WATERFRONT TOURIST DEVELOPMENT: THE NORTH AMERICAN EXPERIENCE AND ITS APPLICATION TO CHINA
以巴尔的摩和维多利亚为例，分析北美滨水区旅游开发的成功经验，并探讨其对中国滨水区发展的借鉴意义，指出中国可学习其休闲商业导向、公共可达性及规划实施方法。
Waterfront has been crucial to many cities historically. Since 1960s, however, technological change in many ports left large tracts of urban waterfront abandoned. Several ports, most notably Boston, Baltimore and Toronto got their waterfront revitalization projects under way in the late 1970s. During the same period or even earlier, waterfront redevelopment was carried out in some less-known North American ports such as Victoria, B.C.. As is known to all, Boston, Baltimore etc. proved to be early huge success, which had a large influence upon many other cities. In this paper, Baltimore is taken as the case of commercial and recreational redevelopment, while Victoria is taken as the case of historic waterfront, where the historical heritage has been well preserved and and aesthetic feeling enhanced. Since both of the cases succeeded in attracting tourists and residents by their recreation and business and gaining considerable revenue, they are termed as “tourist development in this paper. The author examined the practice, impact and features of the two North American cases, i.e. Baltimore's Inner Harbor and Victoria's Inner Harbor. Evidence shows that waterfront development has been apparent in several major cities of China in recent years. The author points outs that, such practice differs from the North American cases when motivate is concerned. Most of such practice in China has nothing to do with derelected port land. The purpose of such development usually to be the same: to promote the economic development by improving the waterfront environment, and to meet the recreational demand of residents. Despite such difference, the experience of North America is meaningful to China when the following aspects are concerned. First, their development model is transplantable to China. Second, the experience of North American cases is of great significance to China when the issue of waterfront planning is concerned. China can follow the recreation and business orientation of the North America cases. More importance should be attached to public access to waterfront and waterfront as civil space and such plan is to be drawn in the wider context of the whole city. Third, China can learn something from the implementation of such plannings in North America cases. Fourth, the Baltimore and Victoria appear to be two cases at the opposite ends when design of waterfront redevelopment is concerned. Experience and lessons can be drawn from them in a contrasted way.