural integration, county-town-village coordination emphasizes the interconnectedness of support systems, spatial organization, industrial systems, and comprehensive governance across administrative levels. This fosters integration in infrastructure, public services, spatial planning, industrial networks and spatial governance. This model builds upon traditional township-village coordination by emphasizing the holistic nature and networked linkages across the three levels of county, town and village. Second, the coordinated development of county-town-village systems is reinforced through coordinated infrastructure development and integrated public services. This approach strengthens alignment in development objectives and functional positioning within spatial planning frameworks. Based on the diverse products of county, town and village, it forms a county-level product space with inherent upgrading potential. Moreover, it achieves comprehensive governance across social, economic and ecological dimensions through multi-level organizational system of county, town and village. Third, the practical strategy for coordinated county-town-village development focuses on three foundational pillars of county-level economic development, urban-rural element flow and enhanced development entities. It is imperative to implement differentiated development pathways tailored to the economic characteristics and resource advantages of county, town and village. This involves constructing institutional mechanisms to enable bidirectional flows of urban-rural elements including labor, capital, technology, land and markets. Concurrently, it entails broadening the intra-rural, social and market entities involved in urban and rural development and strengthening the linkage channels for production, service and operation. This paper will contribute to tackling development imbalance and insufficiency, unleashing the immense potential of counties. It will also provide theoretical underpinnings and practical pathways for regional high-quality development and Chinese-style rural modernization.

Talent is the primary resource for development, and its spatial mobility and redistribution are essential for enhancing regional human capital, upgrading knowledge structures, and fostering innovation capacity, thereby empowering new quality productive forces and reshaping the geography of regional competition. As an emerging yet rapidly expanding branch of Population Geography, Talent Geography in China originated in the 1980s and has accelerated since 2010 under the combined forces of demographic transition, technological change, urban expansion, and policy-driven regional competition. This study conducts a systematic and integrative review of its disciplinary evolution, key concepts, analytical traditions, and interdisciplinary bases, while synthesizing research progress across multiple categories of talent, including highly educated talent, skilled labor, university graduates, and special-type talent such as scientific researchers and creative workers. It further distills the core mechanisms shaping talent distribution and mobility from 4 dimensions: economic push-pull dynamics associated with wage differentials and job opportunities; place-based amenities reflecting environmental quality, public services, and urban livability; institutional and policy interventions embodying China’s government-led talent strategy; and spatial effects manifested in spillovers, non-stationarity, and intercity interactions collectively structure China’s complex talent landscape. Looking ahead, this paper identifies 3 strategic directions for advancing talent geography research: building a theoretical framework to capture the diverse spatial behaviors and development roles of different talent groups; establishing the analytical foundations of talent dividend geography to evaluate how talent-driven gains vary across regions; and deepening the study of global “talent ocean currents” to understand China’s evolving position within worldwide talent circulation networks. By integrating historical review, mechanism-based analysis, and forward-looking perspectives, this study enriches the conceptual, methodological, and empirical foundations of talent geography and provides valuable insights for implementing China’s strategy of strengthening the nation through talent and promoting Chinese-style modernization through high-quality population development.

The rapid development of media technology has led to the continuous coupling of cyberspace and real life, creating new places for subject interaction outside of physical space, and bringing subversive changes to the connotation of humans and places, as well as to the relationship between them. The study chooses Luoyang, Henan Province, a famous Internet celebrity city in China, as a case study, and uses qualitative methods, such as in-depth interviews and content analysis, to understand the process of perception and interaction between humans and places in digital arenas, such as short videos, with the help of the concept of ‘encounter’. The study points out that: 1) Network technology has reshaped the essence and connotation of the existence of humans and places in the digital space. Digital places have become a mixed concept composed of real space and individual consciousness, and human subjects have been endowed with new digital attributes and rely on digital identity to exist; 2) In the process of digital encounter, humans and places use online images or identities to achieve virtual presence. The dissemination of places involves the interaction between multiple subjects, as well as between subjects and various local cultural symbols. The essence of human-place encounter is the interaction of meaning between people, and between humans and symbols; 3) The encounter of digitalization brings about a transformation in the emotional connotation of a place. Although the place is still the foothold of emotions, its core reflects more on the introspection and reflection of emotional subjects on themselves, and further promotes individuals to actively meet the place in online and offline spaces. The exploration of new human environment relationships and interactive methods in the era of media has profound significance in shaping individuals in the network, developing local tourism, and constructing material space. It is a necessary work in digital development and provides theoretical support for the marketing and image construction of cities and places.

Rural spatial governance constitutes a critical component of China's governance framework, serving to regulate the allocation of spatial resources in rural areas, optimizes the spatial development patterns of the countryside, and facilitates integrated urban-rural development. The development of rural industries is the core of the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and also the key to evaluating the effectiveness of rural spatial governance. However, the development of rural industries in China still faces the crux of insufficient endogenous development momentum and weak endogenous development capacity. Therefore, taking the neo-endogenous development theory as a starting point and using qualitative research and spatial data analysis methods, this paper aims to systematically investigate the process and mechanism of rural industrial spatial governance through a case study of Jianhe Village in Jianhu County, Yancheng City. The key findings are as follows: 1) The industrial spatial governance of Jianhe Village has undergone a transition from bottom-up endogenous governance to top-down exogenous governance, ultimately leading to the neo-endogenous governance characterized by “up-down linkage, internal and external symbiosis”. Rural industrial spatial governance practices at each stage exhibit distinct policy-oriented characteristics. 2) The industrial space of Jianhe Village has witnessed significant resource reorganization, adjustment, and optimization of production space functions. It has also experienced the scale expansion and agglomeration of industrial development, shrinkage in traditional agriculture spaces, as well as expansion in glass industry, e-commerce, and service industry spaces. This transformation has led to an increasingly complex space with characteristics such as production-life, production-ecology, and production-life-ecology interactions. 3) Rural industrial spatial governance constitutes a continuous and dynamic practice process involving multiple actors. The industrial spatial governance of Jianhe Village is a systematic process that effectively integrates and adjusts internal and external development forces under government leadership while placing rural society at its core for coordination with market/society. The resource base serves as a critical foundation, while multiple governance actors function as fundamental decision-makers. Among these, governments act as guiding forces, while markets and societal actors serve as intermediaries for interest coordination, and endogenous rural actors constitute the core element.

This study constructs a multidimensional theoretical framework for land use conflicts (LUC) based on its manifestations and from the perspective of “scale-function-pattern”. It proposes a methodology for identifying and measuring LUC through multidimensional and multiscale interactions, and develops a zoning management scheme for conflict areas using a three-dimensional magic cube spatial classification model and a triangular model. Taking the Northern Slope Economic Belt of Tianshan Mountains (NSEBTM) in 2020 as a case study, the results show that: 1) The proposed methodology for identifying and measuring LUC from the “scale-function-pattern” perspective can enhance the scientific and comprehensive evaluation of LUC from multiple dimensions and scales. This approach provides a more nuanced understanding of the complex interactions between land use scale, function, and pattern, which are critical for effective conflict management. 2) In 2020, the area of LUC in the NSEBTM was 154 881.22 km², with functional conflicts of land use being more prominent, pattern conflicts of land use being predominantly moderate and scale conflicts of land use relatively minor, presenting a spatial pattern of “high in the west and low in the east”. This spatial distribution highlights the regional disparities in conflict intensity, which are influenced by varying socio-economic activities and natural conditions across the study area. 3) Based on the identification results, the study region was divided into five zones: scale control zone, function optimization zone, pattern adjustment zone, development regulation zone, and strategic reserve zone. Among them, the strategic reserve zone accounted for the largest proportion (60.82%), while the scale control zone accounted for the smallest (0.12%). Implementing differentiated zoning management strategies according to local conditions is the key to alleviating conflicts. This study proposes a new perspective for LUC research, which can enrich the theoretical connotations of LUC, provide ideas and methodological references for multidimensional identification and management of LUC, and optimize the national land space pattern. By integrating the “scale-function-pattern” perspective, this study offers a comprehensive framework for understanding and managing LUC, contributing to the sustainable development of land resources and the harmonious coexistence of human and nature.

Knowledge spillover is a crucial concept for explaining innovation. As a form of knowledge, technology possesses a spillover effect. This study posits that technology enterprises provide technical critical support for modern financial industry development, while financial institutions procure these technical services through market. This process facilitates the establishment of cross-industry urban innovation linkages between technology and financial firms through technological spillover. Distinct from previous research that constructed urban innovation networks based on homogeneous activities or internal connections within the same industry, this study employs Python web scraping technology to collect transaction information and constructs a cross-sector urban innovation network. This transaction data details purchase of technologies—such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT)—by commercial banks from technology enterprises across cities in China (excluding the data of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan). Leveraging these transaction data for technologies applied in emerging FinTech business services, an inter-city FinTech network is constructed from a technology spillover perspective. Network analysis reveals: 1) A FinTech network has preliminarily taken shape in China. Although the network density is not high, it exhibits a core-periphery structure and possesses small-world properties; 2) The geographical concentration of core nodes in the network is pronounced, with transactional linkages closely associated with eastern cities. The core node cities demonstrate outstanding technological spillover capabilities and higher administrative ranks, with Guiyang emerging as a core node in the western region; 3) Distinct network patterns emerge across 3 major urban agglomerations, with differential technology absorption tendencies among 3 types of commercial banks; 4) Urban innovation capability, financial environment, economic development, administrative hierarchy, and transportation accessibility differentially impact technology absorption versus spillover effects. Technology demand-driven spillovers establish the foundation for cross-sector urban innovation networks. The FinTech network will not only provides new paradigms for deconstructing urban innovation systems but also poses new propositions for assessing the competitiveness of cities housing major technology enterprises under integrated finance-technology ecosystems.

The China-Russia crude oil pipeline (CRCOP) is a major strategic energy corridor for China, greatly ensuring the country’s energy security. It is located in the Great Khingan region of Northeast China, traversing areas of permafrost and seasonally frozen ground, making it highly susceptible to frost heave hazards. Therefore, timely monitoring and evaluation of its stability are of great importance. In this study, we used Sentinel-1B 12-day-span differential interferograms between 2016 and 2021 to monitor ground surface deformation along the CROP. After correction and stacking of differential interferograms, multi-year average deformation during the freezing season along about 1 000 km CRCOP corridor region was firstly obtained. Analysis showed that 17% of the land surface in the 20 km buffer zone along the pipeline had an average frost heave greater than 20 mm, with strong frost heave areas (deformation greater than 50 mm) accounting for 3%. By segmenting the pipeline into 1 km intervals and analyzing the deformation of the terrain each segment traverses, we found that the number of pipeline segments traversing significantly frost-heaved ground accounted for 17% of the total number of segments, with strong frost heave segments (deformation greater than 50 mm) accounting for 1%. Significant frost heave was observed in the northern regions from Mohe Station to Tahe Station, and wetland-affected areas near Heihe, Qiqihar, and Daqing City in the south. Using a geographical detector to analyze environmental factors affecting frost heave, combined with statistical analysis of frost heave at ponding sites, it was revealed that soil moisture conditions are the most significant factor affecting frost heave. The frost heave deformation monitoring results and spatial pattern analysis presented in this study provide valuable references for engineering construction and maintenance of CRCOP.

Investigating the cooling effects of blue-green spaces and their influencing factors is essential for optimizing urban spatial configuration and enhancing environmental resilience. Using Xi’an as a case study, this study integrates multisource data—remote sensing, evapotranspiration, and meteorological datasets—and applies the InVEST Urban Cooling Model to generate the Heat Mitigation Index (HMI) for assessing the cooling capacity of urban blue-green spaces. Landscape pattern analysis, the Geographical Detector, and boosted regression trees are further employed to reveal the mechanisms through which landscape patterns influence cooling effects. The results are as follows: 1) In summer, surface temperatures in Xi’an are dominated by moderate-temperature zones. Urban heat islands are concentrated in the central urban area and the western industrial park, with a relatively stable spatial pattern; cool islands are mainly distributed along river corridors and in suburban croplands, and appear as scattered patches within high-density built-up areas. 2) The spatial distribution of HMI is highly consistent across different cooling distances: high-value areas outside the Third Ring Road are mostly distributed along rivers or concentrated in contiguous croplands, while high-value areas inside the Third Ring Road correspond to urban parks containing water bodies; low-value areas are primarily located in high-density built-up and industrial zones, forming continuous surfaces, and appear as linear belts in surrounding rural settlements. 3) The cooling effect of blue-green spaces results from the synergistic action of multiple factors. Landscape diversity and patch fragmentation are the core driving factors, each interacting with patch size to enhance cooling capacity. All factors exhibit threshold behavior, and their influence on cooling may be either promotive or suppressive depending on the range of their values.

In recent years, extreme summer precipitation events have occurred frequently in northeast China, posing a serious threat to the socio-economic development and the safety of people’s lives and property. The accuracy of precipitation data is crucial for disaster prevention, and mitigation, as well as scientific research. Using the daily precipitation data from the national benchmark meteorological station in northeast China (1998—2018) and the hourly precipitation data within Jilin Province, the applicability of CLDAS multi-source fusion precipitation data and CN05.1 grid precipitation data to summer precipitation in northeast China was comprehensively assessed in this study. The results indicate that both CLDAS-Pre and CN05.1 can reasonably reflect the spatial distribution of summer precipitation in northeast China to a certain extent. Compared with CN05.1, CLDAS-Pre has a better correlation with the observed precipitation (>0.8), with smaller mean relative error and root mean square error. Dry and wet deviations are found for summer precipitation over northeast China in CLDAS-Pre and CN05.1, respectively, with this phenomenon most pronounced in August. Both datasets have a higher reproduction of the number of days with light and moderate rainfall, and a lower estimation of the number of days with heavy rainfall. The peak accuracy of CLDAS-Pre hourly precipitation reproduction is roughly between midnight and early morning over the entire region. Overall, CLDAS multi-source fusion precipitation has better applicability in the northeast region. However, the CN05.1 dataset, with its longer sequence, retains significant advantages for applications such as model validation.

The phenomenon of “internet celebrity city”, a product of the digital economy, illustrates how virtual information flow can transform into actual tourist traffic. This paper uses Harbin’s emergence as an “internet celebrity city” as a case study, applying time series analysis, Granger causality tests, and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) models to examine the mechanisms by which tourism information flow drives passenger flow. It also examines their interaction’s spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors. The key findings are: 1) Tourism information flow and passenger flow in the preparation, launch, outbreak and sustained four stages of attraction and interaction characteristics of symbiosis, attraction is reflected in the threshold effect and precursor effect, interaction through the feedback to strengthen the formation of a virtuous circle. 2) This interaction displays notable scale effects and spatial heterogeneity, with a significant bidirectional Granger causality observed nationwide, while complex spatial differentiation emerges at the regional level. 3) Consumer potential, information level, and transportation accessibility positively impact tourism passenger flow, while spatial distance negatively impacts passenger flow. This study enhances the theoretical framework of tourism flow dynamics by integrating spatiotemporal scales and spatial heterogeneity analysis. It proposes three strategies: developing dynamic information ecosystems for crisis management; implementing differentiated marketing strategies that leverage regional responsiveness, including cultural campaigns for remote markets; and fostering transportation-information synergy to enhance accessibility through coordinated high-speed rail promotions with social media trends. These findings offer insights for optimizing digital tourism governance and improving destination competitiveness in platform economies.

High-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure development has fundamentally reshaped urban economics and spatial organization of economic activities. The opening of new HSR lines not only enhances transportation convenience and locational advantages of cities along the route but also generates significant network effects at the regional level, thereby influencing the economic activity structure and land valuation patterns of HSR cities at different scales. While much of the existing literature has focused on the direct or local effects of HSR on individual cities, there has been relatively limited exploration of the broader network effects generated by HSR networks. This paper focuses on analyzing both the local and network effects of newly constructed HSR lines on cities, providing a comprehensive framework for understanding HSR’s multidimensional impacts. An empirical study examines the impact of the Zhongyuan Urban Agglomeration’s HSR network development on residential land prices at different scales. By combining the PSM-DID model with multilevel data analysis, the empirical findings reveal a dual mechanism through which new HSR lines influence land value. First, we identify a local effect, where cities directly connected by new HSR lines experience an average increase of 11.2% in residential land prices. This increase can be attributed to the improved accessibility, the enhanced locational appeal, and stronger development expectation among investors and local stakeholders. Second, we uncover a network effect: city, as a part of the broader HSR network, but not is necessarily on the newly opened line, also experiences a positive impact, with residential land prices increasing by approximately 2% on average. This finding highlights the importance of network connectivity and suggests that HSR infrastructure generates externalities to transcend the immediately affected localities. Furthermore, the magnitude of these network effects varies significantly across cities of different administrative levels. Prefecture-level cities benefit more substantially from the network effect compared to county-level cities. This heterogeneity shows the uneven spatial distribution of HSR-related benefits. Urban hierarchy determines how effectively cities can leverage their network position. This study demonstrates that the existence of both local effect and network effect of HSR and reveal the multidimensional and spatially heterogeneous nature of HSR effects. These results provide critical insights for regional planning and infrastructure investment. Policymakers should consider network-wide impacts in designing strategies to promote balanced urban development through transportation infrastructure expansion.

Land cover and its changes are an important part of global change research, and play an irreplaceable role in climate change research, biodiversity conservation, the global carbon and water cycles monitoring, as well as other major needs. As an essential descriptor of the Earth’s surface, land cover provides a fundamental basis for understanding human-environment interactions and assessing ecosystem functions. Over the past few decades, with the continuous improvement of satellite remote sensing technology, the rapid growth of data storage capacity, and the development of high-performance computing platforms, global land cover mapping and change monitoring have made remarkable progress. The spatial resolution of available products has increased from the early 1 km scale to today’s 10-30 m range, enabling a more detailed characterization of heterogeneous landscapes. Meanwhile, the temporal frequency has evolved from single-period mapping toward multi-year and annual land-cover change monitoring, greatly enhancing our ability to capture dynamic land processes and long-term environmental transitions. In this study, we collected 21 publicly released global land cover products at home and abroad, and then comprehensively summarize their characteristics from three aspects: land cover classification system, methodology and dataset/products. First, we systematically summarized the land-cover classification system of current global land cover products into three groups, and further clarified their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Then, we sorted out the development history of the global land-cover algorithms from single land-cover mapping and time series land cover change monitoring, and further evaluated the different development stages and overall development trends of the global land cover research. Finally, the main problems existing in the current global land cover research are described, and some thoughts on the future development of this direction are put forward, particularly regarding the need for harmonized standards, higher spatiotemporal consistency, and better validation frameworks.

As a core production factor in the era of digital economy, data elements play an important driving role in the carbon emission reduction efforts of various industries. This paper selects 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2013 to 2022 as research samples to explore in depth the incentive effect and spillover effect of data elements on agricultural carbon emission reduction. First, an ordinary panel regression model is used to analyze the incentive effect of data elements on agricultural carbon emission reduction. Then, a mediating effect model is employed to test the transmission mechanism between data elements and agricultural carbon emissions. Finally, a spatial Durbin model is applied to analyzing the spatial spillover effect of data elements on agricultural carbon emissions. The following conclusions are drawn: 1) Data elements have a significant environmental incentive effect, which can promote regional agricultural carbon emission reduction. 2) In the inhibitory effect of data elements on agricultural carbon emissions, there exist mediating roles of supervision effect, resource effect, and cost effect. 3) Data elements have a significant spillover effect on agricultural carbon emissions, that is, while inhibiting local agricultural carbon emissions, data elements can also inhibit agricultural carbon emissions in adjacent regions. Based on the above analysis, this paper puts forward practical suggestions from three aspects: technological innovation, policy formulation, and data supervision.

Urban agglomerations serve as crucial bridges facilitating the flow of cross-regional innovation factors and promoting technological spillovers among cities. Most existing literature treats urban agglomerations as the analytical boundary, overlooking the differentiated impact of urban agglomeration strategies on inter-city technology transfer. To address this, based on Chinese patent transfer data from 2001 to 2020, this study analyzes the overall characteristics and spatiotemporal dynamics of patent transfers within cities within 19 urban agglomerations, between urban agglomerations and their surrounding cities, and among cities in different urban agglomerations across four time periods. Utilizing a difference-in-differences model, the study examines the impact of urban agglomeration strategies on patent transfers at different scales, focusing on the coordination effect, agglomeration effect, and linkage effect of urban agglomerations. The study found that: 1) The scale and density of the patent transfer network in 19 urban agglomerations have been continuously increasing, with deepening connections and intensities. The network efficiency and accessibility have been continuously optimized, and the spatial distribution of the patent transfer network overall presents a pattern of ‘high in the east and low in the west’. 2) The spatial structure of the patent transfer network in urban agglomerations exhibits characteristics of polycentricity and regionalization, with the ‘diamond structure’ centered around Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu-Chongqing gradually emerging. This structure forms a "hub-and-spoke" knowledge flow channel with other regional central cities. 3) The proportion of patent transfers across agglomerations has gradually increased, indicating that the spatial scope of knowledge innovation is expanding and the spatial heterogeneity of knowledge flows is decreasing. 4) The results of the difference-in-differences model verify that the urban agglomeration strategy can promote patent transfers within cities within the same urban agglomeration, between urban agglomerations and their surrounding cities, and between cities in different urban agglomerations. Overall, the implementation of the urban agglomeration strategy has not only played a significant role in regional development but also had a profound impact on inter-city technology transfer in China. This study analyzes the dynamic changes of patent transfer networks within and outside urban agglomerations from multiple dimensions and delves into the differentiated impact of urban agglomeration strategy implementation on China’s intercity technology transfer network. It provides new perspectives and ideas for understanding the evolution of intercity innovation networks and the future innovation development of urban agglomerations. Through this study, it is hoped that the spatial organization mechanism of technology transfer networks can be further deepened, providing scientific support for better promoting innovative integration practices in urban agglomerations and promoting technological innovation and high-quality economic development in urban agglomerations.

Grain production is a major issue related to the national economy and people’s livelihood. In recent years, under the background of global climate change, factors such as changes in meteorological conditions, agricultural disasters, large-scale occupation of cultivated land in the process of urbanization, rural hollowing, and agricultural technology changes have all had a significant impact on grain production. This article explores the spatial and temporal pattern of China’s grain production and its driving factors at multiple scales from the dual background of urbanization and climate change, in order to provide scientific support and policy enlightenment for food security under the background of climate change and rapid urbanization. The results show that: 1) Although China’s total grain output has fluctuated slightly from 2000 to 2022, it has shown an overall growth trend. The main function of regional grain production has become more prominent and significant time transitions have taken place. The provincial grain production pattern has experienced a spatial reconstruction from “single core-edge” to “dual core-edge”. 2) The impact of urbanization and climate change on grain production has scale difference, superposition and interaction effect. Urbanization shows a net positive effect on multiple scales, while climate factors are more significant only on the provincial scale. Under the superposition effect of the two, urbanization plays a leading role in grain production compared with climate factors. Under the interaction effect of the two, the violation of urbanization and climate factors restricts provincial grain production. 3) The impact of urbanization and climate change on grain production has significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity. In terms of time, the leading role of climate change mainly occurred in the first 11 years since the 21st century, while the leading role of urbanization mainly occurred in the second 11 years. In terms of space, urbanization only has no significant impact on grain production in the developed areas of urbanization, while climate factors have no significant impact on non-spatial continuous grain functional zoning.

Amid the accelerating forces of globalization and modernity, worldwide discourses and practices of heritage have given rise to complex political, social, cultural, and spatial phenomena at community, national (region), and global scales. As the most recent paradigm in global heritage studies, critical heritage studies, a profound reflection on the phenomenon and nature of heritage, re-examines the subjectivity of heritage and investigates the political-economic and socio-cultural mechanisms that shape heritage construction from multiple perspectives. Drawing on its strong tradition of exploring human-environment relationships, human geography has contributed significantly to the theoretical advancement of critical heritage studies—particularly through an emphasis on the interactive processes of heritage-making and the spatiotemporal heterogeneity among heritage, place, and subjectivities. This paper offers a systematic review of the interwoven trajectories of critical heritage studies and heritage research in human geography, demonstrating that geography of heritage has developed two emerging research paradigms: constructivist and relational approaches. It further synthesizes key academic debates on four core themes: heritage identity and governance, heritage tourism and heritage authenticity, everyday life and living heritage, and the hybridity of natural and cultural heritage. The study argues that the parallel evolution of critical heritage studies and heritage geography aligns closely with geography’s “cultural turn” and “relational turn”, thereby fostering the formation of a more expansive interdisciplinary framework for heritage research. The interweaving of critical heritage trends and heritage geography research has had a profound impact on essential heritage issues and revealed that an increasing number of heritage practices demonstrate various possibilities. Heritage protection is no longer just about avoiding potential “risks”, but rather an active commitment to shaping a diverse and inclusive “future of heritage”. It should be noted that the differences in the humanistic environment, urban-rural development background and political and economic systems between China and the West have resulted in heritage geographical phenomena emerging in China that differ from those in the Western context. When applying critical heritage studies to examine the geography of heritage in China, the right of different cultures to coexist and the importance of local culture should be emphasised. Looking ahead, the geography of heritage in China should deepen its engagement with issues of cultural diversity, social equity, and sustainable development as shaped by heritage practices, thereby contributing a robust scientific basis for China’s people-centered heritage conservation in the new era.