Relationship between soundscape and historical-cultural elements of Historical Areas in Beijing: a case study of Qianmen Avenue

With the tourism development of Historical Areas in Beijing，the soundscape of Historical Areas has changed dramatically. Whether the new soundscape of Historical Areas created by tourism could highlight Beijing’s traditional culture and history，and whether the new soundscape could convey true meaning of Historical Areas to visitors and give them good tourism satisfaction，are both key issues to be solved in balancing the relationship between development and conservation of Historical Areas. Taking Qianmen Avenue of Beijing city as a studied case，this paper examined the relationships between the current soundscape of Historical Areas and the historical—cultural elements of Historical Areas. The methods of In-depth Interview and the Statistical Analysis were adopted in the paper to acquire the subjective appraisals of related experts and visitors who have experienced the soundscape. The findings of the paper showed that experts believed that the new soundscape of Qianmen Avenue had separated itself from Beijing traditional history and culture. Visitors there could not perceive the essence of Beijing’ regional culture and their tourist satisfactions are associated with the current new soundscape. Suggestions of improving and optimizing current soundscape were proposed in the final.