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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Chinese troglodyte villages toward tourism

As anticipated, Lijiashan village is still inhabited, with Among the challenging goals to be achieved in the future
a traditional farming-based economy. It is a protected site, is the improvement of the interpretation, communication,
listed as a historical and cultural town and village, and education, enhancement, and management practices
a well-known tourist destination. Nonetheless, tourist- related to this kind of asset to elaborate conscious strategies
oriented reuse is limited to the guest house, which was for its protection and development. As the international
created inside a courtyard cave dwelling. experience shows, the only possibility to avoid
The comparative study showed how the Chinese village Disneyfication and contrasting with the gentrification
is one of the few still inhabited cave villages worldwide, processes, already experienced in worldwide famous
together with some villages in Libya, Tunisia, and Iran. caved settlements having been transformed into popular
However, its peculiarity is that even though it is a protected tourist destinations, is to integrate them in scientific and
and reused site, its interpretation as a typical expression educational tourism and therefore expand the interest
of local cultural heritage is inferior. This aspect, which is in society. In this sense, social participation in the
fundamental in communicating both tangible and intangible development process could be a way to share responsibility
values of the caved settlement of Lijiashan, can influence its between local institutions and communities. It would
future preservation as a cultural site. The establishment of require building a shared strategy and undertaking the
a museum dedicated to traditional troglodyte cultures, like responsibility for developing a plan, allocating resources,
those dedicated to Italian Sassi in Matera, Tunisian Matmata, and implementing and evaluating development activities
and Turkish Göreme, could support both the conservation that would better cater to local needs (Huang, 2021).
and the divulgation of those value and support the sustainable Engaging local citizens mean strengthening and preserving
development of those elements, also in the touristic sector. local identity, ensuring that increased tourism does not
become an agent of destruction.
6. Conclusions
At a global level, rural and remote areas’ sustainable Acknowledgments
development and reuse of underground spaces are two Special thanks go to the Italian National Research Council,
heartfelt issues. In China, these two topics are synthesized in which has financially supported some of the field research
the yaodong villages of the Loess Plateau. From the analyzed since 2016, and Dr. Virginia Coda Nunziante.
cases, numerous suggestions for the interpretation, reuse,
and enhancement – also in the touristic sense – can be Funding
derived, which can be included in a more general census of Some in-field research has been financially supported
options. The authors are committed to this direction, seeking by Italy-China bilateral projects between the National
the creation of standard guidelines for the sustainable Research Council of Italy and the Chinese Academy of
enhancement of UBH, to explore all the potential of these
forms of heritage, whose variety and complexity have yet to Cultural Heritage of Beijing, China, entitled “Valorization-
be fully understood. In this regard, the research on Chinese Tourism-Participation. Developing Alternative Integrated
cases form part of a broader comparative research by the Solutions for Less Promoted Historic Sites (2016 – 2018),”
authors and their multidisciplinary team, extended to and “Identification and Interpretation of a Cultural Route:
Eastern and Western countries. The Example of Maritime Silk Road (2019 – 2022).”
As declared, many criticalities hinder research Conflict of interest
development because there is no recognition of a The authors declare they have no competing interests
single glossary and a shared classification globally. The with any institutes, organizations, or agencies that might
improvement and experimentation of the UBH method
are pushing in this direction. Good results are being influence the integrity of results or objective interpretation
achieved, thanks to the European project Underground for of their submitted works.
Value (COST ACTION 18110), led by CNR and involving Author contributions
the authors, which brings together 32 countries for the
experimentation of the method. In the same direction, Conceptualization: Laura Genovese
bilateral projects between Italy and individual European Investigation: Laura Genovese, Roberta Varriale
and non-European countries such as Georgia, Iran, Methodology: Laura Genovese, Roberta Varriale
Armenia, Tunisia, Turkey, Jordan, and Israel are under Formal analysis: Laura Genovese
evaluation by the authors and are trying to stimulate a Writing – original draft: Laura Genovese
census of underground settlement in each country. Writing – review & editing: Laura Genovese

Volume 5 Issue 2 (2023) 13 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0940