This research project studies heritage tourism and development issue in the World Heritage Site (WHS) of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in northwestern Yunnan, China. It is famous for its rice terrace landscape as well as the ethnic minority culture. The site has been developing really fast since inscribled as a WHS in 2013. Traditionally a rural area, the place is now at the development trajactories of modernization, tourismification and heritagisation.

The research takes an inter-discplinary setting of development study and human geography. On a theoretical level, the research discusses the concepts of heritage, cultural landscape and authenticity. On an empirical level, the research project aims to to describle how the built environment of the traditional villages, the rice terrace landscape and traditional festivals are transformed in heritage tourism. It analyzes the negotiation process between different actors, including the heritage experts, the tourism developers, the government and local people; how the place was shaped by their practices; and finally evaluates how heritage tourism affects local livelihood.

The research uses a mixed of methods including direct observation, participant observation, interviews; collects various data of images, words, narratives and statistics, and analyze them qualitatively and qualitatively.