Sustainable Cultural Tourism and Heritage Conservation in China: Case Studies of the Ancient Waterfront Towns in the South of the Yangtze River

Sustainable tourism should be established on the basis of the balance between environment, economy social culture. Nowadays, cultural tourism is growing rapidly in China, and is closely related to conservation. On the one hand, cultural heritage constitutes basic resources to attract visitors cultural tourism. On the other hand, cultural tourism can bring funds and public awareness for conservation. However, cultural heritage faced several challenges in the process of tourism. For example, excessive commercialization leads to the loss of local characteristics in towns. The research question is how can historic towns preserve their local characteristics in development? The key point of sustainable cultural tourism is to respect the cultural value of heritage, starting from defining the concept of conservation through analyzing good practices. study investigates ancient waterfront towns in the south of the Yangtze River in China, including, Tongli, Wuzhen, and Xitang, and analyzes how four different waterfront towns can their own local characteristics in tourism development, and the role of sustainable tourism in process. The aim is to propose a series of recommendations to achieve sustainable tourism use of cultural heritage, with social, economic and cultural advantages for the region involved.